Keeping it real? EPIC FAIL.

Spare a thought for multi-millionaire Sean Combs, also known as 'P. Diddy,' 'Puff Daddy,' 'Puffy' and 'Diddy.'

The rapper has been forced to cut back on the essentials due to the current state of the economy.

"As you know," he told his fans on his blog, "I do own my own jet and I have been flying back and forth to LA pursuing my acting career."

"Now, if I'm flying back and forth, like, twice in a month that's like $200,000 or $250,000 round trip. Fuck that! I'm back on American Airlines right now, okay?"

"This is proof that gas prices are too high, we need to do something about it, so tell whoever the next president is that we need to bring gas back down."

For months now, I've been selfishly thinking about the working people these high gas prices are effecting - the people who have to stretch each dollar that much further to cover the cost of commuting too and from work - doubling their expenses.

So thank goodness for Puffy, who's 'keeping it real' and demanding sympathy for the people this gas crisis really impacts. The super rich rap superstars.

I mean, never mind the fact that Forbes say Puff Daddy is worth a cool $346 million. That kind of money doesn't mean anything when you have to suffer the humiliation of travelling on regular airlines.

Imagine it!

One minute, you're flying across the country in your own private yet. The next you're slumming it, forced to sip non-brand name champagne in the squalor of American Airlines First Class (at a relatively cheap $2,500 a ticket.)

Sean Combs was born in the public housing projects of Harlem, New York. Many of his classmates and neighbours are still there - battling crime, poverty and discrimination.

But their plight pales in comparison to Diddy's woes and I'm sure they'll celebrate his attempt to 'keep it real' and show the world that he's affected by the gas crisis just like the rest of us.

New Jersey and The Roland Effect

Moving to New Jersey has obviously had devastating effects. Our arrival coincided with The Garden State losing it's place as richest U.S. State.

Back in 2005, the median household income of New Jersey was higher than any of the other fifty states, but Tina and my arrival apparently nudged that average down. Now we've been overtaken by Maryland, where the median household income is $65,144 a year (674 dollars more than in New Jersey.)

It highlights an interesting disparity in American lives. If you live in Mississippi, the median household income is a mere $34,473 - almost half what it is up here in the Tri-State.

It's another reminder that America is a big place - and the fifty individual states are very much like their own countries, with customs, traditions and economies all of their own. Life in Mississippi must be more affordable than in New Jersey, because it would be tough to support a household on just $35,000 here in New Brunswick.

That being said, I am constantly reminding myself about The American Experience as compared to life back in blighty. In the UK, Tina and I had reasonable incomes and jobs and we barely scraped by. Every single month, we'd see more money trickle out of our bank account than came in. Here in America, even with the poorly paid temp jobs we'd been working while we got settled in, our bank account remained fairly healthy.

It's cheaper to live in America, plain and simple. Despite all the cars and the roads and the apparent crime (luckily we haven't encountered any so far) the quality of life in America is clearly better because two working people can afford to live here. In England, despite never going out, never spending money unnecessarily, we couldn't. We were teetering on the edge of a big black hole and thank goodness we left when we did - before it swallowed us whole.

A lot of fuss is made about the plight of the working Joe in the USA. From my own experiences, I have come to realise that the situation's far worse in England. It's the people who can afford it least who get squeezed the most and the gap between rich and poor is getting more and more insurmountable every day.

Here in America, there's the American Dream. Whether that's riches and glory - or just a white picket fence and a Bengal leopard cat - you get far more opportunity to achieve your dreams in America than you do back home.

Richest and Poorest states of the Union