I overheard some edifying conversation at the barber shop today, from the older guys waiting for cuts.

It started with taxes, a topic that’s apparently leading all concerned to fear each day’s news: “They’re taxing the middle class so it doesn’t exist any more.”  Also on the subject of money and government, there were complaints about Fed policy… vague complaints that didn’t seem to have much detail beyond “I don’t really get it, but I don’t think they’re up to anything good.”

None of this, I should note, was presented as if it were in any way in conflict with some of the other subjects that arose.  For one, it seemed to be taken as positive that the town government of Tiverton is planning (without any apparent mooring to legal authority) to buy a beachfront gas station (thereby adding to the town’s burden of debt while removing a piece of prime real estate from the tax rolls).  Another chunk of time was spent discussing the ways to maximize one’s take from Social Security (even from the 62-year-old who appears to have retired with a pension a few years ago).

As I paid my bill and left, the subject turned to the cell-phone lithium mines that were our real reason for war in Afghanistan and China’s suspicious designs, now that the world is no longer on the dollar standard.  (Did you know we’re not even on the gold standard, anymore?)