What prompted me to run this piece was I keep seeing more examples of "shrinkflation." One example: I ran out of checks and so I ordered some more from the bank. I get just two little checkbooks (maybe 50 checks). And I think I get charged more than $20 for those. When I used to re-order checks, I received two boxes and hundreds of checks - for less fees.
They get you with the "fees." Driver's license renewal fees, etc. And you have to "re-new" more often.
The "Hidden" inflation is everywhere. Governments and companies are very good at camouflaging the hidden fees. CPI isn't picking up much of this.
I think if inflation was calculated the same way it was in 1980, we'd be at 15 percent annual inflation - maybe higher. It would certainly be all-time "record" inflation. So the deception works.
I think the CPI manipulation is massive ... as your observations confirm. They control the narrative by controlling the inputs/data ... and the way they calculate it. Again, the mainstream "watchdog" press ignores this manipulation. Or lets them get away with it.
That's the simplest way to calculate "real inflation" in my view. Just take note of how much it cost to buy a buggy full of stuff from the grocery store. That "inflation" is NOT 2 or 3 percent.
Yes, for changes in cost of living. You could also consider fuel and real estate (whether rent or price be the correct measure is politically touchy). However, real inflation is credit expansion, so monitor Federal Reserve activity. Higher interest rates just mask spillover into cost of living by making people reluctant to spend.
Spot on, I think the American Public has become numb to inflation and pretend not to notice it. I just bought a rubber type toilet tank "Flapper" and it was 7 Dollars and change. I thought to myself that minimum wage for my first high-school job was $2.90 an hour, 1980 so it would have taken over 2 hours of pay to buy the flapper. Inflation is the cruelest of taxes.
There's even a "back story" to this work-around story ... that is another example of a "work-around!"
Since I couldn't find any mainstream news organization that would publish this article, I emailed it to a friend I'd corresponded with who publishes a blog ("Of Two Minds.")
This friend really like the article and thought it was was important. As it turns out, some of his blog posts were picked up by the website Zero Hedge. This man published this article as a guest post on his blog and then Zero Hedge ran that piece.
So that's how I got my big "break-through" article at a website read by millions of readers. It was a work-around!
I thought of another possible workaround. I think people go to church less often than they used to. One reason for this might be that it saves families from having to make a donation in the collection plate. Also, whenever we go to church, we often go out for Sunday dinner afterwords - so church leads to a $90 lunch bill! No church, we eat at home.
My church doesn't pass the plate and most certainly has never used envelopes to track people's donations. I found that intimidating at previous churches I have attended. There's a flour bin in the back of the church now and if you feel inclined you can drop your tithe into it.
I think the finances are just fine, one reason being because even the smallest amount can be given and no one is ashamed, so we have cheerful givers, the way the Lord intended.
Feb 9, 2023·edited Feb 9, 2023Liked by Bill Rice, Jr.
My dad had a "Mammie". He LOVED her. She came everyday to help care for the children, who seemed to arrive every year or so. My grandfather wasn't flush with cash, in fact, he lost the family farm during the depression, one that had been paid for since before the Civil War.
The woman that came counted on that income. Her children were raised. The situation wasn't one of discrimination, but I am sure in the late 20s, early 30s the jobs open to her were few. And according to my dad, she was THE BEST. Some of the baby care tips he shared with me and his ease with babies came from her. He was the second oldest, so mom was busy with the younger seven and with the cooking.
My grandfather's dollars he made as a mechanic for John Deere sure went farther than they do today. He lost everything, but made a come back, bought a house, filled it with children, sent them to Parochial School. He grew a big garden and everything on the table was made from scratch. They had a car. They paid for the long term hospitalization of the third child when he was seriously injured in a hunting accident.
Grandma went to the beauty shop once a week, lol, but I am sure that was after the kids were grown. I can't even imagine today where any woman gets the money to have her nails done. I grew up doing my own and when they get done, rarely, it's by me.
Watch Downton Abbey. Those people who worked there were thrilled to get the jobs.
We've progressed people out of real work, meaningful work ,to jobs that are difficult to explain to someone of my generation, jobs where you make sure your chair is comfortable because that's how you spend your day. Those things listed above that people have given up, many of us have never or rarely been able to afford or allowed ourselves to afford.
Great addition to my piece, Kristen. My mother was raised by "Cookie" (in the 1940s and 1950s) - full-time help who did all the cooking and cleaning and probably raised my mother. It was only when I wrote this article did I think, "How in the heck did my grandfather pay for Cookie's salary?" He wasn't rich and his wife didn't work. It seems like half of my mother's friends also had full-time "help."
I once paid for a maid once a month, but we cut that out. I also like your example of the little old ladies getting their hair done once a week. I can remember when that was common too. It's not anymore. My wife gets here "hair done" about once every five months!
Feb 9, 2023·edited Feb 9, 2023Liked by Bill Rice, Jr.
My brothers mowed lawns. Now it's done by the owners or professionals. One delivered TV guides, the other newspapers. There were after school jobs in stores, cleaning up, sweeping, stocking. Those are filled by full time employees now, many of them seniors trying to fill the financial gaps after retiring.
I babysat, could work any night and all weekend if I wanted to. It was a lot more than just watching kids, too, it included bathing, cooking them meals, doing the dishes, getting them into bed, usually no later than 20:00.
We weren't handed money because we had work opportunities. I was told by moms of teenaged girls, "we don't want her to have to work" which I translated to mean, "that girl wouldn't be trustworthy or worth the money".
We wonder why so many young people are "aimless". We created this mess.
