Inflation has always been a complicated issue. Before recently I couldn’t tell you why or how, or really anything about it at all, but now that I’ve begun to notice the effects in my own daily life, one thing is perfectly clear: It’s a serious problem and we really need to do something about it.
I have an NPR tote bag and a Twitter account, so I consider myself pretty informed, but whenever I used to hear the word “inflation” I’d just completely shut down. I always assumed it was just an abstract idea that nobody could truly define, like God or the stock market, but that was until I had to pay $7 for an iced coffee with an extra 50 cents for oat milk. Turns out inflation is a very real problem that affects very real people, specifically me.
Inflation is roughly defined as a decrease in the power of money, which results in a general increase in the prices of goods and services like the aforementioned iced beverage. I’ve been experiencing the signs of inflation almost daily for the past several months but was able to ignore them due to not really checking my bank account. Now that I’ve been brought up to speed though, wow, it’s everywhere. Dinners, Lyfts, brunch, spontaneous flights to France, you name it, it’s all gotten more expensive. How can we be expected to live like this? I’m not made of money. My parents are, but I’m certainly not unless I ask them for some.
It’s absolutely staggering how inflation trickles down into almost all areas of life. For example, I had to pay like $30 more than usual for my grocery delivery and was like, wow, I guess I’m experiencing real life inflation? It felt like I was on the news. I’ve resorted to going to the actual grocery store and shopping for myself again. This needs to stop.
I also rented a car last weekend to go to the beach because it was way too hot to take the train and gas is like, SO expensive. Why is nobody talking about that?
Look, I don’t know what the solution is. I don’t know anything! But as people across the country struggle to be able to afford basic human necessities like gas and groceries and Seamless, while billionaires and corporations continue to get richer, clearly something is wrong. I think we’ve reached a collective breaking point where our lives have become unlivable, especially mine, and it’s really time to take a step back and figure out a solution to this problem.
If the last three days I realized I’m experiencing inflation have taught me anything it’s that we all need to do better. It’s not cool to not care or be willingly uniformed anymore. That’s why I’m asking you to do anything you can to fix this. Call your representatives. And while you’re at it call MY representatives because I have a thing later today, but please, whatever you do, act fast because I am literally outside of Whole Foods.
