Will less be better than more? Well....

There is a lot in the news, the papers, TV reports about inflation and the rise in prices across the board. I am basically a stupid person but let me ask a question, is everyone as stupid as me? Very few people talk about the underlying reasons why all this is happening. I have said quite a while ago what would happen if oil suddenly became scarce. Our western so-called civilisation has continually ignored the basic rules of supply and demand and how it is coupled to the basic availability of raw materials like oil, gas and other commodities. As we can easily see today, the oil price, diesel and petrol have hit the roof and are likely to go beyond that. This obviously will reverberate through to increased transport prices. You don’t need to be an economics graduate to see that! Increased transport prices will also increase commodity prices. 

As it stands today I cannot understand eminent people burbling on about how they are going to change all of that by government intervention. The only thing governments can do is the usual, either print more money and give that to whoever they want to give it to, like they did with the Covid lock-downs. Or increase taxes. People like me, do not count in the great scheme of things. Make no mistake, it has always been like that. Let’s not pretend we matter because nature sees no difference in humans and any other living thing! Simply this, if the food supply runs out, you starve, you can talk as much as you want, it will not make one jot of difference. Obviously as humans with some grey matter in our heads we can help by moving the available foods and other commodities around the world to initially stave off starvation in affected areas but that is very much depending on governmental resolve. 

Wars such as the Ukrainian-Russian conflagration will always be used as a way to disrupt the movement of goods across the world. The grain stored in Ukraine, millions of tonnes is held almost certainly as a bargaining chip by Russia. The oil and gas also supplied by Russia will also be used in that manner even though Europe has taken steps to diminish its dependence on Russian oil and gas. All these things are just the basis on which prices increase. Finally, the other big reason is the number of people in the world and increasing rapidly resulting in increased demand of almost everything. I cannot see the West having a predominant call on commodities anymore, the competition will drive up prices come what may. All in all we will have to get used to less and that at higher cost. Furthermore, it might not be such a bad thing! Pointing back at a previous post where I mentioned my visit to a local hospital, I have never seen so many overweight people! No wonder we suffer so many ailments, heart problems, strokes, cancer and that’s just for starters! So, less will be much better. Goodbye to McDonalds, KFC, Deliveroo et al!