Think of all the "First-time" jobs that have disappeared. The "paper boy" is a great example. The gas station attendants is another. Baby-sitters must be almost extinct ... because people are cutting out going on dates to the movies and dinner. You might do that once in a blue moon. When we go to the movies now, it's to take the kids to some Disney movie - so we don't need a babystitter. People will still pay to entertain their kids - which is why Hollywood keeps making those movies.
This article mentions Montgomery, AL, and in Bill's comment above he uses the term "once in a blue moon." I assume the monthly kind of blue moon that occurs when there are 2 full moons in a calendar month.
There was a delightful and exquisite restaurant in Montgomery named The Blue Moon. The food and setting were as rare as those blue moons. The original setting was in a circa 1840s antebellum cottage with pine floors, log fireplaces for the winter, a veranda for the warm months. Now there is some modern ala carte restaurant out in east Montgomery. Doesn't look so great.
One recommendation for a workaround consideration is "The Blue Moon Cookbook" which has gone through iterations. We have a copy of "The Blue Moon Cookbook Revisited," which my mother gifted to my wife. We still use it. It has notations and wrinkled up pages from food stains. 225 pages with 3 recipes per page, 17 chapters covering different types of dishes, and an index.
On the web there are copies available for purchase. Here is what it looks like:
The point of this Blue Moon story is to introduce another kind of cookbook for your consideration in the times to come. My suggestion is to get inquisitive, curious, and serious about freeze dried foods and begin to acquire them.
There are cookbooks for that also.
Here is an example: "Cookin' with Home Storage" by Layton and Tate.
We are coming into very difficult times, brought to us by tyrants who are busy destroying our food industry, our economy, our borders, our medical industry, our schools, our Constitution and Bill of Rights, our electoral process, and every other institution that you can think of.
Be a year early rather than a second late.
The other adage is...it is better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
The other adage is...use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.
The paper boy also became an independent contractor - perhaps for liability issues/reasons.
I would say 80 percent of houses in my town at least subscribed to one newspaper. Many people got the local paper and the big-city paper. I don't think any papers are thrown into yards or drive-ways in my town today. You also see very few newspaper racks at convenience stores. There used to be five racks at each store.
It's because labor was cheap--after WWII, my grandmother lost her job at the arsenal (she was a Rosie the Riveter for real) and the only work she could find was cleaning the church pews for $.03 an hour.
I have found a perfect way for me to cut down my overall food costs. I'm 71, retired, fixed income,and have a different diet from my wife. I don't have all the allergies she suffers from. So, I shop at a local family owned supermarket that also sells store cooked ready to eat meals. Before you think it's just BS cooking, they have Salmon, Pot Roast, Meatballs, baked Chicken and Turkey, spare ribs, soups, etc.. ALL containers are PACKED and will give me 2 full size meals (sometimes 3) each. Prices range from 7.99 to 15.99/container (Salmon). A much better deal for me than buying the individual ingredients, cooking, and dishwashing involved. They created an additional income stream for their soon to be "expired" food, and I'm happy to oblige. We haven't gone to a restaurant since COVID started. Thanks for the article.
Raphael....family owned supermarket with made ready meals...You have a good thing going here.
If I may...think about what you can freeze; even if already prepared.
A vacuum sealer will be worth your investment, as will another freezer (horizontal or vertical) if you need the space. These 2 items might set you back, but might also be some of your best purchases in these times.
You glossed right over the biggest work around available to couples with kids.
The more kids you have the more dollar sense it makes.
Downsize.
One parent stays home with the kids.
It can be done.
One "good" car, one "crap car"
Generally you want the woman driving the good car. Put all the commuting miles on the crap car..
The one that keeps working will see their income increase with more available time to work and to focus on work.
There are too many benefits of this to list
For those that don't feel it can be done, I will just say my wife and I did it. Starting with a single income of only 72k a year in 96, while living in Irvine CA.
Mayberry is still out there if you make it happen.
Back in the Sixties and Seventies, people had workarounds called "gardens" and kept chickens, goats, and even pigs in the shed or garage. And this is in densely populated NJ. Back then in the stone ages, people also had several or even dozens of fruit trees in every yard. In the following decades, people ripped out the productive fruit trees in favor of useless green lawns. And zoning laws took care of the livestock and gardens.
I remember when I brought my Taiwanese wife back in the Nineties and my dad drove us around the area, which is a pretty green one with nice old houses. He proudly asked my wife what she thought, and she answered, "What a waste! Why all the useless grass? Why weren't they growing gardens, fruit trees, and keeping livestock?"
As everyone knows, food is getting unaffordable. With that in mind, seems to me the best workaround is growing some food. Even in the city, using permaculture, one can get quite a bit of food out of a balcony if it has some sun. Here in Taiwan, there are virtually no empty lots--there are stealth garden beds planted by squatters everywhere. Those gardens aren't pretty, in fact, they are quite an eye sore. But they sure are productive. Moreover, as we have flat roofs here, lots of food is grown on rooftop greenhouses. In the States with a quarter acre lot, one could be self-sufficient in food in a few years. Now that's a workaround!
Great addition to my article, Yumei. I think this "work-around" is now being used by more people even in America.For example, my mother-in-law now has a small vegetable garden in her backyard. I know several people who are doing this.
I spent weeks researching CPI. It's what it doesn't "measure" that matters. And they keep changing it to make sure it stays as low as possible. It's just the same-old-same-old - manipulate the data and change the definitions.
