Well, Hip Hip Hooray for You! However, the rest of the country does not apparently live in the Shangri La that you do. My gas and electric bill was almost $500 last month. That was May, which is usually a comparatively less expensive month. I compulsively shut lights, run my dishwasher on a timer so it runs at 1:00 am because it's less expensive, even in the coldest months I have my heat on a timer as well, so that it goes down to 62 during the night, even in the coldest months. We're not exactly energy hogs.

As for property taxes, mine are running about $45 per $1,000 of assessed value for school taxes and then another $20 per $1,000 for town/county, plus fire, ambulance, garbage collection, etc., for a grand total of just about $15,000 per year. When I bought my house, my taxes were less than half of that.

And if you lived in Florida, you certainly wouldn't be acting as if nothing has happened to the housing market. Take a look online at homes for sale there. Ad after ad describe "short sales". My neighbor moved to Tennessee with a job transfer. Their house has been for sale since last September. They priced it at about $100,000 less than the homes had been going for, hoping for a quick sale. They've since dropped their price another $50,000 since last year, and it's still for sale.

And my point about salaries is that if you expect people to pay double for their goods, but their salaries don't keep up, how do you expect them to keep paying??

And I'm glad that you don't have to cross your little toll road, but my husband has to get across the river to go to work, and the toll has doubled.

As for the food items not increasing, where do you shop? Because they certainly have around here. And when things like rice, which poor people use do stretch meals, doubled in 4 months, then you have increases that people can't keep up with.

But let us know when some houses come up for sale in your area, because it sounds like a freaking paradise that would be the envy of the entire world. Apparently, the give away gas and electric, the home sales are rather brisk, and the food is cheap. It sounds terrific! No wonder you're the happy, carefree soul that you are!