Not Being Frugal For Frugality's Sake

I know - the Narrative:

Over one-third of Americans say they have had to cut groceries in order to afford gas as prices skyrocket in the second year of Biden’s presidency, a Quinnipiac University survey released this week found.

**

As inflation continues to put the squeeze on spending habits, the rising cost of food has forced a majority of Canadians to cut back to just the necessities, a new Yahoo/Maru Public Opinion poll has found.

The survey of 1,514 Canadians found that a majority (60 per cent) say the cost of groceries is rising by so much that they are having to cut back to essential goods only. Those living in Atlantic Canada are most likely to scale back grocery purchases to the necessities (71 per cent), followed by Manitoba/Saskatchewan (69 per cent), Alberta (64 per cent), Ontario (61 per cent), British Columbia (56 per cent) and Quebec (52 per cent).

That's not the only way Canadians are adapting to food inflation. The Yahoo/Maru Public Opinion survey found that over half of Canadians (52 per cent) say they are buying less food because of rising costs. Another 51 per cent say they are choosing to buy groceries at discount chains, while 56 per cent say they are cutting back on purchases of red meat because of the high price. Another 49 per cent say they search for "expiration date discounts" on meat products to save on costs.

"The findings lay bare the impact of today's high cost of living as an ever increasing number of middle-to-lower income households have to make trade-offs and concessions to accommodate their reduced buying power," Maru executive vice-president John Wright said.

"Cost increases for food producers, their transport and shipping, and supply chain blockages, are all combining to create a price pincer for the consumer."

 

Let's stop pretending that this isn't a result of governmental policy.

The fat masses wouldn't be making economies because they reviewed their spending habits and came to sense.

They are running out of money. 

Also - what the public should be demanding is for the government to disappear, not wasteful spending programs that go nowhere:

Canadians favour a federal rent to own program and more investment in co-op housing to help young families, says in-house Privy Council Research. Taxpayers opposed any blanket attempt to lower home prices overall as a threat to the middle class: ‘Most indicated they would worry if the value of their own home declined.’

** 

Canada will ban most foreigners from buying homes for two years and provide billions of dollars to spur construction activity in an attempt to cool off a surging real-estate market. 

 

Only two years?

Oh, that should fix things.