INFLATION RATE

If you ask the government what the inflation rate is they will tell you it’s 3.4 percent. Of course food and energy prices are not included in the calculations and anyone who actually goes to a grocery store after filling up their tank could have told you that. I spent fifty years in the printing industry before retiring and then reentering the workforce in retail.

I spend everyday checking out those making purchases. I see the struggles of people trying to make purchases for essentials while counting out coins hoping to have enough to make the purchase. Food prices and energy pieces are connected and I will explain.

Buying habits have changed over the last few years with more concentration going to convenience foods that can be taken from the freezer and put directly into the microwave. To meet that consumer demand stores who sell food had added additional freezers and coolers. These additional refrigeration units have added to their already growing energy bills, which of course has to be passed to consumers.

Petroleum prices have an additional effect on prices in the form of packaging. Plastics and other synthetics are produced from petroleum and every petroleum price increase affects the prices of every plastic bottle, bag and blister pack. When that is added to an increase in shoplifting, which is at its highest level ever you have an overall increase in prices. .

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Ynotisay · M

Good comment. But just to toss it out there the CPI has seen a dramatic drop over the past two years. Have to go back to the 50's to see this kind of drop. And yeah. Many are struggling but, on paper at least, wages are rising faster than prices. What you did accurately point out is the minutiae of pricing. There's SO much that goes in to it. People don't think of the plastic it takes to shrink wrap something. Or how global events and drought impact wheat prices. And on and on. I think the supply chain breakdown around Covid might have opened some eyes. It's incredibly complex. But as consumers we usually don't think about those things when we're at the grocery store.

But what isn't complex is C-suite salaries increasing more than three times that of the median worker over the past year. And overall wealth disparity isn't a complex process either.

What I will never, ever understand is that the ONE issue where most every American could come together with a shared "enemy" it would be wealth disparity. The very richest are controlling the lives of hundreds of millions of people yet some have been systematically trained to not only forgive it - but support it. All it take is cries of Socialism, Marxism, Communism or any of the 'ism's" and people will continue to kiss the hand that beats them.

Reason10 · 70-79, M

@Ynotisay Typical CLASS ENVY. Gee, When will you Marxists get a clue?
Wealth disparity is basically MARKET ECONOMICS. A hospital janitor is not worth as much as a doctor who performs open heart surgery. The janitor might live in a mobile home and the doctor will live in a mansion. That's just due to each man's CHOICES.

In America, you are paid what you are worth, PERIOD.

Ynotisay · M

@Reason10 Simplistic, immature thinking. Not a fan.
And Marxist? I don't think you even know what a Marxist really is. It's just one of those "ist" words that's fed to the malleable and they lap it up. And your comment is the result of a systematic campaign to keep people down. It would be cute if it wasn't so sad.