I can't be the only one that notices that prices keep creeping upward... last week a can of Campbell's soup was a dollar 20 today it's a dollar fifty..why???..Lol..
Maybe it's because of my old age but I'm having a hard time.. seeing how companies can justify their ever climbing prices well offering the consumer.. no more product just a bigger price.. when times are good prices go up but then why is it when times are bad prices don't come down?

Someone has to pay for all the "free stuff" AOC is planning on giving away!!

Just today I was at the local cost plus grocery store.
The aisles were full of workers affixing new prices to the shelving.
Nearly EVERYTHING went up.

I'm on SSI fixed income.
The cost of living increase I got on Jan 1 was $38.
My Medicare premium also increase.
After the Medicare increase, I actually see $14 more money in my account every month. On disability, Medicare is NOT an option.
I can't afford to use it but I have to pay it anyway.
To use it is far beyond my income potential.

Recently, March 1st, my building was sold to new owners.
My $575 per month rent will be going up.
Not $14, anywhere from $120 to $250 per month.
I have some serious life changes in store for me yet once again.
I went from a well-paid truck technician with 30 years experience to a disable nothing at 1/5th my pay.
I get less than what I made in one week to last a whole month.

I have lived past my forecasted expiration date by three years.
I contribute nothing to the economy.
I am worthless, a piece of shidt.
I understand that.

What the hell is the point?

I can't believe the cost of cigarettes.

Still, well worth the price, to be
able to piss off the militant anti
cigarette people.

pay the money or don't eat

#NoSoupForYou

Oh, to be young and healthy again.
At smoking for 50 years, I wish I would have stopped twenty years ago, when it mattered.
Pissing off the militant anti-smoking people loses its glory when fighting for a breath after trekking to the toilet.
But yeah, $0.25 for a pack of smokes was part of why it was so easy to start.
I know if I was deciding on whether to start smoking right now, there are a whole lot of things I could better spend my money on than $250 a month of cigarettes.
For anyone that just started smoking...
What are you, Insane?
Or are you already rich beyond your wildest dreams?
Oh and running, better forego that because walking to the store for a pack is gunna tear your lungs out.
But hey, if ya gotta do it, smoke a pack or three for me.
Edit to add:
Smoking one as I type this.

I'm already two heart attacks into the game.

But, pissin' people off?
Well worth the risk.

The thing about cost of living increases is that there is no added value.
Its entirely a demand based greed.
If you were to introduce a stop-gap.
Push everything back to prices 100 years ago, there would still be the same dynamics at play but for less money.
People are greedy.

That bag of flour that used to cost $5 per 10 pound sack, is still worth $5 per 10 pound sack. Its still flour.

Try to imagine a world where money didn't exist.
Most people can't.
Money has been placed in the human value system since the first trade deal was made.
We exist in a world of money.
If a crisis were to happen on a global scale, money would mean nothing.
We are progressing towards such a crisis.
I foresee a time where money no longer exists.
I won't see it but it is inevitable.
It is a diminishing return.

There will be a time in my grandchildren, or great grand children's future where money will no longer be the driving force.
It will be barter.
What do YOU have that I WANT.
7.680 Billion people and rising.
Another diminishing return.

Money only works as long as it has the upper hand in survival.
If you are starving and I have food, money means absolutely nothing if food is hard to find.
Let that sink in.

Starving to death in a mansion still means starving to death.
So, when the collapse comes, ya better have something more than money.

I don't compromise when it comes to food and day to day living ., , i seldom consider price ., will always go for quality ..

I think many sectors are not keeping up with inflation and the cost of living . There has been a rise in strike action this past year with many disgruntled that wages are not keeping up with the increased cost of living and many families are struggling .

Wow, and you continue to smoke?

I can piss people off many ways that doesn't require my health.

But, I am no one to talk.
I've been smoking for 50 years this summer.
I can't stop, even tho I continue to try.

All the reasons why I started smoking in the first place no longer apply.
I'm flat out addicted.

