Wednesday 17 June 2009

Who'd be middle class?

Deflation? What deflation?

If you are earning above minimum wage, have a house and a car, and like a drink, hey maybe you even still eat fresh food perhaps, then you will have noticed that generally speaking prices of goods that you ever buy have not gone down in your world over the last year. In fact they have continued to go up. You probably found that you cannot afford to take that big holiday twice a year any more, and as much as you'd love to get two grand for your £500 old banger when you trade it in for a brand new motor, you can't afford to buy that car even with this big incentive.

For people on minimum wage/benefits, who are forced to switch to frozen ready meals, yeah they possibly noticed their costs did indeed go down. Lower quality ought to cost less, but guess what the inflation statistics don't measure quality only cost. They also cannot afford those luxury holidays and new cars, but hey they couldn't before so they don't care. You don't miss what you never had.

For people earning mega-salaries, the cost of stocks and shares, cars, holidays and other big-ticket luxury items have generally speaking been deeply discounted. For them, price deflation is a reality. What is more, they are likely the people owning and operating businesses, and their positions are relatively safe too -- they are not uncertain about their futures.

No, as always, its the middle class workers who are getting squeezed to pay for everything. Who'd be middle class? It's like being saddled with two monkeys on your back.

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