That's the bigger point I was really trying to make with this piece. "They" manipulate all the official data. Inflation data ... and Covid data. Unemployment data too.
All meaningful data points are manipulated to fit the propaganda narrative desired by the Empire.
To massage their mandates along they also change basic definitions and guidelines to reinforce the mandates and the invalid bogus data points. And as has been lamented often by those who understand what is transpiring, most people have allowed themselves to be conditioned to go along with this kind of tyranny, in addition to all of the other tyrannies afoot which are also founded on redefinitions, data manipulation, and other obvious lies, like, "This vaccine is safe."
One of the most amazing tyrannies which is emerging is the tyranny program to condition citizens to not defend themselves or their property. If you are assaulted by someone and have to resort to the use of deadly force to defend yourself, the emerging judicial system trend is that it is you who may be going to trial and to jail. Your assailant might get to skitter away to commit more crimes.
This is clearly a movement to condition citizens to not defend themselves, to become pacified and submissive, and eventually become willing to give up 2nd Amendment rights. The Empire cannot allow us to be in any kind of frame of mind to be willing to fight for our lives, now, can they? Or to be able to come together to preserve our lives and rights and basic freedoms?
The destruction of the food and agricultural system, the assault on our mental and physical health with poison pharmaceuticals...are these covert trends much different than overt physical assault by a human assailant? The Empire's "dumb them down and weaken them" program is in full sway.
The right to defend oneself against all of these assaults is undergoing a redefinition by inversion. The data point being changed in this case is our ability to be able to think for ourselves as sovereign individuals in order to be able to live a free life. Our judicial systems are enabling this trend.
Perhaps the most important elected official we can enthusiastically support is the county sheriff. This individual has to be beyond corruption and must be willing to defend the Constitution. Such sheriffs, known as Constitutional Sheriffs, are the last line in the sand when it comes to preserving the right to defend oneself and to defend the rights bestowed in the Bill of Rights and Constitution.
If you have any doubts about where your county sheriff might stand on these basic issues, I suggest you get a small group of your friends together and request a meeting with your county sheriff to discuss these issues. You should know in short order what the deal is and how to cast your future votes.
This might be thought of as an important kind of workaround....how we workaround the growing tyranny of the Empire to preserve the most important and basic economy of all...the economy of freedom.
Interesting. Thanks. I think almost everything these days depends on coming up with some kind of workaround. Substack is a workaround for the corrupt or captured mainstream press.
Indeed...Substack features the economy of truth, justice, and the American way!
The inability of people to not know of this economy is, in some ways, very baffling. However, the roots of the corruption are easily traceable. Managed perceptions lend to managed outcomes.
If you can stomach 2 hours and 50 minutes of a 2016 BBC documentary on this, have a look at the history as unfolded from 2 key inflection points which developed in 1975.
The major theme developed in the production is that a fake world is simpler than the real world, and as a result people want to go along with this propagandized version because the simplicity is reassuring...."Hypernormalisation: A Documentary of a Fake World."
Thanks for this. I just had a conversation with a doctor who thinks like we do. I talked about how 1913 was such a pivotal year in history. He said 1973 was a very important year as well. I think he mentioned Roe v. Wade, going off the gold standard and a couple of other events.
Fascinating topics. I don't know why they tell us we need to study history though. Why do statistics professors teach their class if we can't even use probability theories in calculating Covid risks?
Feb 16, 2023·edited Feb 16, 2023Liked by Bill Rice, Jr.
I think about these things all the time and also listen and read a lot. Just some of my thoughts on this.
Based on the amount of money the federal government was spending starting in 2001, we should have had massive inflation in the past 2 decades but didn't. Peter Schiff made a statement in an interview several months ago, and it made sense. He said that the inflation of the money supply for the past 2 decades was offset by productivity and technological advancements among other things. If you think about all of the outsourcing, cheap immigrant labor, price transparency, competition, etc since the mid 90s, the US should have experienced massive disinflation - the CPI should have gone down, but we never saw that happen.
I saw a talk given by Roy Casagranda given at the recent World Government Summit on youtube last night. I didn't agree with much of what he said, but it was very thought provoking. One thing he said was that the peak of American economic prosperity occurred between 1948 and 1973. He didn't mention why this happened and his thoughts on why it ended were wrong imho. Why did we become a superpower and have so much prosperity in those decades? Well, WW2 resulted in the complete obliteration of the industrial capacity of the world with the exception of the United States. It literally took 2 decades to replace it. One other reason for those prosperous decades was the adoption of the Bretton Woods system. Another reason was the shift from agriculture to manufacturing during those decades. What caused the beginning of the decline of that prosperity? Ron Paul would probably say the end of the Gold backed dollar. But there were other things as well specifically beginning to open up trade with China. That prosperity was not natural - the world blew itself up and we benefitted from that.
You've mentioned a lot of the ways people avoid inflation, but you're also leaving out a lot of the things modern day parents spend their money on. I was born in 1974 and my parents were frugal. They also benefitted from the simple fact that none of us kids had chronic health issues. My older brothers both had jobs before they'd turned 16 and my sister and I got jobs as soon as we could drive. That was considered normal. What % of kids get jobs today when they turn 16? My guess is it's a lot less than what was common in the 70s and 80s. What % have autism or other debilitating chronic disease/condition? How much are parents spending on prescription drugs, doctor's visits, and specialists today compared to what they spent back then? How much are they spending on video games, computers, cellphones, and tablets? When I was growing up, a bicycle was a necessity, but aside from that we had few toys. There was also only 1 TV in the house for much of my childhood until late 80s. I think there are a lot of things that aren't even captured in the CPI because we didn't use to buy them at all 2 decades ago.
