The Upcoming Campaign

The Election of 2024 is gearing up. Ugh. I like the presidential system we have more than the parliamentary one found in most free nations, but at least the parliamentarians can wrap things up in five weeks.

I admit, and those who know me won't be surprised, that beyond an event so bizarre that I cannot begin to imagine what it might be, I know how I'll vote in November. Around ninety percent of the electorate feel similarly. 

I'm going to try to avoid intense discussions on the candidates, and I won't play dueling articles with those who disagree with me. Each side has enough presumed 'experts' who will tell their people what they want to hear, and few of us can actually know what's right. Most articles tend to spin, to be written to their side's view; we ought to be leery of them on that ground alone. So I intend to stick to things which I know from direct personal experience and plain reason. The following are are some of those things.

Gas was much cheaper in 2019 than 2024. So were overall energy costs. 

The liter bottles of water I drink, one a day typically, hit me for 65 cents apiece a few years ago. Now they're a dollar five.

Potato chips have been my gastronomic bane for as long as I remember. In 2019 my local grocery routinely offered family size bags of the salty snacks at two for four dollars. The same size and brand are now two for seven. On sale.

The company I sell for has had three price raises since 2020. Before that it took 15 years for three such hikes.

In short, inflation has been rampant since 2021. I don't care that it's supposedly 'cooling off' lately. It still soared for three years and someone needs to be held accountable for that. Okay, maybe it has slowed down. Too many things still cost me too much more than they should, and a recent slowdown begs questions of who's at fault and only seeks to shield those folks from punishment.

What we are left with is the raw fact that things cost much more than they did four years ago, and that is typically the result of government policy, printing more money and running up debt specifically. And that should weigh heavily on how you cast your ballot three months from now.