I couldn't believe what the RV store told me. I had broken the lid off of the Great White Throne of Thetford, the very seat of Peripatetic Philosophy, aka, the humble RV toilet. It would cost $60 after-tax.

In the halcyon days of my RV newbee-hood, if you broke the lid you would buy another lid for $20. But then the corporate thanes [1] of Thetford decided to sell the lid and seat only as a pair.

A government statistician would compare the cost of the pair in times past with the pair today. Then he would pronounce the happy verdict that inflation was only 2%. His bosses would be happy.

The last couple years, full time RVers have witnessed 100% increases in  the price of gasoline, propane, eggs and ice. And damn those California New Age, unionized, anti-Walmart, free range, organic chickens!

I have no idea about campground fees since I don't stay in the wretched things. Oddly enough, the usual bane of our existence, insurance companies, have been somewhat chaste in their increases, restraining them to the low double digits.

Food is certainly inflating at 15% per year. Of course that's not part of the core inflation rate. Food is just a luxury that isn't worthy of the attention of a serious economist.

When a retiree listens to the business media, it is maddening! The end-all and be-all is to get Hamilton's Temple to lower interest rates. The great Diva of Dollars, he of baldened pate and wizened beard, is doing his best to bring the interest rate to several percent negative, relative to real inflation.

It doesn't matter how unfair this is to people who live on interest. All that matters is that the average working slug be suckered into borrowing and spending money that he doesn't have, on junk that he doesn't need. Work, borrow, spend...

This whole subject brings out a dark streak of Puritan rage in me. Maybe this debt-based house of cards will collapse and America will learn to make things again. I hope the Chinese come over here and carry off unemployed financial industry workers to build railroads for 10 cents per day and a bowl of rice.

By the way, I didn't buy the replacement lid and seat. I built a lid out of a plexiglass sheet from Lowe's.

[1] A thane is a lord or medieval big-shot in northern England and Scotland. I became infatuated with this word whilst watching Roman Polanski's version of Macbeth. Barnes and Noble charges $30 for this DVD. Probably $45 next year, per usual 2%.