I think the craziest thing about things right now is inflation. It's not a single number. A lot of people go- oh well it's at %19 more than 2019, so now you ne

I think the craziest thing about things right now is inflation. It's not a single number. A lot of people go- oh well it's at %19 more than 2019, so now you need a 20% pay bump. Well... that's not actually accurate. Because heating or cooling your home (which you now spend all your time in) which was already expensive is even more expensive, we have to deal with energy bills that are, for some people, upwards of 15% of their paycheck. That's huge. Then because we still drive pretty much the same (work actually reduced our driving because our cars would just sit at the office all day). We'd kind of just take care of a few errands on the way to work or the way home. Now those errands are straight up, drive out, drive back. We're still driving at least as much or more - so again, we're paying more for energy that way. Now housing. Housing is totally crazy. It's not even about the fact that we have high home prices, it's that now everyone gets their wife to take out a loan, pay down a credit card or two with that money, then buys their house to stay under the 45% Debt To Income Ratio. So reality is we've got $1000 left per month for grocery outlet food that's pretty much expired the day we bring it home. I'm pretty sure things are not sustainable right now for a large swath of people. On top of all that, not everyone got that 20% pay bump - if any at all! And to top off my last thought. I live in CA, so obviously I'm on a bit of a high blip here, but, don't you remember a few years ago shopping at pretty much any grocery store and paying like $2.50 for bags of chips, or cheese dip, sour cream, a few potatoes. All that stuff is now $5. I feel like any random item I pick up at Safeway or Raleys is straight up $5. That's what I felt like shopping at whole foods for organic natural grass fed vine-ripened potatoes. Now every grocery store is whole fucking foods! edit: removed duplicate posts (hn is getting hammered or something right now)