Thanks for this, Lisa. I can tell you have thought a lot about this issue (just like I have). Your point about outsourcing and cheap immigrant labor is very important and quite germane to my thesis. I would say these were "workarounds" used by corporations to delay or conceal the inflation that would have shown up in CPI earlier absent these innovations. Schiff's point rings true.
Outsourcing, automation, immigrant labor, etc. are all developments that kept inflation lower. That's why no one seriously tried to stop illegal immigration. I also note that the official minimum wage hasn't been increased in (I think) decades. Isn't it still around $7.50? They can't raise it or they are afraid to raise it.
The one thing people will spend $ on is their kids. That's why the only movies that are making $ are kids movies. Also, a good point about fewer kids/teenagers working these days. I guess a fair amount must work at burger-flipping places, but McDonalds's is figuring out how to do away with as many of those jobs as possible. The "check-out" girl is being threatened by "self check out."
Everything, in one way or the other, is a "workaround." And this all traces to real inflation IMO.
Tired of a shrinking packaging. It's just stupid. It's putting more paper and plastic into landfills. The 12oz. pound, the 11.5oz. pound. It would be smarter to supply bulk quantities of foods without the packaging costs and try to move Americans that way. Instead, we get bs--more sawdust in the bread and fewer pickles in the same size jar.
I thought shrinkflation was bad four years ago. It's everywhere now. Also, "substitution" - substituting cheaper ingredients or changing the recipe - watering down the soup, so to speak.
Very few people could have predicted the speed with which the current administration brought the current chaos and other related uncertainties to our door.
I saw it coming after 9/11, and I moved us away from the entanglements of big cities and population zones. Even so, what has transpired in the last 3 years is profound, and leaves a good many of us out here at the end of this long county road in a disturbed state of mind; to put it mildly.
I maintain hope that we can recover and reverse much of this. One also needs a very strong faith.
Most people want peace and prosperity. These people need to culture the healthy attitude of self reliance, and not the attitude of government entitlements. Yes, most peace loving people do not quite understand what is needed for true peace in the heart. No ideology can provide this heart process.
The immigration issue and the erosion of criminal justice issue are very serious wild cards to consider and study.
The Empire can immerse us in any one of a number of manufactured crises: war, economic crisis, environmental crisis, pandemic crisis, manufactured civil war here-and-there crisis, other forms of social unrest crisis, food crisis, water crisis, need for martial law to manage-any-of-these crisis, and so on.
Hopefully, large elements of the military and law enforcement service will wake up to patriotism, if and when the time comes. Hopefully, they will say no to tyranny and take up the patriotism banner. The Constitution and Bill of Rights is a very clear guide to what it means to have and promote patriotism.
One worries about paramilitary mercenaries, as well as further Chinese intrusions into the fabric of what is left of our nation.
Pray for the strong hearted to hold the line. Pray for the weak hearted to heal their long lived fears and add their spirit and presence to our truth movement.
In my long journey helping the lives of people I have observed a collection of cascading fears:
1) fear of scarcity, or lack,
2) fear of not being good enough
3) fear of rejection
4) fear of loss of control.
They flow out of each other. Eventually, after a lifetime of running these fear programs, people are left with the fear of death, which is a magnificent and erosive illusion. Death is a very important part of life...as important as being born in the first place!
We have to help people with their fear constructs.
T.S. Eliot had some good words to help us with this kind of Alpha and Omega conundrum: “We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”
Many of these have already been implemented by a lot of people including myself. Some of us have been doing some of these things for a long time already.
Eventually you get to the point where you can cut back only so much before some get to the actual suffering point, however. Then you have to ask, What's next?
We have to keep bearing witness to the truth, in all its forms.
We have to understand our fears and help others understand their fears also.
Normal fear is but an inner messenger that boundary formation is needed. That is what we are trying to do.
Too many of us live with anxiety, an abnormal and unmanaged form of fear, which has disabled the many who suffer this. Because they do not know how to manage it, they want to numb it.
A strong heart with the strength and courage to live according to our beliefs must be cultured.
A strong will and a settled purpose can accomplish almost anything. It will gather. People will join up when they accept their own hearts. The heart is the hub of everything sacred. It's not just a mechanical blood pump.
At this point in the curve I am willing to accept the Constitution and Bill of Rights as an operating earthly spiritual treatise worthy of a spiritual effort. I have not been a precise and devout student of the particular Bible. The people that wrote these documents were not cluttered up as we have become. They had clarity of vision and expressed it well.
Teach the children well for they will carry heavier burdens over the course of time. The state of our schools has become decrepit. More is needed here. This is a good place for many of us to contribute.
What prompted me to run this piece was I keep seeing more examples of "shrinkflation." One example: I ran out of checks and so I ordered some more from the bank. I get just two little checkbooks (maybe 50 checks). And I think I get charged more than $20 for those. When I used to re-order checks, I received two boxes and hundreds of checks - for less fees.
They get you with the "fees." Driver's license renewal fees, etc. And you have to "re-new" more often.
The "Hidden" inflation is everywhere. Governments and companies are very good at camouflaging the hidden fees. CPI isn't picking up much of this.
I think if inflation was calculated the same way it was in 1980, we'd be at 15 percent annual inflation - maybe higher. It would certainly be all-time "record" inflation. So the deception works.
38%+. Prices I monitor have gone up at least 90% in the past 2 years.
