Activist Post
Stuff costs too much. Seriously. Every time I go to the grocery store these days, I am absolutely horrified by the prices. I try not to buy anything that is not on sale, but the problem is that I am discovering that the new sale prices are the old regular prices. So now paying what used to be "full price" is supposedly a "good deal". The other way that they are trying to hide rising prices is by shrinking package sizes. As if we wouldn't notice that a box of 21 garbage bags is now being sold for the exact same price that a box of 25 garbage bags used to be sold for. It is one of my pet peeves.
I feel like I am in the middle of some bizarre movie entitled The Incredible Shrinking Dollar.
Sadly, I am far from alone. There are millions upon millions of American families that are seeing their expenses continue to rise even as their paychecks remain the same. But neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney seems very concerned about inflation. In fact, the Federal Reserve, QE3 and Ben Bernanke were not even mentioned in any of the three presidential debates. So I think that somebody should start the "Stuff Costs Too Much" Party. Inflation is a tax which is destroying the value of each dollar that we hold a little bit more every single day, and the American people deserve to know the truth about what is going on.
In this day and age, it simply does not pay to put money into long-term savings. When you finally pull your money out it will have far less purchasing power than it originally did.
Way back in 1950, you could buy a first-class stamp for just 3 cents and you could buy a gallon of gasoline for about 27 cents.
Wouldn't it be great if you could still get a gallon of gasoline for 27 cents?
But we don't have to go all the way back to 1950 to find low prices. All we have to do is go back ten years.
A recent article by Benny Johnson detailed how the prices of many of the things that we buy on a regular basis absolutely soared between 2002 and 2012. Just check out these price increases...
Eggs: 73%
Coffee: 90%
Peanut Butter: 40%
Milk: 26%
A Loaf Of White Bread: 39%Spaghetti And Macaroni: 44%
Orange Juice: 46%
Red Delicious Apples: 43%
Beer: 25%
Wine: 60%
Electricity: 42%
Margarine: 143%
Tomatoes: 22%
Turkey: 56%
Ground Beef: 61%
Chocolate Chip Cookies: 39%
Gasoline: 158%
So what will the next ten years bring? Unfortunately, we are already being told that it looks like inflation is going to start accelerating. A recent CNBC article started this way...
Consumers will have to dig deeper into their pockets next year to pay for costlier health care, more expensive grocery bills and higher taxes, an extra drag on the country's already slow-moving economy.That is not what millions of struggling American families need to hear right about now. Their bills just keep going up but their paychecks are not keeping pace.
Have you noticed that almost everything that we spend money on just keeps rising year after year?
According to USA Today, in some areas of the country water bills have actually tripled over the past 12 years.
Has your paycheck tripled?
Electricity bills in this country have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.
Winter is a really bad time for power bills. Millions of struggling families will set their thermostats very low this winter and yet will still be slammed with absolutely outrageous bills.
Of course just about every type of insurance is going up faster than the overall rate of inflation. Have you gotten a price increase notice in the mail lately? I have.
The price of health insurance in particular has soared in recent years. Health insurance premiums increased faster than the overall rate of inflation in 2011 and that is happening once again in 2012. All of these price increases are pushing many American families to the breaking point.But Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke insists that there is very little inflation right now, and he has government statistics to back his assertions up.
Of course the way that the government calculates inflation has changed more than 20 times since 1978, but Bernanke never mentions that.
According to John Williams of shadowstats.com, if inflation was measured exactly the same way that it was back in 1990, the official inflation rate would be about 5 percent right now.
The American Institute for Economic Research says that inflation is even high than that. According to them, the real rate of inflation was about 8 percent last year.
Meanwhile, household incomes are actually going down all over America.
Even though we are supposedly in the midst of an "economic recovery", median household income has declined for four years in a row.
Overall, median household income has declined by more than $4000 over the past four years. Incomes are going down and prices just keep on rising.
So how are families adjusting?
Well, many of them are spending less. One survey found that 62 percent of all middle class Americans have had to reduce household spending over the past year.
