Putting things into perspective

[Molly]

Right after news on "the pinch at the pump" and "the pain of inflation", there was a news clip on a country in Africa where there is severe drought and starvation. They showed people walking miles to get drinking water. Crops drying up and livestock dying. Just small grass huts to live in. Malnourished children.

I think the media is creating a feeding frenzy about how "bad" we are having it. Honestly, I would rather pay more for goods and have less of them, if it meant cleaner air, cleaner water and putting the brakes on climate change.

We are reaching peak oil production if we are not there already. Something's got to give. But don't ever ask Americans to be frugal. Look how that worked out when Jimmy Carter asked Americans to turn their thermostats down and put on a sweater.

[early morning]

I think we seriously need to rethink our economic and political structure here in America the Great. We need to - but we won't.

[JaneV2.0]

Inflation happens periodically under all administrations, and throughout the world, but it's not so crippling here.

[pinkytoe]

Corporations certainly aren't suffering with all this "inflation." I agree we have it quite well compared to so many.

[Yppej]

With a shortage of baby formula we will soon have malnourished children here. Turns out we have been sending formula to Ukraine.

[JaneV2.0]

Amazon Fresh seems to have formula. IMO, this shortage has little or nothing to do with Ukraine.
Is that country your scapegoat du jour?

[catherine]

We are reaching peak oil production if we are not there already. Something's got to give. But don't ever ask Americans to be frugal. Look how that worked out when Jimmy Carter asked Americans to turn their thermostats down and put on a sweater.

I agree, Molly. I now see many renewable efforts as yet another attempt for industry to make a lot of money, and for people to continue to consume to their heart's desire.

[Yppej]

There is a whole organization whose mission is to send formula to Ukraine:

https://www.wtva.com/operation-ukrai...a0df17619.html

[JaneV2.0]

There is a whole organization whose mission is to send formula to Ukraine:

https://www.wtva.com/operation-ukrai...a0df17619.html

Good for them. Those babies don't need to face starvation on top of everything else,

Our supposed formula shortages are due to factory issues, and should be remedied soon, as far as I know.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Right after news on "the pinch at the pump" and "the pain of inflation", there was a news clip on a country in Africa where there is severe drought and starvation. They showed people walking miles to get drinking water. Crops drying up and livestock dying. Just small grass huts to live in. Malnourished children.

I think the media is creating a feeding frenzy about how "bad" we are having it. Honestly, I would rather pay more for goods and have less of them, if it meant cleaner air, cleaner water and putting the brakes on climate change.

Certainly things like high gas taxes seem a net positive. Gas in these times is running about $6 a gallon here, in the before times $4. But people drive smaller cars.

And yea the media overblows it as nearly all economic times are less than ideal in some way, and this is nothing special. I don't think things are working well for people in ... at least since 2008. But the leadup to 2008 was also in many ways an inflationary time just not one that the CPI was picking up as it wasn't tracking housing (whether rents or house prices). But if it's not inflation, it's recession, it's rising housing costs, and so on. These times are not special in that way.

We are reaching peak oil production if we are not there already. Something's got to give. But don't ever ask Americans to be frugal. Look how that worked out when Jimmy Carter asked Americans to turn their thermostats down and put on a sweater.

there is a lot to unpack there. For one thing a lot of Americans are poor. So they are frugal by necessity, they aren't the ones taking a yearly flight for vacation. So I don't see much point in lumping them in. They may still use more resources than poor people in Europe or something, that might be, but at that point it's so obviously a system problem.