The past two years have been marked by an unnatural rise of inflation for nearly everything we buy and which we have to pay for.
All of us who shop for food, clothes, cars, apartments and homes find those items so expensive as to be prohibitive in today’s world.
The inflation, we believe, is here to stay.
There is no way to harmlessly cut inflation even though the Federal Reserve Board believes by raising interest rates and making nearly everything more expensive, we will somehow stop spending money and inflation will subside with demand.
A trip to the grocery store, whether it be the Market Basket, Mckinnon’s, Stop and Shop or even Whole foods, reveals a marketplace quite out of control.
For instance. The Pedigree label dog food I often buy in cans was $1 a can two years ago. Two weeks ago it was $1.89. This week, cuts of beef in gravy by Pedigree graduated to $2.29 and this is frankly nothing compared with paying $3.50 to $5.00 a can for dog food at Pet Smart.
When a mother or father shops for meat for his family, they find the cost for a pound of sirloin is in the $12 range and better cuts of beef, one pound steaks fetch $15-$17. If you have a family of four and want to serve up a steak dinner, well, that’s going cost $60-$70 for the steaks. Add another $15-$20 for salad and potatoes, and another $12-$15 for desert and that steak dinner is $100 bucks for four!
Car repairs, car parts, labor and everything else is way up with no downward trend in sight.
Housing costs keep rising making it almost impossible for first time homebuyers or even for those who own their own homes to sell them and buy into another home – because that can’t reasonably be done as the new home will cost so much more than old home you just sold.
Back to the grocery store.
There seems to be a new pricing trend for nearly every item you buy to be at least $5 or more.
Buy 20 items and you spend $100.
Fill your shopping cart, well, that’s $250 – $300.
That trend is odious.
Prepare yourself. Prices will not be coming down anytime soon.