Rainy and Cold

It's hard to be upbeat when it's been so darn cold. Too damp to dig in the garden. Happily the daffodils and forsythia are lasting longer than usual in the frigid climate. It's got to be impacting consumer spending as well. Nobody is buying digging tools, seeds, plants, fertilizer, etc. while it's too wet to work the soil. Of course I've never thought an economy built on personal spending was a good one. We need to be spending in a communitarian way -- for better facilities for our young and the old; for better medical care for everyone; for great schools and universities. But the "teabag" parties show that people really don't want to spend collectively, else they would be rising up and demanding health care for all. As for me on this April 15, I'm happy to pay my taxes and hope, as President Obama has said, for a more equitable tax structure. People think income taxes are the problem, in fact it's sales taxes that impact the poor and working class the most.