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Remember when three little letters used to mean something, like Ph.D.? Now the "profitable three" are E, C, and O, and are used as a smart new prefix for rather mundane occupations and materials.

The career world is taking a turn with those letters by adding them to ordinary jobs: eco-banker, eco-broker, eco-lawyer, eco-consultant, eco-planner, and so on.

It was bad enough that the three letters took over ordinary products, like baby food, household cleaners, laundry supplies, and toiletries. Now we have a whole new class of jobs to negotiate for, educate for, and to battle society over for widespread acceptance.

I, for one, am not falling for it. Eco-ANYTHING requires a higher set of substantive standards to be acceptable from me—the eco-broker, for example, is a lot like All Tempa-Cheer. This soap says it will work in all temperatures of water, as will ANY laundry soap, but this one is billed as being special. Eco-brokers are also billed as someone special, but an eco-broker can help you buy or sell a house or a stock just as well as an ordinary one. The moniker "eco" is meant to delineate a higher cause (to the planet rather than the people), but it actually delineates a scam to me.

To become an eco-ANYTHING, there is no separate set of rules, no regulations, certification or licensing requirements, or tests to pass, because none have been invented yet. To hire an eco-person to perform your mundane tasks with this so-called "higher ethic" is to pay extra for the services, products, and the good feeling that goes along with it. Basically, anyone with a law degree, real estate license, house cleaning skills, investment broker license, or any other occupation that requires some sort of certification or licensing as a part of that occupational field can call him- or her-self an "eco" worker.

Imagine the redundancy of an eco-landscaper or eco-lawn care company. These might be the only fields that won't be able to take advantage of the "green" movement, because they were there first.

Lots of money is being made over in England right now in the field of eco-planning and eco-brokering, because businesses have to figure out how they're going to meet the mandated goals of reduced carbon emissions by a certain date. The so-called eco-planners supposedly help businesses draw up plans for more energy efficiency, reorganize production and energy usage, and make adjustments to the ways of doing business so the company is more eco-friendly and meets the stated country goals. Eco-brokers in England are people who specialize in the trading of carbon emissions credits, and a whole new market (like the commodities market) has been created to determine the value of these credits after they have been bid up or down by traders.

It's the equivalent of buying indulgences to get into eco-heaven.

The tragedy of this seemingly well-intentioned scheme to lower carbon emissions is this: companies were ALREADY doing their best to lower emissions over there, or already were well under the artificial cap set to be met by 2040. Some activists want the cap date to be shortened to 2014, but even that wouldn't make a difference in the outcome of this scheme-turned-scam. We know the scheme to lower emissions (whether real or imagined), but the scam that was borne from this is even MORE tragic: companies are making more money from the trading of these carbon emission credits than they are actually conducting their own business. Theoretically, a business could completely shut down on the inside; firing all its workers and turning off all machinery, and STILL be showing a profit due to carbon credit trading.

What's worse is that there is no actual emission reduction going on—measurements taken recently have shown that emissions in England have INCREASED since the cap-and-trade policy went into effect. Companies with little to no emissions are buying the credits and selling them to big polluters, who use them as sanctioned permission to continue polluting, or even increase emissions.

Now you know why our president is so against this carbon cap-and-trade scheme for our country—because it's all a scam. In this country, General Electric has already cornered the market on these credits, and has an army of lobbyists pushing hard for passage of the cap-and-trade laws. The reason why: profits in the face of unprofitability. G.E. has already strayed far afield of its original business in search of profits, and wants to stray even further away by making money for nothing—nothing's actually produced, manufactured, transported, or sold, and labor isn't necessary to perform this task. I'm surprised they don't just sell ad space to make money the way Google does—one person with a computer is all it would take, but even that is more than they want to spend.

Let's take a look at something a lot closer to home: the renovator. Over here, there are people who buy homes, rip out perfectly good cabinets and flooring, and replace them with so-called "green" products—cabinets made from compressed sunflower seed hulls, bamboo flooring, and so on because of WHAT IT SAYS ABOUT THEM rather than what it does for the home and for the budget. These alternative products are not cheap, and they do not add to resale value (except only in the minds of "green" home buyers), but nevertheless, perfectly good, serviceable cabinets, tile floors, countertops, and already energy-efficient appliances are being yanked out of homes in favor of so-called "green" replacements…with the ECO moniker on them, of course. The only ones profiting here are the home improvement center and eco-home broker or eco-agent.

