Cost of living conspiracy? 🧐

[Neverendingdust]

Don your tin foil hats people! I’ve fallen down a cost of living rabbit hole and the more I think about it the more it maybe starts to make sense… the food price threads got me pondering if there’s more to this than meets the eye…

Cynical me is wondering if this whole situation is actually a clandestine coordinated global effort to encourage us all to consume fewer resources going forward? We have all been used to an over abundance of choice and convenience which is then driven by low prices which in turn encourages over consumption and so the cycle continues. Particular attention goes to the majority of us who aren’t wealthy or powerful, it’s a lot of cogs to keep turning long term especially as the populations grow further, our current rates of consumption are unsustainable.

Is it a supply chain issue induced by Covid or is it an artificially designed geopolitical/supply chain issue brought in to slow us down?

Could our choices be deliberately narrowed by stealth to get us used to having less? The sheer amount of wasted food from overstocked supermarkets would see a shift to them carrying fewer lines, limiting meats and dairy produce for example which have always been known to be environmentally unfriendly, perhaps reducing supplies of imported goods which are also bad for the environment such as fruits and meats as they slowly become unaffordable luxuries.

Yes we have Brexit to cast some blame on to but food and fuel prices prices are increasing everywhere and yet as far as I can tell wages aren’t exactly playing catch up in any nation…

Butter, cheese, milk, meat, clothing, fuel, cosmetics, fruits and so on are all fast becoming considered purchases for most average income brackets whereas before people would think nothing of buying in excess.

Thoughts?

@MarshaBradyo late to reply but Prague and Budapest. Extremely touristy areas of both cities where even bottled water was a third of the price of the equivalent in a shitty UK airport.

The most we managed to spend on a restaurant was £100 for two and that included a bottle of (decent-ish) wine and 3 courses each.

Boris can’t even organise a food strategy. How could he possibly organise this?😂

I was pondering the same thing. But, I can’t see how it would be desirable for the gvmt. The gvmt benefit from people having money to spend as the more we spend, the more tax is generated. Plus, it’s not conducive to a productive society to have a population too undernourished to go to work or remain free of disease, and too poor to be able to travel to their places of work.

I was pondering the same thing. But, I can’t see how it would be desirable for the gvmt

For the greater good, I agree there’s not much in it. To feather individual nests would seem a more likely motive.

I suppose squeezing the last drop out of what they can before people realise that it’s the last drop would appeal to the nature of greed.

It’s a similar to how billionaires keep actively acquiring more wealth despite already having more than they could possibly spend in a lifetime or five. There’s no limit to how much people want and it’s a rare trait for someone to be happy with ‘enough’.

to be clear, I don’t think this is consciously organised but I do think that’s what’s happening.

Look up quantitative easing, that's pretty much all the explanation you need. Governments across the western world have been flooding money into the system just to keep us afloat since the financial crisis, with rates kept far lower for longer to prevent a rather feeble set of economic indicators from tipping us to recession. When coupled with huge downward supply pressure and huge upward demand from the COVID exit, it creates massive inflation. Then add in the Ukraine war and some poor crop seasons in key producer countries (eg. India) and that explains the specific pressure on food prices. And yeah, of course the own goal that is Brexit, but that almost seems like an afterthought.

I don't believe the political leaders of the world care enough about the environment to have come up with a plan like this. Lur government certainly aren't capable of pulling it off without leaking it to the press and blaming one another either. So no I think you are barking up the wrong tree. Economic downturn triggered by Brexit, the Pandemic hasn't helped either.

That sounds nice, I’ve been to both I can’t remember the prices but it was a few years ago

The only thing I question is how much is to do with the strength of the pound? Eg I’ve travelled to say Aus and when the pound was very strong in comparison to dollar it felt extremely cheap, we lived like kings

iirc Czech Republic has third highest inflation rate in EU atm after other EE countries and for locals cost of living issues so it may feel easy with pounds but harder to be there

I work as a logistics manager. Our prices for transport to our customers (who include Asda, Morrisons and Tesco) have had to be increased.
These increased transport costs are recouped by the retailer when they increase the cost of their product to us ‘the buyer’

The reasons we have increased our cost is because our hauliers have increased their costs substantially since Brexit.

Many hauliers have not wanted to send drivers into the UK as they get held up by customs. Why risk 1-3 days in customs when they can collect and deliver all over the EU with no customs delays?