I think the CPI manipulation is massive ... as your observations confirm. They control the narrative by controlling the inputs/data ... and the way they calculate it. Again, the mainstream "watchdog" press ignores this manipulation. Or lets them get away with it.
The fact the flu completely disappeared after March 2020 is a major puzzler that hasn't been adequately explained.
That's the simplest way to calculate "real inflation" in my view. Just take note of how much it cost to buy a buggy full of stuff from the grocery store. That "inflation" is NOT 2 or 3 percent.
Yes, for changes in cost of living. You could also consider fuel and real estate (whether rent or price be the correct measure is politically touchy). However, real inflation is credit expansion, so monitor Federal Reserve activity. Higher interest rates just mask spillover into cost of living by making people reluctant to spend.
Spot on, I think the American Public has become numb to inflation and pretend not to notice it. I just bought a rubber type toilet tank "Flapper" and it was 7 Dollars and change. I thought to myself that minimum wage for my first high-school job was $2.90 an hour, 1980 so it would have taken over 2 hours of pay to buy the flapper. Inflation is the cruelest of taxes.
There's even a "back story" to this work-around story ... that is another example of a "work-around!"
Since I couldn't find any mainstream news organization that would publish this article, I emailed it to a friend I'd corresponded with who publishes a blog ("Of Two Minds.")
This friend really like the article and thought it was was important. As it turns out, some of his blog posts were picked up by the website Zero Hedge. This man published this article as a guest post on his blog and then Zero Hedge ran that piece.
So that's how I got my big "break-through" article at a website read by millions of readers. It was a work-around!
I thought of another possible workaround. I think people go to church less often than they used to. One reason for this might be that it saves families from having to make a donation in the collection plate. Also, whenever we go to church, we often go out for Sunday dinner afterwords - so church leads to a $90 lunch bill! No church, we eat at home.
My church doesn't pass the plate and most certainly has never used envelopes to track people's donations. I found that intimidating at previous churches I have attended. There's a flour bin in the back of the church now and if you feel inclined you can drop your tithe into it.
I think the finances are just fine, one reason being because even the smallest amount can be given and no one is ashamed, so we have cheerful givers, the way the Lord intended.
My dad had a "Mammie". He LOVED her. She came everyday to help care for the children, who seemed to arrive every year or so. My grandfather wasn't flush with cash, in fact, he lost the family farm during the depression, one that had been paid for since before the Civil War.
The woman that came counted on that income. Her children were raised. The situation wasn't one of discrimination, but I am sure in the late 20s, early 30s the jobs open to her were few. And according to my dad, she was THE BEST. Some of the baby care tips he shared with me and his ease with babies came from her. He was the second oldest, so mom was busy with the younger seven and with the cooking.
My grandfather's dollars he made as a mechanic for John Deere sure went farther than they do today. He lost everything, but made a come back, bought a house, filled it with children, sent them to Parochial School. He grew a big garden and everything on the table was made from scratch. They had a car. They paid for the long term hospitalization of the third child when he was seriously injured in a hunting accident.
Grandma went to the beauty shop once a week, lol, but I am sure that was after the kids were grown. I can't even imagine today where any woman gets the money to have her nails done. I grew up doing my own and when they get done, rarely, it's by me.
Watch Downton Abbey. Those people who worked there were thrilled to get the jobs.
We've progressed people out of real work, meaningful work ,to jobs that are difficult to explain to someone of my generation, jobs where you make sure your chair is comfortable because that's how you spend your day. Those things listed above that people have given up, many of us have never or rarely been able to afford or allowed ourselves to afford.
What's left to give up?
Great addition to my piece, Kristen. My mother was raised by "Cookie" (in the 1940s and 1950s) - full-time help who did all the cooking and cleaning and probably raised my mother. It was only when I wrote this article did I think, "How in the heck did my grandfather pay for Cookie's salary?" He wasn't rich and his wife didn't work. It seems like half of my mother's friends also had full-time "help."
I once paid for a maid once a month, but we cut that out. I also like your example of the little old ladies getting their hair done once a week. I can remember when that was common too. It's not anymore. My wife gets here "hair done" about once every five months!
Workarounds galore!
My brothers mowed lawns. Now it's done by the owners or professionals. One delivered TV guides, the other newspapers. There were after school jobs in stores, cleaning up, sweeping, stocking. Those are filled by full time employees now, many of them seniors trying to fill the financial gaps after retiring.
I babysat, could work any night and all weekend if I wanted to. It was a lot more than just watching kids, too, it included bathing, cooking them meals, doing the dishes, getting them into bed, usually no later than 20:00.
We weren't handed money because we had work opportunities. I was told by moms of teenaged girls, "we don't want her to have to work" which I translated to mean, "that girl wouldn't be trustworthy or worth the money".
We wonder why so many young people are "aimless". We created this mess.
Think of all the "First-time" jobs that have disappeared. The "paper boy" is a great example. The gas station attendants is another. Baby-sitters must be almost extinct ... because people are cutting out going on dates to the movies and dinner. You might do that once in a blue moon. When we go to the movies now, it's to take the kids to some Disney movie - so we don't need a babystitter. People will still pay to entertain their kids - which is why Hollywood keeps making those movies.
This article mentions Montgomery, AL, and in Bill's comment above he uses the term "once in a blue moon." I assume the monthly kind of blue moon that occurs when there are 2 full moons in a calendar month.
There was a delightful and exquisite restaurant in Montgomery named The Blue Moon. The food and setting were as rare as those blue moons. The original setting was in a circa 1840s antebellum cottage with pine floors, log fireplaces for the winter, a veranda for the warm months. Now there is some modern ala carte restaurant out in east Montgomery. Doesn't look so great.
