It Just Keeps Growing!
I had written in an earlier piece about a crowdfunded project aquarium I had purchased in one of my few successful endeavors (Just barely). This aquarium was unique because it allowed the user to have fish and grow plants within the system. As I look at my purchase from a couple of years ago, I see the fish have come and gone, but the Pothos plant, a.k.a Devil’s Ivy, is still thriving. Much like inflation, this Devil’s Ivy is impossible to kill.
Pothos (Devil’s Ivy)
The standard textbook answer to rapidly rising inflation is to ignore it, and it will go away. Yet like my Pothos plant, inflation continues to grow at insane levels. The current inflation level is 6.2% which is the highest it has been in 30 years. The thought process through this entire timeline was it was “transitory” or not permanent. Will the rising prices be endless? No, but it could take longer than expected for them to subside.
If you haven’t noticed prices rising, you are most certainly in the minority as it is prevalent on almost anything. I was especially taken by surprise by the cost of hamburger meat yesterday. If you are like me, it takes a lot to get your head to turn, but you can’t help but notice the rising prices. You’ve seen it on food, furniture, gas, and various other commodities. It has touched nearly every aspect of our lives.
Here is a term so overused it has become commonplace in everyday language. We live in “unprecedented” times. We are in the second year of a pandemic showing promising signs with dwindling numbers of infections, deaths, but we are still dealing with a tremendous amount of aftermath. I have heard from numerous sources; pandemics go on for a minimum of three years. If this is the case, we are still in for a rough 2022. The repercussions have still not been fully realized, and so many things are unknown, as Helen Branswell wrote in her article How the Covid Pandemic Ends.
Do I believe inflation will subside? Absolutely, but there are so many factors feeding it, not the least people like me are writing about it. Consumer fears can play into the continued rise of interest and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Supply chain disruption, labor shortages, and lingering effects of the pandemic are the most significant culprits. These factors are feeding the monster, and the monster keeps growing and left unchecked; it can be self-sustaining. My Pothos plant is this monster, sucking up the nutrients it can from the aquarium. I wonder if it has added to the killing of the few fish I had (I am now down to one).
If there is any positive takeaway to the rising inflation, it has shown signs of slowing. The fear had been pricing would continue to rise, consumers would start to demand more pay, and businesses would raise prices to account for the pay increase, etc. We would then enter into a wage spiral. We are lucky not to be in this situation yet, but it is something our government has started to take notice of. Left unchecked, it will continue to grow out of control like my plant. Here’s hoping for a better 2022!
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