As such, the hauliers still willing to send drivers into the UK are more sought after and have raised their prices significantly because they know, we have no choice but to pay their costs.
Our haulier database from the EU has gone from 270 odd pre-Brexit to just over 50 post Brexit.

Imports from the EU to GB are considerably higher than export costs to the EU.
As a country, we import far more than we export so again, we get ripped off as in many cases, a truck will come over to deliver to Britain but as exports are scarce, often end up going back to the EU empty and who pays to send the truck back empty? The customer; retailer and ultimately us buyers.

Since fuel has also increased, we are currently having to charge our customers 7% fuel on top of our rate to cover our cost as we are charged a fuel surcharge by our hauliers.

In short, everything in the shops in going up in price as it’s a ‘trickle down’ effect.

I don’t think any government on earth is interested in people consuming less. Capitalism works very well for those in power and it relies on increasing consumption.

I also doubt the theory that it designed to ‘keep us in our place’. Nothing is more effective at placating populations than rising living standards. A threat to living standards is likely to cause civil unrest.

Bill Gates has bought farm land to stop the farming of animals, he wants people to become plant based and a future of factory grown meat, as it's more sustainable.

A friend said today - the pandemic trained everyone to stay home - work from home, shop from home, do less, consume less - and now that has ran its course they are finding new ways to achieve the same on a population preconditioned for it. Fuel costs too high - work from home, stay home, do less. Food prices high -buy and consume less. It made me think on it.

In the UK Brexit has had a massive impact. People who voted for it don't want to see it. The Government who campaigned almost as a single issue party don't want us to see it. Much of the MSM who campaigned for it shamelessly don't want us to see it. All those who warned that this was going to happen are just resigned to it.

In terms of impact we had the pandemic, now Ukraine war, the latter having greater effect on prices globally.

Also we have the climate change which will further reshape countries and what citizens demand and vote for.

Migration will become more marked and some countries will respond because they can

I think that the rising prices is not the cause of an effort to reduce consumption

I think that rising prices will RESULT in reduced consumption

And it's possibly the only "positive" thing that can happen.

Which is more likely to be the cause of the cost of living crisis:

The world's second biggest oil and biggest wheat exporter is at war and is being heavily sanctioned, at a time that we are at the tail end of a pandemic that involved multiple lockdowns?

Or the British government/new world order/illuminati/Bill Gates/put lizard overlords are conspiring to raise prices to stop us buying food because they all care about the environment so much?

I think that the rising prices is not the cause of an effort to reduce consumption. I think that rising prices will RESULT in reduced consumption

Yes I agree with this.

I also think it may result in a lower population. If people can't afford to live, they'll think twice about having more kids.

Overall a huge, global cost of living crisis is probably the best thing that could happen for the world. Not for the people now but for the environment and future generations.

Bill Gates' investment firm invests in farmland so that the packaged investments can then be touted as "carbon-neutral". It's a selling point for people interested in "sustainable" investing, ever since some focus groups started to highlight the idea that small to medium investors want "ethical" investments: www.ft.com/content/d158779e-368b-482b-9734-b06cf7fde382

They're riding a trend, not a conspiracy.

I work in environmental compliance, which crosses over into logistics management in a lot of ways. The entire supply chain has increased costs, and those costs are being passed along. There is a great post up-thread about it which is fairly spot-on.

Sometimes it really is the more straightforward answer. I can appreciate the appeal of there being one "bad guy" who, if stopped, would then result in the world going back to the way it was -- but it really doesn't work that way.

but everything costs more so you can consume less and pay more!

A friend said today - the pandemic trained everyone to stay home - work from home, shop from home, do less, consume less - and now that has ran its course they are finding new ways to achieve the same on a population preconditioned for it. Fuel costs too high - work from home, stay home, do less. Food prices high -buy and consume less. It made me think on it

Staying at home is NOT going to reduce home fuel prices.

Agreed. They're just not that clever.

No, it's all caused by human prosperity. World is so interconnected and we rely so much from other part of the world. So the conflict in some part of the world have huge impact. We invade into nature and get infected with unknown virus and global travel spread all over the world.
Maybe this is the sign from the Earth telling us to stop and think, and heal the planet.
Now I sound like a conspiracy theorist.