Not My Imagination

Friday, October 26, 2007

1:32 PM - Not My Imagination
Current mood: contemplative
Category: Life


I haven't really felt the pinch of the rising cost of gasoline and groceries. Mainly for two reasons 1) I now work a mere thirty seconds from my front door (I just realized today on the way back from the post office (when the light came on) that I've not had to fill up my tank since my trip to Bear World earlier this month! For those who really know me you know that that is a huge accomplishment) and after 4 years of driving from Star Valley to Jackson I'm use to paying out the nose for gasoline and 2) I buy groceries like once every 4 months or so (with traveling on the weekends and the free pb&j sandwiches at work there's no need to) with the exceptions of course for Mt. Dew, milk, and the occasional pms junk food binge.

Anyway, back to the main point which is this. I've always heard that it's more expensive to live in Jackson (yes rents are outrageous, etc.). But until recently the Cost of Living Index hasn't been much more than the majority of the rest of the state and so I haven't 'bought' into that theory (besides that, if you can manage your money wisely then there really aren't any problems). Even the report that came out recently isn't too bad. It's gone up 4.6% which sounds bad, but honestly puts us right in the median compared to the rest of the state (Southeast Region being 2.1% and the Southwest (Lincoln County is in this area) at the high end of 6.2%.

The thing that gets me is that the national CPI is a mere 2.7%. 2.7 - that's almost 1/2 of what it is in Teton County and if we use Teton County as the median percentage rate that still is quite sad. How can it be that in a state that barely can be called home to enough people to qualify for statehood our cost of living is twice what it is in the rest of the nation?