One recommendation for a workaround consideration is "The Blue Moon Cookbook" which has gone through iterations. We have a copy of "The Blue Moon Cookbook Revisited," which my mother gifted to my wife. We still use it. It has notations and wrinkled up pages from food stains. 225 pages with 3 recipes per page, 17 chapters covering different types of dishes, and an index.
On the web there are copies available for purchase. Here is what it looks like:
https://www.cookbookvillage.com/products/blue-moon-inn-alabama-cookbook
The point of this Blue Moon story is to introduce another kind of cookbook for your consideration in the times to come. My suggestion is to get inquisitive, curious, and serious about freeze dried foods and begin to acquire them.
There are cookbooks for that also.
Here is an example: "Cookin' with Home Storage" by Layton and Tate.
We are coming into very difficult times, brought to us by tyrants who are busy destroying our food industry, our economy, our borders, our medical industry, our schools, our Constitution and Bill of Rights, our electoral process, and every other institution that you can think of.
Be a year early rather than a second late.
The other adage is...it is better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
The other adage is...use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.
God Bless
It cost my son and DIL 50 bucks to go out to dinner for a babysitter. They have priced themselves out of a job. I use to make .25 an hour.
Ronald Raygun killed paper boys by making it "income" taxable.
The paper boy also became an independent contractor - perhaps for liability issues/reasons.
I would say 80 percent of houses in my town at least subscribed to one newspaper. Many people got the local paper and the big-city paper. I don't think any papers are thrown into yards or drive-ways in my town today. You also see very few newspaper racks at convenience stores. There used to be five racks at each store.
It's because labor was cheap--after WWII, my grandmother lost her job at the arsenal (she was a Rosie the Riveter for real) and the only work she could find was cleaning the church pews for $.03 an hour.
$.03/hour. Amazing.
I have noticed they haven't raised the federal minimum wage in something like decades.
I would get $10 for cutting the grass. I do remember that.
I have found a perfect way for me to cut down my overall food costs. I'm 71, retired, fixed income,and have a different diet from my wife. I don't have all the allergies she suffers from. So, I shop at a local family owned supermarket that also sells store cooked ready to eat meals. Before you think it's just BS cooking, they have Salmon, Pot Roast, Meatballs, baked Chicken and Turkey, spare ribs, soups, etc.. ALL containers are PACKED and will give me 2 full size meals (sometimes 3) each. Prices range from 7.99 to 15.99/container (Salmon). A much better deal for me than buying the individual ingredients, cooking, and dishwashing involved. They created an additional income stream for their soon to be "expired" food, and I'm happy to oblige. We haven't gone to a restaurant since COVID started. Thanks for the article.
Raphael....family owned supermarket with made ready meals...You have a good thing going here.
If I may...think about what you can freeze; even if already prepared.
A vacuum sealer will be worth your investment, as will another freezer (horizontal or vertical) if you need the space. These 2 items might set you back, but might also be some of your best purchases in these times.
Thanks for this nice comment.
You glossed right over the biggest work around available to couples with kids.
The more kids you have the more dollar sense it makes.
Downsize.
One parent stays home with the kids.
It can be done.
One "good" car, one "crap car"
Generally you want the woman driving the good car. Put all the commuting miles on the crap car..
The one that keeps working will see their income increase with more available time to work and to focus on work.
There are too many benefits of this to list
For those that don't feel it can be done, I will just say my wife and I did it. Starting with a single income of only 72k a year in 96, while living in Irvine CA.
Mayberry is still out there if you make it happen.
You can cut out daycare expenses. I did leave off another big one - couples are having fewer children. Nothing is more expensive than raising a child.
"only 72K per year?"
Really? Denver's median income was below that until the last 5 years or so.
I like your advice, but describing a 72k income in 1996 as "only" is really amazing.
Yup
That's California for ya.
Our housing was at 50%
When we moved to AZ in 07 we got a 1000 dollar per month raise in lowered expenses.
PS 5 children
Back in the Sixties and Seventies, people had workarounds called "gardens" and kept chickens, goats, and even pigs in the shed or garage. And this is in densely populated NJ. Back then in the stone ages, people also had several or even dozens of fruit trees in every yard. In the following decades, people ripped out the productive fruit trees in favor of useless green lawns. And zoning laws took care of the livestock and gardens.
I remember when I brought my Taiwanese wife back in the Nineties and my dad drove us around the area, which is a pretty green one with nice old houses. He proudly asked my wife what she thought, and she answered, "What a waste! Why all the useless grass? Why weren't they growing gardens, fruit trees, and keeping livestock?"
As everyone knows, food is getting unaffordable. With that in mind, seems to me the best workaround is growing some food. Even in the city, using permaculture, one can get quite a bit of food out of a balcony if it has some sun. Here in Taiwan, there are virtually no empty lots--there are stealth garden beds planted by squatters everywhere. Those gardens aren't pretty, in fact, they are quite an eye sore. But they sure are productive. Moreover, as we have flat roofs here, lots of food is grown on rooftop greenhouses. In the States with a quarter acre lot, one could be self-sufficient in food in a few years. Now that's a workaround!
Great addition to my article, Yumei. I think this "work-around" is now being used by more people even in America.For example, my mother-in-law now has a small vegetable garden in her backyard. I know several people who are doing this.
Take a look at what CPI does NOT track and then tell me if it is believable.
