https://www.rt.com/op-ed/540703-inflation-prices-nobody-cares/
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This is why everything is so expensive, and why nobody in power seems to care
By Neil Clark
19 Nov, 2021 11:56
Across the West, prices are rising at their fastest rate for years but politicians and the media obsessed with climate change, Covid and culture wars don’t seem bothered with the hardship inflation is causing to ordinary people.
...
Then there’s utility bills. Gas bills rose 28.1% in the year to October. Electricity bills by 18.8%. Whether we’re talking used cars (27.4% increase since April), apples (24.1%), margarine (19.7%), hotel accommodation or fish and chips, it’s hard to think of anything which isn’t more expensive – in some cases a great deal more expensive than 18 months ago.
Back in the 1960s and ‘70s, such significant price spikes would have dominated the political debate. I’m old enough to remember when entire elections were fought around ‘the cost of living’. ‘The shopping basket’ was the thing that determined the all-important ‘swing vote’.
Today though, the political elite and the punditocracy have loftier things to discuss. Climate change. Covid. Culture wars. ID politics. Gender pronouns. Meanwhile, as the ‘commentators’ shout over themselves in TV studios, arguing about topics that seem alien to the general public, millions of families, looking at their latest energy bills, or seeing the prices at the pumps, are asking the simple question: ‘How are we going to make ends meet when everything has become so expensive?’ The disconnect between the ruling class (with both its faux-right and faux-left wings) and the governed has never been greater.
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My analysis & comment:
IMO, in such a situation the only real solution to the problem is to import cheap products from cheap countries. This helps the lower class, and prevents riots against the government b/c of the otherwise high costs of living.
So, IMO, China as producer of cheap products, as well other cheap developing countries like Vietnam are needed by the West to solve domestic economic problems.
Of course a country can also do exactly the opposite by reducing imports to support the local producers. But I'm afraid this won't help b/c it only will lead to more expensive products and more inflation...
"
This is why everything is so expensive, and why nobody in power seems to care
By Neil Clark
19 Nov, 2021 11:56
Across the West, prices are rising at their fastest rate for years but politicians and the media obsessed with climate change, Covid and culture wars don’t seem bothered with the hardship inflation is causing to ordinary people.
...
Then there’s utility bills. Gas bills rose 28.1% in the year to October. Electricity bills by 18.8%. Whether we’re talking used cars (27.4% increase since April), apples (24.1%), margarine (19.7%), hotel accommodation or fish and chips, it’s hard to think of anything which isn’t more expensive – in some cases a great deal more expensive than 18 months ago.
Back in the 1960s and ‘70s, such significant price spikes would have dominated the political debate. I’m old enough to remember when entire elections were fought around ‘the cost of living’. ‘The shopping basket’ was the thing that determined the all-important ‘swing vote’.
Today though, the political elite and the punditocracy have loftier things to discuss. Climate change. Covid. Culture wars. ID politics. Gender pronouns. Meanwhile, as the ‘commentators’ shout over themselves in TV studios, arguing about topics that seem alien to the general public, millions of families, looking at their latest energy bills, or seeing the prices at the pumps, are asking the simple question: ‘How are we going to make ends meet when everything has become so expensive?’ The disconnect between the ruling class (with both its faux-right and faux-left wings) and the governed has never been greater.
...
"
My analysis & comment:
IMO, in such a situation the only real solution to the problem is to import cheap products from cheap countries. This helps the lower class, and prevents riots against the government b/c of the otherwise high costs of living.
So, IMO, China as producer of cheap products, as well other cheap developing countries like Vietnam are needed by the West to solve domestic economic problems.
Of course a country can also do exactly the opposite by reducing imports to support the local producers. But I'm afraid this won't help b/c it only will lead to more expensive products and more inflation...
