Even as the rate of inflation has gone down from its peak in 2022, Americans have learned an unhappy lesson. When the rate of inflation goes down, prices still go up. They are building upon all the price increases before but at a somewhat slower rate. Yes, a very few things go down, but at the same time, others keep rising at a high rate. There’s no relief.
This week, the Wall Street Journal published a striking portrait of how that affects many American families. The headline was “Child Care, Rent, Insurance: Where Inflation Hits Hardest Now; Big, fixed costs that are tough to avoid are crushing household budgets.”
“Price increases for lots of items, like cable and shampoo, are indeed cooling,” the Journal reported. “Prices for vehicles, gasoline, TVs and plane tickets have even dropped over the past year. … But prices for many of the things that are hard to do without are still posting eye-watering increases. Rent and electricity bills are up 10% or more over the past two years, and car insurance costs are up nearly 40%, according to the Labor Department’s index. Shoppers might be able to trade down from prime steak to cheaper cuts of meat at the supermarket, but they can’t really do the same thing with the water bill.”
The article told the story of one family trying to use less electricity, reduce their home insurance coverage and cut back on the kids’ sports leagues. Another family stopped eating out and deferred any hope of buying a bigger house after being slammed by soaring day care costs. […]
– Read More: www.wnd.com
