As an expert in media and cultural studies, I once appeared in a television series about technology in the home during the last three decades of the 20th century.

I wanted to suggest that the UK in the 1970s should be remembered as a decade of relative social equality and contentment, where wage inequality was at its lowest (as the New Earnings Survey shows us).

The 2022 Word of the Year, as chosen by our lexicographic friends at the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is “gaslighting.” The dictionary bases its decision on the number of lookups the word gets, and for gaslighting that was an increase of 1,740%.

Simmering tension in American politics came to a head two years ago, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol to try to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election. The failed insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, resulted in several deaths and injuries to almost 150 police officers.

I noticed an upcoming auction on Rockingwell Boulevard, which is a neighborhood I am pretty familiar with. A credit card company, whom had been awarded a judgment for an unpaid balance, had initiated foreclosure on a property in an attempt to recover their money owed. This particular property consisted of two parcels, one with a house and one with empty land.  As the owner’s name was on both, the credit card judgment stuck to both parcels. At first glance there was a large bank mortgage that ate up all the equity.