Others are going into increasing amounts of debt in an attempt to survive from month to month.
Inflation has become a way of life in America. But what could make it a whole lot worse is if a nationwide crisis suddenly disrupted the normal operation of the economy. If that happened, we would see price gouging happen literally overnight. Just check out what one article that was posted on CNBC said happened in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy...
Four dollars for a can of coke. Five hundred dollars a night for a hotel in downtown Brooklyn. A pair of D-batteries for $6.99.
These are just a few of the examples of price hikes I or friends of mine have personally come across in the run-up and aftermath of hurricane Sandy.So you might want to use your extra dollars right now. They are never going to be more valuable than they are today, and in the event of a major disaster they might lose value very, very rapidly.
Unfortunately, millions of American families don't have any extra money at all. Many of them have been slowly worn down by this economy and are now just desperately trying to survive. The following is what one reader shared in a comment following one of my recent articles...
There is one thing you should know about poverty: it is crushing! It crushes the spirit first and foremost, then it crushes the idea of dreams because people in extreme poverty don’t see a way out when they barely have enough to eat let alone get ahead in life.
So, by offering a hand up to those in poverty, we relieve a bit of that pressure…just enough so that their basic needs are met. Once those needs are met, those in poverty can start to see 'LIGHT', something hard to see when being crushed by the pressures and hardships of poverty.
I know of what I speak; I was once living an upper middle-class life and enjoyed all the trappings of material and financial successes.
However, an accident caused that life as I knew it to end in a moment. I’m no longer able to work and for the past few years have barely been able to feed myself.
When I became homeless in 2010, I felt suicidal. My lowest moment was holding a sign asking for help very near the 6 bedroom home I once lived.
Don't think that it can't happen to you. What would you do if you suddenly lost your job and could not find another one? Would you be able to survive?Just because you are living a middle class lifestyle today does not mean that you will be in the same position a year from now.
The truth is that everything in your life can change in a single day.
The following is from a comment that one of my readers named Kimberly left recently...
My husband lost his job of 20+ years to cut backs roughly 3 years ago, 8 months later his health declined of which I attribute to the depression he went through at not being able to find employment. I went back into the work force, or I should say tried… I’m a nursing assistant by trade but no nursing homes are hiring because the families are pulling their loved ones out because they cannot afford to keep them there, hospitals are not hiring because what jobs there are in my field go to nurses awaiting a nursing job and I’m sure my age (53) plays a role in it too. The closest hospital to us just announced it will be closing it’s doors on the 31 because despite it’s tries it cannot afford to remain open under Obamacare.
We have in the last couple years armed ourselves with a gun, started a garden and now do serious couponing to stock pile for emergencies which seem more and more each day are coming. We have dropped from a life lived on 65,000 – 75,000 a year to living on under 23,000 a year. We have made cut backs in every area of life and hope for the best.
We go to bed at night worried about tommorow, next week and next year .. you feel anxious all the time and panic attacks come more frequently with each passing day. I love the Lord with all my heart and I know He is in control, but am just human and one cannot stop the feelings that wash over them.
I have children and grandchildren and am scared to death what faces them in the coiming years. We all lived in within miles of each other until my children lost their jobs and could find nothing here in Mobile, Al. so they moved to Texas and have found at least some work… something is better than nothing you know. We are hundreds of miles apart now and rarely get to see them as gas is also so very high. I have a grand daughter I have never met because we cannot afford the trip and neither can they.The U.S. economy has never even come close to recovering from the last economic downturn. If you doubt this, just read this article. Now the next economic crisis is rapidly approaching us.
If you think that the economic pain and suffering in this country are bad now, just wait.
We haven't seen anything yet.
Things are going to get much, much worse.
This article first appeared here at the Economic Collapse. Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here.
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3 comments:
Why would government lie about the inflation rate?
1. social security adjustments are tied to the inflation rate. this affects you even if you are not collecting, since you are not getting an increase in vested benefits. the result is that you will get less when you retire and collect social security.
