Last year, my homeowner’s insurance cost doubled. I have lived here 30 years and never had a claim.

Every time I go to the grocery store, it costs more, so the quality of what I can buy goes down.

I used to buy a cord of wood for $100; now it is $200.

Why is it that when it is freezing cold, the price of oil goes up?

Those who are retired and those on a fixed income are doomed.

I can, and will, blame the rich for some (not all) of those circumstances. The poor are stuck losing more of their income and dignity every week.

Just how does one house, feed, keep warm, drive to work, etc. (the list is never-ending) on $8 to $10 per hour? The loss of one week’s pay can mean the difference between paying rent or living in a car.

With his statistics, Rich Lowry, in his column Jan. 6, relates a fairy tale the rich tell themselves so they don’t have to look at the truth.

Hard-working college graduates can’t find work. The rich hired China to do the work for pennies on the dollar and put America in the unemployment line.

Here, the shoe shop is gone. Paris Manufacturing, Wilner wood heels, the tannery, the snowshoe factory. Main Street, Norway, was thriving when I was a little girl. Now it is a ghost town.

Growing old is terrifying, yet I am more afraid for my grandson, who has a college education yet cannot find work around here.

Roberta Wilner, Norway