Freedom 55 65 75 RIP

The other night in the grocery store, I observed a woman lost in thought as she looked quite seriously up at the shelves. As I got closer, she hesitatingly took down a box, but seemed unsure of her choice as she examined first it and then the other boxes that she had left behind.

Coming still nearer, I realized that she held in her hand a box of store brand baking soda, and was agonizing over her choice between the no-name and the Arm and Hammer box still up on the shelf.

Murmuring a polite "excuse me," I reached past her, grabbed a box of store brand, and went on my way. Galvanized by my choice, she gave a personal nod of assent, and continued her shopping with the generic box in her hand.

It took me awhile to figure this one out. Why puzzle over baking soda? Baking soda is baking soda - same package, same size, twenty cents cheaper - it's a no-brainer, right?

But it's a sign of the times, it seems. All around me, I see people trying to pinch pennies, cut corners, and somehow make their dollars go farther. There's an underlying desperation in the Christmas ads this year - somehow the big sales spring from a place more sinister than usual. Somehow the pleas to purchase come not from a desire to increase already-high profits, but from a need to keep the wolf from the door.

Hardest to hear about are the people whose retirement plans have been put on hold, or even destroyed utterly. Since moving to America, I've often been struck by how many older workers I see. The Husband works with several people in their sixties and there's no talk of retiring. I hear people on the bus talking about working into their seventies, or declaring (as though it's some badge of honour) that their last day of work will be the day they're carried out on a gurney with an ID tag looped around their big toe.

This situation will only increase, as more and more people have to put off (or suspend) retirement and return to the work force. Of course, jobs are even more scarce than usual, and I pity the 65-year-old trying to update her resume and present herself as a viable candidate alongside applicants half her age.

Everyone's on edge. Discretionary purchases are put on hold (something which always makes me groan a little, for tightening the purse strings will prolong the economic agony, despite being a smart thing to do on an individual level). For sale signs are everywhere, with the not so uncommon anymore "Foreclosure" notice attached. People wait for pink slips, and breathe sighs of relief when they don't come, but know their relief is only temporary until they start worrying about the next round of layoffs.

Some people are considering store brand for the first time in their lives. And to be honest, I'm not sure this is such a bad thing. This country's economy lives (and dies, it would seem) on consumerism, and the conspicuous consumption that has long been the hallmark of being an American serves only to widen the divide between the rich and the poor, as the lucky few whose birth/education/good fortune led them to positions of wealth have been able to create for themselves a world that has nothing whatsoever in common with the world inhabited by the growing number of have-nots.

But I do feel for the entire generation of people whose golden years will now be a little - or a lot - tarnished and whose castles in the air have been blown to pieces by the economic storms. Not so much for those who never dreamed they would have to buy store brand, but for those who wonder if tomorrow will be the day they can't afford to buy any kind at all.