Like the slow rise of a doom laden Zeppelin all we hear in today's financial reports is more and more disastrous news about Inflation. Delivered to us from on high by the red-rags and the broadies alike, the message of indelible gloom faced by a nation without purchasing power is scattered and blown on the winds of un-certainy in one terribly phrased slogan: "The Credit Crunch", striking fear in the hearts of all British men (and women) equivalent to that klassick whispered warning; "Ze Germans are coming!"
Everyone is apparently feeling the pinch. Consumer spending is falling, as are house prices. To my mind this is no bad thing. Firstly, too many people piss their lives away patrolling the high-street for "bargains" (accumulating more stuff) when they could be doing something that is actually fun, useful, or creative.
Secondly, it's about time house prices fell! Between greedy bastard Monopoly Men buying up whole streets and upping the rents, and other people refusing to move home so they can stay put and watch their property "options" appreciate, there is little or no room for people with less money (students and, well, the poor) to buy a small plot of land to call their own.
What really is problematic, both for the common U.K. consumer and people in developing countries, is the rise of food prices. This is an issue featured on the news almost every night, and the supermarkets themselves are acting out with the creation of "bargain-bundle" deals, an assortment of random items (some of them branded, ooh) some of which you might want, the rest, meh. The price of food affects everyone and one of the most popular "solutions" (read: way of skirting around the issue without solving it) is to go to cheaper stores, the names of which, are both four letter words, and do more of your shopping there. The reason I say "more of your shopping", and not all, is because these foreign devils do not stock many of the items people need, half of their products are at best shonky (yeah, I swore, what you gonna do)and their prices, keeping in line with (you guessed it) inflation, have also increased! Have your wages followed suit? I doubt it.
My suggestion is that we instead EAT our way out of this recession we're apparently having, or going to have. The economist and Bloomsbury bed-hopper; J.M.Keynes had men digging, then filling, holes in the ground just to keep them working (so did Auschwitz, but the Jews weren't paid.) This meant that people had money with which to purchase and consume goods which stimulated demand and thus the need for workers to both sell and produce these items.
The framework of my proposal is complex, but sound: Eat less meat! Without spouting any ethical mumbo jumbo, which as a vegetarian I feel obliged to do, meat is more expensive to produce than vegetables and grains. Crops are a more efficient way to produce food than livestock, they use less water, eat no bone meal, and we harvest much more food from a field of crops than a few cows in a field (or metal box) and veg. is more environmentally sound, just don't mention Soya and Rainforests! These savings are passed on to the consumer (vegetables and pulses are CHEAP) and several servings can be gleaned from a variety of plants and bags of grains as opposed to a single pack of chicken. The alternative is to buy cheaper meat, further endangering your health, your taste-buds and most importantly, for some; your wallet (prob. leather.)
Note:
TAKE THAT B.N.P!
BBC news recently reported that a large surplus of Summer fruit crops have gone un-picked this year because of new government restrictions on the number of un-skilled foreign workers allowed into the U.K. If British people weren't so work-shy and reliant on accusing immigrant workers of "Te'kin ar jubs" (See South Park Goobacks from the Future.) then this fruit would've been picked and Sainsbury's "Basics" Cherries wouldn't cost £3 for 100g!
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