So the price of petrol is expected to drop on Tuesday night. It’s wonderful news, but it’s tempered by the fact that on Saturday we all got a little poorer, when electricity tariffs increased by almost 18%.
Then of course there is last week’s interest rate hike that now has us all paying more on our debt repayments. From housing bonds to car repayments, credit cards and loans, all of it goes up from the end of the month.
The struggle is real for many households, but the cost of living isn’t something people want to talk about openly it seems.
I find that people would rather suffer in silence, than admit that they are struggling. But trust me, we are all in the same boat, the rich, the poor and those in the middle.
Only politicians seem shielded from the terrible eroding effects of this inflationary nightmare we find ourselves in.
The awful truth is that most of us are not getting paid more to absorb the increases.
So most people are desperately looking at ways to make extra money with a side-hustle, or looking at how they can scale down their household expenses. But the fact is not everyone has the ability or resources to easily earn a little extra on the side.
For most, their job is their financial lifeline and they may not have the connections for a successful side-hustle.
For everyone else, we can only tighten our belts so much, before we cut off the blood flow.
The question is, what can we do to help ourselves and each other to survive these dire straits we all find ourselves in?
In my opinion, it comes back to the manufactured nature of capitalism and inflation.
Captains of industry make out that global economics are complicated affairs that aren’t easily fixed or explained.
I think it’s really just all about the money and the fact that us consumers have been made completely reliant on the conveniences they offer. It remains my contention that if we all worked in concert, we as consumers could control prices, the way it should be.
For example, if we all walked or cycled, instead of using cars and buses, then it’s virtually guaranteed that the petrol price would eventually come down.
The Covid lockdowns proved this point, when we were all home and there was no need to drive our cars, the demand dropped and price dropped substantially.
Economics is as simple as supply and demand.
If there’s no demand, then they have no choice but to reduce the price. Because even they appreciate that earning less money is always better than earning no money at all.