Regarding the plot, well either the writers are crazy, or I am.  I still have no clue as to what’s going on.  The notion of time travel intrigued me though so I thought I would address it on my own forum, in my own way. 

Today is February 4, 1955.  I’ve just come back from the supermarket having done my week’s grocery shopping.  I was amazed to find I only got a few cents change from the $10 bill I handed over.  It feels like soon I will need more than that just to eat and feed the family weekly.  My car broke down last week, and I need that to do all of the usual domestic trips but also to get me to work and back.  I’ve never had a new one so with my savings of $1,000 I treated myself to a brand new one, a standard family sedan.  Just in time … the sales guy said the new batch arriving later in the year would be priced at more than $1,000.  For that price in the future you would have to be satisfied with a used one. 

I achieved my dream with a few dollars to spare and filled up with gas on the way home.  With gas at $.25 per gallon, I knew I’d have to start cutting back on something.  Smoking is bad for you or so they’ve started to tell us.  Maybe I’ll quit, they are $.20 a pack, ridiculous.  

I mailed all the new car paperwork to the DMV, $.07 for a stamp, wow?!?!  Things are getting out of hand.  I even heard that a few of the married women in our neighborhood are now also working to make ends meet.  Before long, young couples are going to have to hire someone to watch their children so they can both work. 

It is no good complaining though.  We saved and saved and we have our brand new car so we really have a sense of achievement.  The guy next door was admiring it.  He bought a new one just a couple of months ago.  It’s a Volkswagen or something like that, from one of those countries across the pond.  I don’t agree with it.  That sort of thing could open the door to all sorts of foreign business, taking trade away from the likes of Ford and Chevy. 

The family is really pleased with the car so I am taking them on a little trip over the weekend.  We can only be away for one night; motels are $2 per night, a stretch for us at the moment, particularly if we eat out.  Eating out is a real treat for us; we do it every couple of months.  I heard there’s one of those drive-in restaurants opened up across town.  Probably OK in nice weather but I can’t really see them catching on.

I’m telling you, times are tough.  Prices are soaring.  But most importantly, we are happy.  We save for the special things in life and the feeling of satisfaction is heartwarming as we enjoy the fruits of our endeavors.  We don’t owe anyone anything, well except for our little mortgage.  If we can’t afford something we wait until we can.  By the way, before you go back to 2010, yes, I am letting my hair grow long.  If you think I’m paying $.30 for a haircut, you can forget it. 

OK, so today is really February 4, 2010.  Prices have gone up but we really didn’t care did we?  We just had everything we wanted and put it on our credit card.  Credit card debt has reached unprecedented levels.  For the past decade we’ve bought what we couldn’t afford, with money we didn’t have.  We’ve bought houses, sometimes two, not just one, we couldn’t afford, sometimes at 100% mortgages or more.  We’ve done whatever we want, whenever we want at whatever cost and we simply couldn’t afford it.  Nobody can go on spending money they don’t have forever.  Eventually the bubble bursts, and that’s just what’s happened.

We all blame the government, the banks and the lenders.  None of them are blameless.  But we as individuals have to equally share the blame.  The economic trouble we are in now is a direct result of irresponsible spending driven by greed and a voracious desire to have what we can’t afford.  The trip back to 1955 shows us how to do it while at the same time bringing real satisfaction and achievement back into our lives. 

Never was there a saying that rings more true, “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.”