Feel Good Economy

Rodney Clough
3 min readSep 23, 2024
Photo by Luku Muffin Unsplash.com

What’s there not to dislike?

How does one sell lack of affordable housing?

Purveyors of “good news” need to learn that the “economy” means different things to different people.

Two economic facts I learned as a young adult c. 1968–69: one, that if I pursued a career as an elementary school teacher, more than likely would I be unable to afford a house in the community where I was brought up; second, since I had the good fortune to have entered the world at the peak of a population surge, more than likely would I have to compete for every social benefit the so-called welfare state had to offer. And some welfare programs like social security and Medicare I might not live to reap the full benefit of.

Some fifty odd years later, I am here to report that I cannot afford to stay and retire where I have spent my remaining income generating years; and I am competing to outlive a skimpy IRA, the result of dubious financial escapades like a career teaching art and design, succeeded by partnerships in two small businesses. I left the full-time work force at age 77 (2021) and the part-time work force a year later.

Am I complaining?

I have observed I am long on empathy for the disenfranchised and short on trust that our elected officials who represent our interests and increasingly look less like us…

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Rodney Clough

Refuses to nap. Septuagenarian. Cliche’ raker. Writes weekly.