A Sign of Our Times

As Brian Williams would say, it is a sign of our economic times when you see something like this.

In an effort to save money, I began bringing cold-cuts and sandwich fixin's to work, so I wouldn't have to buy lunch everyday; only my feeble attempts at doing so were thwarted by our terrible economy.  I purchased a package of Swiss cheese from a grocery store in Manhattan.  The cheapest available was a package marked $3.99, only a penny shy of four dollars.

You can imagine my chagrin when I opened up the package to reveal a mere four slices of cheese.

If we round the $3.99 up to an even $4.00, it means I got four slices of Swiss cheese in exchange for four (4) U.S. Dollars.  That means that each slice of Swiss cheese is equitable to one American dollar.  The U.S. dollar is so weak that it is as valuable as cheese! 

The Swiss don't even need to trade with us in money any more.  The coveted cheese of Switzerland is so valuable that it fetches one (1) American dollar per slice!

It is either an amazing feat for the Swiss, or it is a colossal downfall for the U.S. economy.  If we tried to trade in increments of American cheese, we would just get laughed at, but the Swiss have got a tangible product.  At least their cheese comes from animals and not factories.

When I ran out of cheese, I just topped my ham with $1 bills.  It tasted remarkably similar.