A bit of a gloomy story from a few days ago, but it brings together a lot of the separate comments I’ve heard recently.

Is everything spinning out of control? Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism.

Horatio Alger, twist in your grave.

Everything seemingly is spinning out of control

It goes on to say that our options for escapism are pretty bleak too. The US dollar is weak, the strike killed TV for over ½ a season, the newspaper and video store are dying out and sports is so rife with scandal that one can hardly enjoy it anymore.

I read this morning that the new debate of “money for gas vs money for food” has a new participant: utilities. I’m long past my days of living paycheck to paycheck, but I work with people who have small to medium-sized families and are still circling “PAY DAY” in big red ink on their desk calendars. I know they’re hesitant to call this a recession, but what else would you call what the US is going through right now? And “just desserts” is not a constructive answer.

Of course if you believe the world is going to end (or undergo a massive transformation of some sort) in 2012, it doesn’t much matter anyway. Unless, like me, you’ll happen to be turning a certain milestone age which we will not speak aloud in 2012, in which case booking my own massive transformation, perhaps at one of Europe’s finest spas, sounds like a pretty good idea.

I know this shouldn’t make me laugh, but it’s more a reaction to the absurdity of the state of things.

Small service stations are running into a problem as gasoline marches toward $4 a gallon in the United States: Thousands of old-fashioned pumps can’t register more than $3.99 on their spinning mechanical dials.

– CNN: New prices swamp old gas pumps

Some of the same pumps can only count up to $99.99 as a total, keeping land behemoth or soccer team mover owners from filling up. An alternate solution for some states is to allow stations to display the price for a ½-gallon and then double the final price shown.

Makes me glad I can walk most places I need to reach, but if buses and trains start suffering from the same rising fuel/power/maintenance issues, I might need to whip out the bike… or share one!

Fredo already mentioned one store giving back 10% extra if you cash/spend your economic stimulus check there. The Bargainist just came out with an updated list of ways to get more with your check including retailers giving bonuses, cashing the checks for free and suggestions to spend locally. My favorite has got to be Staples’ Economic Stimulus Center, a portion of their website devoted to encouraging people to spend their economo-stimulo check!

An interesting question just came up among the co-workers, however. What do people do if they’re getting direct deposit of their payment? What would retailers accept as proof that you’re spending your payment with them and not any ol’ amount of money you had lying around? Is this biased towards people who specifically are getting mailed a check?