The increase is due to the cost of living and the rising standard of living. It was expected.

You don't get homesick here, ... It's like living at home.

You can't be a good writer in the States anymore because to be a good one you have to have a country where you can be poor and still eat, and still make your living standard secondary to your writing. Thoreau himself couldn't do that in the States today.

America in particular imposes an horrendous burden on the world. We have this wonderful standard of living but it comes at enormous cost.

The minimum wage was due for an increase, but it was important that we offset its cost to small businesses.

There is a huge ethnic market. The increase in the ethnic market for goats has been due to the increase of immigrants coming from places where goat meat was the primary meat staple. The other primary meat staple from most of these areas was sheep. So the ethnic demand has increased there, too. There's more growth (in sheep) because the sheep industry started out smaller (than goats) so it's been a more rapid growth, a kind of a catch up situation.