Literally, consumers are being told to drop dead. Inflation and recessions cause poverty and poverty kills. The economic disaster caused by the Covid-19 lockdown and the U.S. economic sanctions on Russia are killers. Nobody is counting those worldwide deaths. The number of cases of starvation and misery are not making headliners. There is no vaccine for poverty.
Consumers are having sticker shock at the gas pump and the grocery store. Housing costs are out of sight, rent and utility bills are skyrocketing, and paychecks are not keeping up. Rising interest rates on credit cards, auto loans, home mortgages and consumer debts hit the poor disproportionately.
The poor and even middle class are faced with tough decisions as they have to ration the necessities of life. Consumers are forced to prioritize between food, shelter, utilities, medical care, and transportation. The mental stress from making those choices is causing emotional illnesses. Many people are turning to alcohol and street drugs for temporary relief, making matters for them worse. Domestic violence, child abuse, divorce, and crime are on the increase. Food riots, insurrection and war are breaking out all over the world. Governments are falling.
Producers and retailers are struggling with supply chain shortages and rising costs. They are trying to balance sales versus profits, and the world is falling into a recession. Instead of raising prices, many businesses are reducing the quality of their products. We are seeing the return of the phenomena of the shrinking Hersey Bar of the 1970s and 80s. Here is quote from a 1972 New York Times article "Hersey Bar Will Shrink":
"Beginning Monday, a 10"cent Hershey chocolate bar will still be 10"cent--- its milk chocolate bar will shrink in size by 8.35 per cent."
The Hersey Bar continued to shrink so much then that it became the symbol of cynical jokes about inflation. Economists even invented a new jargon word for it: shrinkflation.
Have you noticed that many items you buy at the grocery store seem to be in a smaller size, but at the same old price? Business Insider magazine did. It wrote in a June 2022 an article, "From toilet paper to candy bars, companies hide rising costs by shrinking the size of everyday products".
Shrinkflation is not a joke for the poor when a can of beans and a loaf of bread doesn't go as far. Many people trying to survive on a fixed income have to resort to their own shrinkflation, such as cutting prescription pills in half. And wages are not keeping up with the cost of living.
No one is being held accountable for the economic mess. The public is not as savvy about economics as they used to be. They has been purposely dumbed down so that they don't know who to blame. The mainstream media is obsessed with wokeness, sensationalism and trivia. The serious debates on economic justice, healthcare, and other important social issues are being self-censoring in the mainstream.
Does anybody really think that Biden and our corrupt politicians have the ability and desire to fix the problems? The least we should expect is that they not screw things up and make matters worse. Liberals who should know better think that electing more Democrats will solve the problems. It won't. Stop voting for the lesser evil. Kick the bums out. That is the only language they understand.
Screwing things up is exactly what our government has done. It didn't happen overnight; it has taken decades. Because of the Covid-19 response and the economic sanctions on Russia, politicians have created a new height of economic chaos, death and destruction. A conspiracy theory would be that it is being done on purpose. When one looks at who is benefiting and who is suffering the most, then the conspiracies don't seem so much like theories.
Who is benefiting? It is Wall Street, corporate monopolies, banksters and their political servants. The wealth and power keep going to the top. The people will never be given universal healthcare, a livable income, student debt forgiveness, quality mass transportation, good schools, modern infrastructure, prison reform, democratic elections, and an economic bill of rights willingly. We have to demand those things and punish corrupt politicians who don't deliver. A government that does not serve the people is not a democracy.
Most importantly we have to demand peace. When the politicians don't want to face the music and be held accountable, they take us to war. Then they tell consumers to DROP DEAD!
(Article changed on Jul 23, 2022 at 11:12 AM EDT)
3
3
3