Funny how these formerly non-eco people and places existed and functioned quite well before going green. Home improvement centers still sold stuff, and real estate agents still sold houses.

Then we have the most absurd product of all: organic baby food. Anyone who's a mother can tell you that baby food is an unnecessary expense, and that baby can eat mashed up adult food when the first tooth erupts—even doctors will tell you that. But oh no, we don't care enough about our children unless we feed them "green" baby food that's eco-friendly—never mind the fact that baby can eat Mom's organic food just as well without the expense and waste of those little jars. Just how are we saving the planet again here?

Speaking of absurdities, Pottery Barn is currently hawking a soy-based couch—do I sit on this "tofu sofa" or chop it up for a gigantic stir-fry? This has got to be eco-seating at its finest! Even with the eco-friendly hemp fabric on it, it's still a dangerous fire trap—maybe even more so now, because "eco" doesn't come with any fire retardant regulations attached.

Has anyone looked into the flameproofness of soy? I think not.

A whole new world and a whole new economy is being brought to you by the letters E. C, and O. Sounds like something from Sesame Street, doesn't it? This is supposed to be our next big idea to get out of this recession and into the next economic leg up—it shows just how deep we're in deficit as far as ideas, education, production, and integrity, let alone competitive ability.

Need a job? Need to sell your house faster? Need to create a business or industry, or just need a new couch? Just add the magic three letters in front of what you do or use now (or used to do or use), and voila! Now you can charge more, market more, pay more, and just have more, instead of dealing with the realities of here and now. Anything to keep the fantasy alive, I suppose.

Need to know more? Just visit with an eco-entrepreneur—they DO exist. One was just interviewed on CNBC, and he'd be happy to show you how to open new worlds by adding the eco moniker and adapting "green" thinking to your current business or business ideas.

We already have eco-accountants, eco-lawyers, eco-home brokers, eco-investment brokers, eco-maids, eco-designers (both clothes and furniture), and a whole range of hidden "green" professionals that just last week were colorless. Many more will be popping up just as soon as someone figures out how to put a "green" spin on them and a guilt trip on you.

With the electronic world upon us, we have found more and more uses for it, as did retailers: namely, marketing, convenience, and cost-cutting.

Believe it or not, there are many out there who only get the local paper for the ads and coupons. This will be a dying trend in the future, with the advent of e-coupons and e-rebates.

Like the "loyal shopper" cards we all have access to now, there will be another card or key fob with a special "loyal shopper" coupon code to input into the store's website. This will allow your chosen coupons to park themselves at the cashier, awaiting your card swipe. No more clipping or even getting the paper.

I wonder why fast food places don't do this!

I know why—because they WANT you to go in unarmed, being sold by the smell and your perceived hunger, rather than sane, rational forethought as to what you'll buy when you get there. Fast food restaurants are gigantic impulse buy places.

Anyway, back to the grocery store: along with those old-fashioned coupons will go the traditional meal-planning (like anybody with a full-time job does THAT anyway) and plan to stock up, and this is exactly what retailers want you to do—forgo the forethought and operate on impulse, letting each aisle be a surprise for you when you visit—that way, they can take maximum advantage of you.

The way the future economy's predicted to go, you'll no longer be able to afford stocking up anyway.

This may make marketing sense if everyone reliably bought the same things over and over again, but not for us frugalites…unless they're trying to tell us something. But alas! They ARE telling us something—volumes, actually—about you, your shopping habits, the economy, and how they predict you'll behave when prices are up and patience is down.

See, those lovely little "loyalty cards" we all brandish on our key chains are not just discount-entitlers—they're also data-gatherers about our shopping habits. How long have those cards been in existence, and how long have you had yours? That's how long they've had to gather data on YOU and YOUR habits, as well as everyone else who has one (or more).

These stores have had a few years now to determine when you're likely to shop, what you're likely to buy, how often you're likely to buy it, and the number of a particular item you'll buy when it goes on sale. From all this data, the stores can now formulate better marketing and sales plans for maximum profit, minimal sale loss, narrower item variety, fine-tune shelf space according to sales, and even affect rates of production, storage, and delivery of any particular product. One little card can do all that!

