Ink blog: Some of life's frustrations

In life we all need to vent occasionally. I'll wrap this into a message around frustrations that many of us can identify with and perhaps agree upon. What are some life frustrations for we the people of Wisconsin? I can name several based on personal experience and observation.

One of the most common frustrations I've observed is the recent rise in living costs. It's hurt a lot of people to have to pay more for everything from bigger ticket items (such as automobiles) and everyday expenses. Walking through the grocery store is daunting when you consider where the cost of simple foods like a carton of eggs was three years ago. Increasing costs obviously erodes purchasing power.

Home ownership has been more challenging as the amount of money in circulation has increased dramatically following COVID. As a result we've seen inflation and thus the Federal Reserve has significantly raised borrowing interest rates since 2022.

Though the Wall Street Journal Prime rate has ticked down slightly over the past six months, bond rates and other factors that affect mortgage lending have not necessarily decreased. All this to say the monthly payment on a home is obviously a lot more due to paying higher amounts of interest — not to mention people with variable rates on home equity lines feeling pressure as well. I doubt too many of my fellow Badger State comrades saw significant raises in their wages or retirement payments to offset increased interest rate pressure.

Schemes and fraud are prevalent in our state. Having been a banker for over two decades, I've seen an uptick in mail fraud, elder abuse, and other schemes over the past year. I will admit I was the victim of an attempted fraud in November 2024. On my phone I tapped Gmail to see what my inbox looked like. I was surprised to see a couple of strange emails and the rest of my inbox was gone. After a quick check I realized somehow a fraudulent email address had been overlaid in my phone.

I quickly reported and deleted the fake email before changing passwords and freezing my credit bureau reporting. I believe what caused the tech-security failure was my 9-year-old son playing a game on my phone while traveling and possibly tapping on an advertisement that was corrupt. Since the incident I've received numerous daily fraudulent emails, voicemails and texts — additional paper checks arriving in the mail for $0.12 too. I'll admit I haven't punched anyone since the seventh grade (and his name was also Craig) but when someone punches you — at least you know who did it. When someone tries to wrong you unanimously and from afar — it's cowardly because they know you can't really fight back.

Along with people who don't use their turn signals or type in all-capital letters, Wisconsinites are also frustrated by politicians who seem more focused on reelection and party loyalty than on addressing the needs of the people. I can go a long way down the rabbit hole on this matter but feel the need to mention as it's a common concern for both left and right leaning voters.

Inefficiencies in public systems such as healthcare also hit home for many including myself. Though I feel there are a lot of good points in our healthcare, it is also overly complex and expensive. Being aged 46, I had a joy of undergoing a colonoscopy a year ago. The billing process took nearly five months to resolve. It's not to say we shouldn't have top-notch healthcare but there are a lot of bureaucratic walls to break down in order to bring improvement.

The point of these paragraphs is not to fuel unrest but to help bring some level of satisfaction or identification to our readers. There's an awful lot of good-points to our Badger state and overall country. If we keep pushing forward with both concerns and solutions we could see a brighter future!

Craig Severud was once a good golfer and still a good dad.