I was at a menu-planning meeting this weekend for a backpacking trip this summer – the leader had great advice about food on a 7+ day trip – for example, he recommended getting hot sauce packets from one of the fast food restaurants to spice up the dehydrated enchiladas
How many hiking trip planners, picnic planners, moms preparing for a car camping weekend, etc think that it is OK to stock up on these condiment packages?
Does the local franchise owner really have to provide free condiments for all of these people? I think not.
Go into a fast food restaurant in a low-income part of town. There are no condiment packs out where the customers can stock up on them and some of them don’t even have napkins accessible.
Having to pay for extra condiment packets is actually an excellent example of the pervasiveness of inflation. EVERYTHING that we use and consume on a daily basis (except real estate) is going up in price.
Investors and speculators might give some thought to other times in the US when inflation was pervasive – which investments / speculations paid off and which didn’t? (hint: got gold and silver?)
