That cushion is not expected to last. Dwindling airline seats and high gas prices are cutting into the parks' ability to draw crowds as big as they once were, even as shareholders demand more profit each year. Even once you pass through the gates, there's less bang for the buck. Once upon a time, you could buy your ticket and get a full day of entertainment, including shows, rides, parades, and fireworks. Less so now.

Some of the country's most major parks, even ones we thought were doing well, are wasting no time in hoarding their pixie dust. Your amusement park dollar just doesn't get you as much as it did a few months ago. Among the casualties:

Years ago, I spent a few summers visiting a friend's family in coastal South Carolina. Between the pecans growing on the trees, the peanuts that were available for pennies at roadside stands, and the crabs that were practically begging to be harvested from the creeks, I decided that South Carolina was, quite possibly, the garden of Eden. Of course, the sweltering heat wasn't all that great, but isn't that why air conditioning was invented?

While South Carolina's culinary bounty still looms large in my memory, most of the places where I've lived or visited had some edible specialty that was particularly memorable. In Southwest Virginia, it was wild berries and venison, while Western Massachusetts produced a maple syrup that, in my opinion, rivals Vermont. Even my current home of New York has the occasional berry tree, chestnut trees, and pickles that are mind-blowingly good.

Admittedly, acorns, raspberries, and wild burdock probably aren't going to completely supplant the grocery store as your chosen source of food, but you could save a little money here and there while injecting some new flavors into your diet. If you're interested in giving foraging a try, you might want to take a peek at Prodigal Gardens. In addition to offering tons of recipes and foodlore, the group also sponsors classes in the upper Midwest; however, even if you live in lower Wisconsin, lower Minnesota, or upper Iowa, the site is a wonderful reminder of the free culinary bounty that exists only a few feet from your door!

Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. He realizes that pickles don't count as a natural bounty, but he had a hard time coming up with foraging fodder that's available in the New York City area.

The circle of outsourcing appears to be coming complete. Ashes to ashes dust to dust, high wages to high real estate values! Several Chinese firms are outsourcing to the U.S. to save money on...wait for it...manufacturing jobs!

Liu Keli, a Chinese businessman from the Shanxi province in China is investing 10 million dollars in South Carolina to open a plate printing factory. The factory will employ approximately 120 American workers who will be paid $12-13 per hour. Liu's reasoning for opening in South Carolina is simple, it is cheaper for his company to operate in the U.S. than it is to operate in China.

One of the areas in which Liu will save the most is in real estate here in the states. The plate making company saved 75% on the cost of land by building in South Carolina. Additionally utility prices in the U.S. are much cheaper than in China and also more reliable in South Carolina than in China. Even though labor costs are higher in the U.S. Liu is taking advantage of a tax credit from South Carolina to make up for some of the increase in labor expenses.

This whole arrangement is interesting to me because it seems to represent the way trade and global business can work out. When there aren't regulations to stop a business from opening a location anywhere on the globe, smart companies will find the areas which make the most business sense to operate in. I'm not a complete optimist when it comes to globalization but stories like these do a lot to re-enforce my opinion that the market can sort out complex issues on its own!