During our retreat to Amelia Island to escape the ravage of the hurricane, we went shopping in nearby Jacksonville which has lots of stores we don\u2019t have in the Brunswick\/St. Simons area.<\/p>\n
We spent much of the day going to Ikea, Costco and Trader Joe\u2019s, all of which were swamped with shoppers buying things. It was a holiday with the shoppers, snooping out stuff, making choices and loading up. Both Ikea and Costco have large oversized shopping carts that remind me of those WWII Higgins boats that landed troops and equipment on the beaches. Carts at Ikea and Costco were full, some stacked so high as to obscure the customer. It was pandemonium at times, a portrait of middle class Americans happily engaged in over spending, enough to make Thorstein Veblen* smile.<\/p>\n
Watching the people and being aware of my own fiscal excess, I couldn\u2019t help but wonder exactly where the \u201chell hole of America\u201d was that Trump talks about. I don\u2019t believe that Jacksonville and environs are any different than countless communities, north and south and across the nation. We are not in a recession, most people have jobs and money in their pockets and for a sizable majority life is good. \u201cHell hole,\u201d I think not; the politics of lies and hate and predictions of doomsday are for those who have nothing else to offer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
During our retreat to Amelia Island to escape the ravage of the hurricane, we went shopping in nearby Jacksonville which has lots of stores we don\u2019t have in the Brunswick\/St. Simons area. We spent much of the day going to Ikea, Costco and Trader Joe\u2019s, all of which were swamped with shoppers buying things. It…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-robert-fischer"],"yoast_head":"\n