I spent weeks researching CPI. It's what it doesn't "measure" that matters. And they keep changing it to make sure it stays as low as possible. It's just the same-old-same-old - manipulate the data and change the definitions.
CPI is a worthless coverup of actual inflation, which is embezzlement. Enjoy your chocolate omelets!
That's the bigger point I was really trying to make with this piece. "They" manipulate all the official data. Inflation data ... and Covid data. Unemployment data too.
All meaningful data points are manipulated to fit the propaganda narrative desired by the Empire.
To massage their mandates along they also change basic definitions and guidelines to reinforce the mandates and the invalid bogus data points. And as has been lamented often by those who understand what is transpiring, most people have allowed themselves to be conditioned to go along with this kind of tyranny, in addition to all of the other tyrannies afoot which are also founded on redefinitions, data manipulation, and other obvious lies, like, "This vaccine is safe."
One of the most amazing tyrannies which is emerging is the tyranny program to condition citizens to not defend themselves or their property. If you are assaulted by someone and have to resort to the use of deadly force to defend yourself, the emerging judicial system trend is that it is you who may be going to trial and to jail. Your assailant might get to skitter away to commit more crimes.
This is clearly a movement to condition citizens to not defend themselves, to become pacified and submissive, and eventually become willing to give up 2nd Amendment rights. The Empire cannot allow us to be in any kind of frame of mind to be willing to fight for our lives, now, can they? Or to be able to come together to preserve our lives and rights and basic freedoms?
The destruction of the food and agricultural system, the assault on our mental and physical health with poison pharmaceuticals...are these covert trends much different than overt physical assault by a human assailant? The Empire's "dumb them down and weaken them" program is in full sway.
The right to defend oneself against all of these assaults is undergoing a redefinition by inversion. The data point being changed in this case is our ability to be able to think for ourselves as sovereign individuals in order to be able to live a free life. Our judicial systems are enabling this trend.
Perhaps the most important elected official we can enthusiastically support is the county sheriff. This individual has to be beyond corruption and must be willing to defend the Constitution. Such sheriffs, known as Constitutional Sheriffs, are the last line in the sand when it comes to preserving the right to defend oneself and to defend the rights bestowed in the Bill of Rights and Constitution.
If you have any doubts about where your county sheriff might stand on these basic issues, I suggest you get a small group of your friends together and request a meeting with your county sheriff to discuss these issues. You should know in short order what the deal is and how to cast your future votes.
This might be thought of as an important kind of workaround....how we workaround the growing tyranny of the Empire to preserve the most important and basic economy of all...the economy of freedom.
Interesting. Thanks. I think almost everything these days depends on coming up with some kind of workaround. Substack is a workaround for the corrupt or captured mainstream press.
Indeed...Substack features the economy of truth, justice, and the American way!
The inability of people to not know of this economy is, in some ways, very baffling. However, the roots of the corruption are easily traceable. Managed perceptions lend to managed outcomes.
If you can stomach 2 hours and 50 minutes of a 2016 BBC documentary on this, have a look at the history as unfolded from 2 key inflection points which developed in 1975.
The major theme developed in the production is that a fake world is simpler than the real world, and as a result people want to go along with this propagandized version because the simplicity is reassuring...."Hypernormalisation: A Documentary of a Fake World."
https://watchdocumentaries.com/hypernormalisation/
Onward.
Thanks Bill.
Thanks for this. I just had a conversation with a doctor who thinks like we do. I talked about how 1913 was such a pivotal year in history. He said 1973 was a very important year as well. I think he mentioned Roe v. Wade, going off the gold standard and a couple of other events.
Fascinating topics. I don't know why they tell us we need to study history though. Why do statistics professors teach their class if we can't even use probability theories in calculating Covid risks?
I think about these things all the time and also listen and read a lot. Just some of my thoughts on this.
Based on the amount of money the federal government was spending starting in 2001, we should have had massive inflation in the past 2 decades but didn't. Peter Schiff made a statement in an interview several months ago, and it made sense. He said that the inflation of the money supply for the past 2 decades was offset by productivity and technological advancements among other things. If you think about all of the outsourcing, cheap immigrant labor, price transparency, competition, etc since the mid 90s, the US should have experienced massive disinflation - the CPI should have gone down, but we never saw that happen.
I saw a talk given by Roy Casagranda given at the recent World Government Summit on youtube last night. I didn't agree with much of what he said, but it was very thought provoking. One thing he said was that the peak of American economic prosperity occurred between 1948 and 1973. He didn't mention why this happened and his thoughts on why it ended were wrong imho. Why did we become a superpower and have so much prosperity in those decades? Well, WW2 resulted in the complete obliteration of the industrial capacity of the world with the exception of the United States. It literally took 2 decades to replace it. One other reason for those prosperous decades was the adoption of the Bretton Woods system. Another reason was the shift from agriculture to manufacturing during those decades. What caused the beginning of the decline of that prosperity? Ron Paul would probably say the end of the Gold backed dollar. But there were other things as well specifically beginning to open up trade with China. That prosperity was not natural - the world blew itself up and we benefitted from that.
You've mentioned a lot of the ways people avoid inflation, but you're also leaving out a lot of the things modern day parents spend their money on. I was born in 1974 and my parents were frugal. They also benefitted from the simple fact that none of us kids had chronic health issues. My older brothers both had jobs before they'd turned 16 and my sister and I got jobs as soon as we could drive. That was considered normal. What % of kids get jobs today when they turn 16? My guess is it's a lot less than what was common in the 70s and 80s. What % have autism or other debilitating chronic disease/condition? How much are parents spending on prescription drugs, doctor's visits, and specialists today compared to what they spent back then? How much are they spending on video games, computers, cellphones, and tablets? When I was growing up, a bicycle was a necessity, but aside from that we had few toys. There was also only 1 TV in the house for much of my childhood until late 80s. I think there are a lot of things that aren't even captured in the CPI because we didn't use to buy them at all 2 decades ago.