Now that one little card is going to a 2.0 version with a website coupon code—you pre-shop (as it were) on the store's website, click on the coupons that match your selected products, and the store merely acts as the pick-up point, with coupon discounts already factored into your sales receipt. No more clipping, carrying, or handling little paper squares or rectangles, and no more delivering them to the manufacturer for remittance—it's all done electronically now, with a cost savings that you wouldn't believe.

The new store marketing plan doesn't seem to include things like selling the smell, visual want creation, or strategically placing items for last-minute impulse buys—I guess these little cards are telling stores this no longer works. With gas prices, time crunches, and food prices, we just want to get in, get our stuff, and get out again, and it looks like somebody's finally responding to that.

I'd like to see this carried over to the federal income tax arena—you get a coupon code for the amount of exemptions and deductions you have, then the IRS only charges you what you actually owe instead of over-taxing only to give refunds at the end of every year. This way, EVERYONE would get small electronic refunds or pay by credit card, and there would be no more 1040 forms of any kind. You go to a tax preparer, swipe your card, and they tell you what you owe or are getting back. If there are any adjustments to be made, the tax preparer can do that right there and update your card on the spot for next year. Personnel departments should be able to update cards between tax filings.

I can dream, can't I?

The only thing left for grocery stores to do for us now is to have our order waiting at the customer service counter, so we don't have to run all over the store for our stuff—some stores already gather our items and charge our credit cards, and look for more to do it in the future. If gas and food prices get high enough, we'll cut out the retail middleman altogether and either grow/hunt/fish our own food, or go to the large outdoor farmer's markets that will have sprouted up in place of the defunct grocery stores (or at least in their parking lots). Like in Europe, whatever manufactured foods that can be sold over a counter without electricity will be there too, like bagged pasta, rice, and beans, as well as loose bulk (but you'll likely be buying it in kilos and not pounds). Selection by brand will have largely gone out the window, as the vendor will have likely bought the cheapest type of bulk food for resale—the only real selection left will be price and which vendor to buy from. "Stores" will become luxury places to shop, with refrigerated and high-end gourmet items, and no discounts available. Just think—bread, meat, eggs, milk, and cheese will be considered high-end due to price.

The future of most food sales (and many other things) will actually be a huge step backwards, technologically speaking. Many middlemen and structures will be cut out of the buy-sell process, and the coupon won't be the only thing dying. Our only discount will be the value of the dollar--the higher the value, the more we can buy.

For FUTURE reference (literally), a kilo is 2.2 lbs., and a pound is roughly half a kilo. You want a pound of something? Just ask for a half-kilo. We WILL get here one day, and you might want to prepare your kids and grandkids for this. We would've gotten here a lot sooner, but America is stubborn about adopting the metric system (and getting rid of the penny). As soon as the NAFTA superhighway goes through, and Mexico, America, and Canada become one big country, then we will be forced into going metric for simplification purposes—we are the ONLY country not on the metric system now. Our new currency will be the Amero, and dollar-to-Amero conversions will also yield "discounts" when the value is up, but only until we completely convert to the new currency. Then, we will be completely reliant on global currency rates for any "discounts" after that. Welcome to the REAL world!

There will be no coupons, rebates, electronic discount cards, or websites to save us then—those will be a pleasant memory, along with tax refunds and newspapers.

That's right—no hybrid cars, no funny fuels, and no future bets on technologies that may not ever appear in the consumer world. The home is a level playing field for all of us right now.

It seems we have lost sight of a simple, yet very important aspect of shopping—appliance shopping, that is. The practical has given way to the fashionable in a big way. Multiply this times the number of people who bought a house in the last 6 years, and you get a better sense of the amount of energy going out the window.

Whirlpool is guilty, as is anyone who thinks stainless steel finishes are the way to go. Those fancy-but-attractive front loader washers with matching dryers, the "French door" refrigerators, the add-on wine refrigerators, the drawer-style refrigerators, the special "warming drawer" ovens, and the drawer-style dishwashers—all for fashion, none for efficiency.

Does anyone read those cute yellow energy rating tags any more? Does anyone even know HOW or remember why?

