Inflation Solutions

About a month ago, I decided to buy a new set of luggage.

I hadn’t upgraded since 2005 when I purchased a designer set that I really loved.

Going through the pockets before throwing some of the old pieces out, I realized that I had bought my old set at the same place I bought my new set. 

I purchased it at Marshalls for $39 per piece.

It was a great deal bc some of the bags from this brand go for over $1K.

Now enter my new set: It’s pretty cute, but it’s not designer.

I paid $69 per piece.

Now- if I was to follow the trend of what I’m seeing others do in a case like this, I’d throw my hands up in the air and yell: 

Inflation!!!!  Our government is horrible!!!!!

But before I draw a conclusion, I like to reflect. 

And the reality is- Marshalls didn’t suddenly double their prices this year due to recent inflation.

Their prices have gone up incrementally over the past 16 years.

And this is true with nearly everything else that people are complaining about the price of.

I find it interesting- that people are just now starting to notice and complain about it.

Some are blaming it on the current administration.

But the reality is- this is not something that just started 10 months ago.

Nor is it exclusive to the US.

Or even North America.

So saying that it’s the fault of the current administration actually makes no sense.

Not to mention, it takes much more than 10 months to create the magnitude of what we’re dealing with.

Much of it is bc we’re dealing with loads of shortages as a result of the pandemic. 

And it has very little to do with government.

We have chip shortages, oil shortages and other shortages.

No one is talking about this side of things or how we can fix these shortages to get prices back down.

Instead, they’re looking for the first guy they can find to blame.

And it’s this type of thinking- the superficial search for the easiest guy to blame- that is one of the gravest mistakes that we make as humans.

It’s this exact cognitive pattern that keeps many of us stuck.

When the desire to make someone else guilty wins over the desire to find the real root causes and solutions, we’ve all lost.

20 years ago, George Bush took us into a 20 year war that couldn’t be won.

And it has costed us well over 13 figures.

I’m pretty sure that has had an effect on our rising prices.

But in all of the complaints that I’ve heard about ‘inflation’ I’ve never heard anyone mention this aspect either.

I get it, people are grumpy and it’s been a rough year and half.

Some have lost jobs, loved ones, lifestyles, money and more.

But using blame to solve a problem is never helpful or effective.

Maybe we’ve simply reached a point where humans have done all they can do with fiat currency and the next natural step is decentralized finance.

It will be interesting to see how this conversation changes in the not-too-distant future when most of our money is on the blockchain.

But in the meantime, if we don’t like what’s happening, let’s look for solutions, not blame.