Thanks for this, Lisa. I can tell you have thought a lot about this issue (just like I have). Your point about outsourcing and cheap immigrant labor is very important and quite germane to my thesis. I would say these were "workarounds" used by corporations to delay or conceal the inflation that would have shown up in CPI earlier absent these innovations. Schiff's point rings true.
Outsourcing, automation, immigrant labor, etc. are all developments that kept inflation lower. That's why no one seriously tried to stop illegal immigration. I also note that the official minimum wage hasn't been increased in (I think) decades. Isn't it still around $7.50? They can't raise it or they are afraid to raise it.
The one thing people will spend $ on is their kids. That's why the only movies that are making $ are kids movies. Also, a good point about fewer kids/teenagers working these days. I guess a fair amount must work at burger-flipping places, but McDonalds's is figuring out how to do away with as many of those jobs as possible. The "check-out" girl is being threatened by "self check out."
Everything, in one way or the other, is a "workaround." And this all traces to real inflation IMO.
Great article.
Tired of a shrinking packaging. It's just stupid. It's putting more paper and plastic into landfills. The 12oz. pound, the 11.5oz. pound. It would be smarter to supply bulk quantities of foods without the packaging costs and try to move Americans that way. Instead, we get bs--more sawdust in the bread and fewer pickles in the same size jar.
I thought shrinkflation was bad four years ago. It's everywhere now. Also, "substitution" - substituting cheaper ingredients or changing the recipe - watering down the soup, so to speak.
That was the point of chocolate omelets. Price of chocolate didn't increase much, so CPI substituted it for eggs.
Shrinkflation: The Big Mac when it first came out to what it is now. Now it's more a "Tall Mac" than a "Big Mac."
Very few people could have predicted the speed with which the current administration brought the current chaos and other related uncertainties to our door.
I saw it coming after 9/11, and I moved us away from the entanglements of big cities and population zones. Even so, what has transpired in the last 3 years is profound, and leaves a good many of us out here at the end of this long county road in a disturbed state of mind; to put it mildly.
I maintain hope that we can recover and reverse much of this. One also needs a very strong faith.
Most people want peace and prosperity. These people need to culture the healthy attitude of self reliance, and not the attitude of government entitlements. Yes, most peace loving people do not quite understand what is needed for true peace in the heart. No ideology can provide this heart process.
The immigration issue and the erosion of criminal justice issue are very serious wild cards to consider and study.
The Empire can immerse us in any one of a number of manufactured crises: war, economic crisis, environmental crisis, pandemic crisis, manufactured civil war here-and-there crisis, other forms of social unrest crisis, food crisis, water crisis, need for martial law to manage-any-of-these crisis, and so on.
Hopefully, large elements of the military and law enforcement service will wake up to patriotism, if and when the time comes. Hopefully, they will say no to tyranny and take up the patriotism banner. The Constitution and Bill of Rights is a very clear guide to what it means to have and promote patriotism.
One worries about paramilitary mercenaries, as well as further Chinese intrusions into the fabric of what is left of our nation.
Pray for the strong hearted to hold the line. Pray for the weak hearted to heal their long lived fears and add their spirit and presence to our truth movement.
In my long journey helping the lives of people I have observed a collection of cascading fears:
1) fear of scarcity, or lack,
2) fear of not being good enough
3) fear of rejection
4) fear of loss of control.
They flow out of each other. Eventually, after a lifetime of running these fear programs, people are left with the fear of death, which is a magnificent and erosive illusion. Death is a very important part of life...as important as being born in the first place!
We have to help people with their fear constructs.
T.S. Eliot had some good words to help us with this kind of Alpha and Omega conundrum: “We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”
Thank you for this space to think it through.
God Bless
Thanks for putting so much thought into your posts. Heavy subject matter. Interesting times.
Great article and awesome follow up comments. 🤔
RON PAUL 2024!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Some good ideas and suggestions here, Bill, and will be linking this article today @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
Many of these have already been implemented by a lot of people including myself. Some of us have been doing some of these things for a long time already.
Eventually you get to the point where you can cut back only so much before some get to the actual suffering point, however. Then you have to ask, What's next?
We have to keep bearing witness to the truth, in all its forms.
We have to understand our fears and help others understand their fears also.
Normal fear is but an inner messenger that boundary formation is needed. That is what we are trying to do.
Too many of us live with anxiety, an abnormal and unmanaged form of fear, which has disabled the many who suffer this. Because they do not know how to manage it, they want to numb it.
A strong heart with the strength and courage to live according to our beliefs must be cultured.
A strong will and a settled purpose can accomplish almost anything. It will gather. People will join up when they accept their own hearts. The heart is the hub of everything sacred. It's not just a mechanical blood pump.
At this point in the curve I am willing to accept the Constitution and Bill of Rights as an operating earthly spiritual treatise worthy of a spiritual effort. I have not been a precise and devout student of the particular Bible. The people that wrote these documents were not cluttered up as we have become. They had clarity of vision and expressed it well.
Teach the children well for they will carry heavier burdens over the course of time. The state of our schools has become decrepit. More is needed here. This is a good place for many of us to contribute.
Thanks again.
Onward