It's been a generation or two since home energy conservation has been hammered home, and young adults just purchasing their first appliances may not have even heard of the importance of these tags, let alone why they exist. Many people just take for granted that all appliances are energy-efficient right out of the box!

Compared to appliances made 20 years ago, this is true. But today there's efficient and EFFICIENT.

When shopping for appliances, or replacement appliances, you need to consider the energy rating FIRST, and the price SECOND.

I said this at another frugal living site's chat room back in 2000, and I'll say it again:

"Let me give you the short course--those yellow stickers? Watch out! Don't look at the "energy usage comparison" bar (which shows placement of that model compared to other models)...look below that to the "annual energy costs" area--THAT'S where you should concentrate. For the washer--don't get one that uses more than $21/year (you're looking at front-loaders...they're WAY more electrical and water-efficient than top loaders), and for dryers--determine the amount you'll be drying on a regular basis vs. line-drying, factor in the power source (gas will be cheaper to use), and buy accordingly (using the annual cost numbers). Basically, all dryers are the same, except for power source, features and size. BTW--there's NO WRITTEN EVIDENCE that the washer and dryer have to match!!!"

There's also no written evidence that the more features and options a machine offers, the more efficient it is. If you know you don't need 12 different cycle options on your washer, dryer, or dishwasher, don't pay for something you aren't likely to use. I have yet to use a pot/pan, delicate, perma-press, or "no heat" cycle on any appliance I've ever used while renting or owning. If you can find a machine that does the job with fewer options that will likely be well-used, then that's a step toward efficiency in both money and appliance operation.

The important thing to remember here is HOW TO USE those energy rating stickers and cards, not the numbers I was quoting from 2000.

Christine Woodside, author of a recently-published book on homeowner energy savings, takes issue with a number of seemingly non-necessary appliances (to her), and names freestanding freezers among them. I beg to differ, unless she means UPRIGHT freezers.

For a family of two, my 7 cubic foot chest freezer uses $22/year to operate, according to the yellow energy sticker inside. An upright freezer of the same size would cost twice as much to operate. If I were to go shopping for a new chest freezer TODAY, I might even find some that use less energy than my current one.

Speaking of shopping TODAY, I'm finding fluorescent bulbs that use fewer watts to produce the same amount of light than my older ones (still running after 10 years), and these newer ones will help me save even more energy as they go into service throughout my home. My how technology keeps improving!

If you happen to be in the market for a washer and dryer, or maybe a new cook top or stove, take the time to compare energy usage in dollars annually. You will find that those fancy Whirlpool front-loader pairs, or that side-by-side refrigerator, or the absolutely flat cook top aren't really efficient at all. They're house bling, and many sellers lost money on those items after the housing bubble burst.

Fashion does NOT make a better appliance when it comes to energy efficiency—it only makes the house sell faster because the appliances look prettier.

Everything needs to be taken into energy consideration these days: HVAC systems, light bulbs, water heaters, all manner of kitchen appliances, bathrooms, even landscaping—if not for gas and electrical use, then for personal energy. By that, I mean maintenance, and that's where those stainless steel appliances come into negatives—you cannot keep them shiny and clean without a light coat of some sort of oil, and anyone who worked at Mickey D's can tell you about "time to lean, time to clean" and stainless steel spray. If you have small children, you could be cleaning the refrigerator and dishwasher off hundreds of times a day. Stainless steel is also a reflective surface, meaning it reflects HEAT. It's just not practical—not like the almond-colored textured finishes of the late 90's.

I'll stop now, because I can feel myself being pulled into a "house bling" rant, and that's a whole 'nuther article.

We all know and are well aware by now about the commodity spikes, raw materials cost run-ups, and the added shipping costs associated with higher gas prices. These things are sparking yet another round of The Incredible Shrinking Product.

•Coffee—yet again, shrinkage from the old 16 oz. to the 14 oz., and now the 12 oz. bags, vacuum-packed bricks, and cute canisters.

•Bleach, water, soda, and just about any other liquid—bleach that used to be sold by the gallon has downshifted visually into ¾ gallon jugs, and is rumored to go into liters in the coming years. Water, soda, and anything else already sold in liters will get downshifted into fewer liters per container.