2. if you have a job with a cost of living adjustment, you are getting screwed. This applies to government workers and most collective bargaining union contracts. no cost of living adjustment for you if government says there is no inflation.
3. making people believe there is no inflation makes government look good. it makes it sound like government is meeting its economic responsibilities and its a bright and happy day.
I've noticed the shrinking containers on store shelves. Notice that orange juice is now 59 ounces instead of the usual 64oz half gallon. Notice that Haagan Daaz ice cream is now 14 ounce instead of the typical 16oz pint (Ben and Jerrys is still 16oz).
Notice the displayed size on the containers (orange juice among others) is printed in a not so noticeable light gray lettering over a white background.
The container size is placed at the bottom of the container is such a manner that the lip of the grocery store shelf covers it. The lip of the grocery store shelf covers the bottom 1/2 inch of the container. That's where manufacturers are printing things they don't want to see and be aware of.
I went to purchase paint at Home Depot. Even paint cans are shrinking. They're not a gallon anymore. They ranged from 116oz to 120oz, rather than the typical 128oz gallon. Notice that Home Depot and Lowes advertising for paint doesn't say what size you are getting. You presume its the usual gallon. But surprise, it isn't. Read labels before purchasing anything.
Welcome to the reality the rest of the world has been living for decades. I lived and worked in latin America for years, and everything not produced locally was 2-4 times what it cost in the US. Americans have enjoyed cheap everything for one reason- an artificially strong dollar. I say artificial because it is only by virtue of our money's status as the world reserve currency which sustained 40+ years of bargains. It's why many of us, right now, have basements, garages, and attics stuffed full of things we didn't need and will never use. It's why storage units crop up in every town in America, yet are virtually unheard of overseas.
The days of our "Dollar Store" culture are coming to an end because the dollar recently lost its luster among governments representing half the world's population, and the Wall Street-owned media never said a word.
This is why taxes will increase come January, and the private Fed will continue QE to oblivion. This will not end well.
Please don't blame the new health rules for medical inflation. It has hardly kicked in. Before it was passed I had a price submitted to the insurance co. of over $1,000 for a routine Rx of a med. Of course the price of the med was only a few dollars and the INsurance company paid only the real rate.
If prices don't rise, the CEO and other top officers of the companies selling the stuff --and the the few americans who have millions of shares in the companies and want their big dividends-- will get mad, and we can't have that in the new america.
Bernanke has stabbed us all in theback with his schemes to flood the country with electronic money, making our dollars worth so little. It boggles my mind that B. is still in place, and i can only think he has something on somebody or has scared them all witless w/ dire predictions, or he is on the payroll of someone who can pay him more than the taxpayers can.
Stuff does cost too much, and because of this, my property taxes are rising, along with everything else I buy. The military costs too much. They get 50% of fed money and are used to having pallet loads of money shoved at them whether they need it or not. We should be campaigning to stop that.
Start a "costs too much campaign", sure, but also contact your elected officials about the heavy cost (more than the budgets of some countries) of the military. And contact the white house and eric holder and your govt officials about sending some people to jail for engineering the financial collapse. Bank of America is being charged and we don[t want them getting off with a wrist slap for not following standard honest practices in the mortgage business--which is the part of the agreement w/ the govt. it ignored.
Why should the bankers get off scott free after their part in the collapse of our economy when their top people are living in gated communities to protect themselves and have no idea how the rest of us live as they drink champagne and buy elections with their PACS.
The government is put in place by you, the voters, aided by the voting machines owned by Republicans, like Romney's son, Tagg. It has been demonstrated that the machines can be fiddled with to give the winning votes to the person who has the machines on his side. I will never trust another election until there is a paper trail and open programming that can be checked every step of the way.
This is bigger than what we see on the surface. As long as you approve of a party that has its top people saying their ONLY goal for four years it is to get the president unseated, what the aitch do you think will be done to make life better for you average americans? We need people in office who are loyal to the nation, not to Grover Norquist and his no new taxes pledge. We need trustbusters, no new bailouts for anyone, and so on and so forth. Reading labels will not help much. Nothing changes as long as we buy the products anyway.
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