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Prices are crazy!

On the weekend I had to replace the battery in the old sheila's car.

Last time I bought a car battery, about five years ago, I think I paid around $140 which, at the time, I thought was pretty steep.

You can imagine how smacked my gob was therefore, when I had to shell out about twice that this time.

WTF?

That's a sizeable fist full of dollars for a plastic box with some lead and sulfuric acid.

However, that's not the only thing that seems to have skyrocketed in price recently.

My breakfast ceral of choice is Kellogs Sultana Bran.

Yeah, it's hardly the healthiest option but at least it's better than Coco Pops.

Just a year or two ago, I was paying around $6 for the large box of this cereal and I thought that was a bit on the steep side. After all, this is just wheat-leavings pressed into flakes and a few dried grapes thrown in a lightweight cardboard box.

Well right now I'm planning to go back to rolled oats because those bran flakes are over $10 a box on our supermarket shelves.

Now I understand that, over time, input costs go up and therefore retail prices also have to increase -- but to this extent and in such a short time?

Then there are the local body rates that all property owners have to pay. Most places around the country have seen increases in the last year of 12%-20%, depending on exactly where you live.

Again... WTF?

How can prices have risen so steeply in such a short space of time? Where is all the extra money going?

Here in the South Waikato we had about an 18.5 percent rates increase but we are now also about to be stung with massive increases in the cost of services provided by our local council. Pensioner housing rentals are being hiked by 70 to 80 percent and if you get even a glimpse of the new costs associated with burials you will need one because you'll likely suffer a cardiac arrest due to the shock.

It's pretty clear that "the average joe" is ending up with less discretionary income and a reduced ability to save, thanks to all these rising costs. In effect, the poor are getting poorer.

Now, given that the total amount of money in the system isn't changing, that can only mean that the rich are getting richer -- because the money has to go somewhere.

I fear that this continuing and rapidly increasing shift of wealth from the poor to the rich will place even greater stress on the social fabric of our society. We're already seeing an increase in the numbers of homeless people and those who beg on the streets. Likewise, crimes of necessity (shoplifting from supermarkets etc) seem to be going up as well.

As I've mentioned in previous columns, the introduction of AI has the potential to gut the ranks of the middle-class as well. Many white-collar workers will find themselves looking for jobs (rubbing shoulders in the dole queue with "journalists" I expect). They will join the ranks of "the poor" and what little wealth they may have accumulated during their working lives will also end up in the hand of "the rich".

Don't get me wrong, I'm not some socialist who believes we should all contribute based on our abilities and be given on the basis of our needs -- but I do think that the system needs some kind of adjustment. Pure capitalism is as bad for a society as is pure socialism so right now we desperately need some kind of system that provides the best of both systems whilst eliminating the worst of both.

Is this just a pipe-dream?

Probably.

One thing I've observed during my tenure on the planet is that *everything* is cyclic. We swing from extreme to extreme -- simply because we don't halt the path of the pendulum when it's in the perfect position for equity and harmony.

Perhaps one day we'll learn but, until then, hang on tight, it's a bumpy ride!

Carpe Diem folks!

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