Fireworks sales blast off – but costs also soar

From Richard Ganter

It turned very quiet here !

Hello there,
was interesting reading your article. This response reaches you from Central
China. I have moved here from Germany two years ago and got married to a
local Chinese woman. Not too far away from our town there is the biggest
firework's production all over China. All year round and at almost every
corner you can buy your crackers …
In the beginning it drove my crazy when the "last" fireworks went of at two
in the morning and the "first" one followed at six am. There is many
reasons in Chinese culture when to lit one. Also here they can get the
extremly noisy ones. Splitting your ears.
But let me come to an end and allow me to say: It is different now. I think
the change has started around early 2008. A handful of fireworks a day.
That's it. So far nobody could tell me the reason why.

Hope these lines can contribute a little bit to your story.

Have a Great 4th of July,
Richard and Lixia

From Nathan Tucson, AZ

The amount cities pay for holiday festivals to entertain their citizens is not warranted. Having costly events in the hopes of softening the mood of the masses is not needed during especially rough times. If the average cost of each event is $40k couldn't this money be better served in a million different ways. The first idea that comes to mine would be for each community to donate that cash to the poor and needy or if that does not work out for you then put that money into a trust that researches or builds renewable energy sources. That would give people jobs and hopefully cut the cost of our utility bills. Or cities could put that money back into their yearly budget so cities would be less likely to run into deficits. We could try to pay back a little piece of our national debt which helps increase inflation and in turn increases the cost of oil and other commodities, inflation is also making these firework events more costly. A true patriot does not need to see bright lights to love his country, he just wants to see his country and fellow men prosperous.

From Gottlieb Schlittenfahrt, Brookings, SD

Just another avenue, besides Walmart, to send our hard-earned greenbacks to China.

From Larry West PA

To offset the rising costs of everything we have been buying many items online. Our best resource for finding great deals so far has been http://www.searchtheentirecraigslist.com

We can search the entire Cl system for items we need with just one click…really a big help

From A SAP

Tradition…can give way to economic struggle… simply said downsize and be happy with what you get. Everyone is feeling the pinch it is not just on the consumer level it is beginning to appear on the corporate level as well. Our only resolve is to find alternative fuels and increase our technology to maximize our resources