•Look for gas to be sold by the liter if the oil price continues creeping up—Europe has been selling gas and oil in liter measures for decades now, and this will come to American shores in the future. Know that there are roughly 3 liters to a gallon of gas—when we get to liters, you'll know that gas has tripled.

•Chips—yep, they're still shrinking, but I lost track since I no longer eat them.

•Bread and bread products—since wheat and other grains used in the making of these products rose so high, topped off by higher shipping costs, these products have gone from the standard one pound measure (16 oz. for a loaf of bread) to 14 and 12 oz. sizes for pre-packaged versions of pasta, rolls, etc.

•Laundry detergent—the boxes of powder are shrinking and becoming "concentrated" and "new and improved", and both phrases are dead giveaways of product shrinkage. Bottles of liquid detergent are also shrinking, concentrating, and improving. My favorite marketing ploy in this aisle is the Tide Cold Water—didn't they try this with All Tempa-Cheer, and when are people going to figure out that ALL LAUNDRY DETERGENTS WORK IN ALL TEMPERATURES, so there's no need to buy a special soap for cold water?

•Tea bags—speaking of temperatures and product efficiency, we've been led to believe that tea won't brew in anything but hot water…until Lipton cleverly decided to educate us on the existence of Cold Brew tea bags. Again, ALL TEA BAGS WILL BREW IN ANY TEMPERATURE WATER, it may just take a little longer in cold. Case in point: sun tea. You fill the pitcher with cold water, put tea bags in it, put it in the sun, and walk away. The sun eventually warms the water, and VOILA! You have tea made from cold water, without having to buy special bags for it.

•Sugar—remember when sugar was sold in 5 lb. bags? Then it went to 4 lbs., and now it's gone to little bags, cute canisters, and boxes—all represent significant product shrinkage and a hidden cost increase.

•Canned salmon and tuna—I remember when salmon was sold in 15 oz. cans, and tuna was sold in 8 oz cans—now it comes in 8 oz. sizes for salmon, and 5 and 6 oz. for tuna. This represents close to a 50% price increase for the salmon, and nearly a 25% increase (or shrinkage) for tuna. Just wait—in the future, salmon will shrink to the tuna can size, and tuna will come in sardine-can sizes.

•Milk—I can't comment much on milk except to say that a gallon of milk still costs more than a gallon of gas. I no longer drink milk due to allergies. Look for this fluid to also go metric and be sold in liters in the future.

•Meats—I went into two grocery stores looking for a full round steak, and couldn't find one—all I could find was the pre-packaged, toaster oven-sized cuts of meat, and nothing bigger than that. After asking a butcher about it, he said that pretty much all meat these days comes in boxes pre-cut at the slaughterhouse, and what I see is what they get. A closer look at the unit price told me all I needed to know—at least a $2.00/lb. price increase along with the smaller sizes. It doesn't help that whole conventional meat herds and flocks were killed off over the winter to avoid a huge feed bill, creating a supply shortage and adding to the price woes.

•Alternative foods—soy in all forms (tofu, edamame, flour, sauce, you name it) has also skyrocketed and shrunk, and it's got to be driving vegans out of their minds. So have nuts, beans, seeds, and any other form of protein, however lowly. This is what happens when all our corn is going to ethanol, leaving farmers and ranchers no choice but to shift their feed protein sources, and no source has been spared—whatever rice, beans, cottonseed, and sunflower seeds we can get our hands on (due to foreign countries hoarding their own stock) are now going to animal feed. I've noticed a shortage of organic ground turkey and chicken in my health food store—this means whole flocks have been killed off during the winter to avoid huge feed bills. The same may happen to organic beef too.

All this makes you wonder whatever happened to the "produce costs too much" excuse for not eating a decent, nutritious diet, doesn't it? Just about the only thing that hasn't seen huge or rapid price run-ups is produce—the only real increase has been in packaging and shipping costs. With everything else in the supermarket becoming hostage to the ethanol phenomenon, it's looking more and more like produce is the one saving grace we can still afford, and good thing—when you start seeing whole uncut carrots, green beans, cucumbers, and summer squash available in cute plastic canisters, vacuum-packed bags, or sold by the kilo (equivalent to 2.2 lbs.), be warned and be wary. It's only a matter of time.