SaltWire E-Edition

CONSUMERS SHORT-CHANGED

We can cut back on the amount of beef we buy — or all meat, for that matter. Cutting back on desserts and treats, we can do, too. We can stay home and not go to the movies. We can walk around the block instead of joining a gym. Sunday afternoon drives are out, considering the price of gas. Volunteering and/or donating to worthwhile causes is being narrowed down to a select few in our immediate neighbourhoods.

But the manufacturers of toilet paper are now gleefully increasing their prices while, at the same time, reducing the bulk in their products, because they can. Do not walk softly into that dark bathroom: add your voice to the complaints about higher prices and less product. Whatever we buy, it’s become more expensive. But at the same time, there’s less of it — did they think we wouldn’t notice? Or did they bank on the premise we’d suffer in silence, suck it up and pay, demonstrating once again how the “little guy” gets kicked while he’s down?

We’ve had two years of pandemic and it’s far from over. Now the world is on the verge of a global war just so Vladimir Putin can be Stalin resurrected, and to add insult to injury, our lives are further shattered by greed in the marketplace.

We can’t afford housing, food or goods, health care or fuel. So, I have a question: once we, the 99 per cent, run out of money and have nothing left, what will all these companies and one-percenters do to maintain their elevated status? Once we’ve been bled dry and the world is even farther down the road to extinction due to this salivating greed, what then?

Beverlee Brown, Bridgewater

OPINION

en-ca

2022-05-18T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-18T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://saltwire.pressreader.com/article/281629603874826

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