I used to smoke Marlboros
Then I switched to Pall Malls
Now I'm smoking THIS.
I paid $28 per carton for two cartons today that will last me 10 days, I hope.
Smoking another one right now.

My throat is constricted.
I gasp for air.
I have a numbness in my fingers.
If I head for the toilet I can count on being out of breath by the time I get back
But, I am pissing people off?
Really?

I'm pissing off the people that love me because I am shortening my time with them.
I can't smoke where I want in public or I get fined or worse, arrested.
How is that, pissing people off?

Oh and lets look at the cleaning job I have to do if I do have to move.
EVERYTHING is covered in tar and nicotine.
If I pull a picture off my wall, you can't just clean around it, you gotta clean the entire wall, and ya better hope you don't get a clean spot on the ceiling because then, ya gotta clean the entire ceiling too.

Oh and in the bathroom, where I take showers, the nicotine runs down the walls. I am constantly wiping that up but, I can't reach the higher areas so there are wipe marks where I have tried to stifle the onslaught.

Oh and then there is the ashes.
I grew up with ashes in the corners and crevises.
Mom & dad both smoked.
I have ashes everywhere and I do use ashtrays.

There absolutely Is No Benefits to Smoking.
NONE

So FU and your pro-smoking attitude.
Grow a brain.

Consider this:

You live in a different part of the world than I.
Families are struggling.
Is it possible that it is by design?

Think about it.
You introduce a finacial hardship into an ecomnomy and then put a soulution just out of reach.
Those people will do anything in their power to grab ahold of the piece of the pie.
If too many start getting pie, you raise the pie, just out of reach, and they try harder.
You have a whole l;ot of people jumping for a pie they can never reach but you get people willing to work harder and longer in their effort to reach that pie.
Makes sense in a greedy twisted sorta way.

I'm down from 5 packs a day, to 2.
Been a smoker for 45 years.

Smoking, is but one facet, in the gem
of pissin' people off.

OT:

There's a Campbell's Soup plant, about an hour
from here. If you could only see how that stuff is
made.

Not healthy at all.

No1, spend your money on a healthier product.

Hey man, just to let ya know I hold no animosity towards you personally.
The animosity is towards myself for allowing my habit to get so out of my control.
I had no idea and never tried to actually quit for real till last year, it was a rude awakening.

Over here many things got more expensive per January this year as VAT went up from 6% to 9%. That's the low VAT tariff, mostly for food. The high one for most other goods is 21%.

But 3% more is quite a lot and you notice it in the supermarket for sure. I don't think stuff like food gets more expensive because of companies putting the price up, it usually is the government making it more expensive, either for us or for the company or both.

I dunno about all that but the cost plus super market in my area is increasing prices due to the economy.
Granted, the economy is the deciding factor.
They wouldn't be doing a global price increase unless there was some kind of plan.
Its all about the money.
Money money money,
it makes the world go round....

Most of the time those price increases are caused by government in some way. Many people don't understand what drives those increases.

Recently there has been some talk about increasing or eliminating the cap on Social Security. That is only supposed to effect people that make lots of money. How about the fact that business pays half of that Social Security tax? When that cost increases in a business, who do you think is going to pay it?

Your local government raises the real estate taxes and you grumble about your taxes going up. In may areas, the real estate taxes on business are considerably larger; your taxes went up but theirs went up more! Who is going to pay for those increased taxes on that business?

The regulations on trucking changes resulting in higher transportation costs; add in increased fuel tax for roads and those costs get added on to what you purchase.

Many little pieces that most people don't even think about when looking at increased prices.

This was predicted... prices go up ... like people can afford more... Not!

the consumer pays the price ...
with the amount they have spent on our military wars ... they could feed everyone in America ... + even send most of them would have free collage ...
and if spent on our health care... my goodness so many would have health care they need ... but seems its always the same old story ... they do the same old things ... to bring Americans down to the levels of poverty... and give them selves large tax cuts ...
sure that is making America great again ... Not! I don't know if it will change in my life time ... but I sure hope the young ... can show them the right kind of change ...that is needed here ... and for the sake of earth too ...