I need to b***h about the economy

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One thing I can't understand is that if so many people are unemployed, why is everything so expensive? I make about $55, 000 a year, but I am barely scraping by. I live alone and have a simple lifestyle, but I am broke all the time. I live in a high cost-of-living area, the North Shore of Boston, but still, I don't get it.
I almost always bring a lunch to work instead of getting takeout or eating in a fast-food restaurant like my co-workers. My only real luxury is a subscription to the Wall Street Journal, ridiculously expensive at $440 a year. One thing is that taxes are high here.
Of course, some of my expenses come directly from financial collapse. People often don't realize that it costs a lot of money to be broke. I have to pay $245 a month to pay off old credit card bills from a bankruptcy settlement, $200 a month as my share to pay off unpaid taxes racked up by my ex-wife three years ago, and $239 a month to store my stuff after a home foreclosure. Of course, I was fairly lucky- The $245 a month represents paying off 38% of the actual debt at 0% interest (I just have to slowly repay a fraction of the principal). The foreclosure too was not bad- They are trying to sell my house that the bank now owns, but they can't come after me if the proceeds from the sale are less than what I owe them, since when the bank was notified that I was filing for bankruptcy, they forgot to petition the bankruptcy judge in time to file a claim as a creditor. Now they are just an unsecured creditor that missed the filing deadline.

Everything is a joke, with low income people, they still charge a lot for health insurance to have the whole family on it. We just cannot afford to have me on my husband's health insurance or that is $367 a month and he be bringing home less money. With your whole family on it, it's more.

Yeah I'm having the same problem as well. It seems things have changed so dramatically within these few years.

I'm without cable, airconditioning, car, health insurance, and I try to use the phone and electricity as minimal as possible. I think my only luxury now is the computer. It's crazy and the taxes have gone up even though the roads look like crap and nothing gets repaired. I can't believe the cost of everything whenever I go out, even Walmart is no longer the cheap store it once was imo.

Oh and I have 2 full grown kitties which adds onto the cost but I just don't have the heart to go without them.

Most blame it on that there is a poor distribution of wealth. I hate saying this, but money is a finite substance. People's incomes are less, and combined with inflation, it makes for a tight situation. Furthermore, everyone is living on credit.