Unless you haven’t been inside a store recently, you’re painfully aware of the rapidly rising prices. Who’s to blame? It’s a combination of things. In addition to one that’s being ignored (see below), there’s COVID and the interrupted supply chain, both of which raise the cost of parts, raw materials, and goods to manufacturers and shop owners. Plus the government putting policies in place to try to reign in inflation while not destroying our record-good economy. And other factors.
Here’s the price-increaser that we’re not fighting hard enough to stop–looting. People loot and vandalize stores to celebrate the Super Bowl win. They loot and vandalize shops to “protest” being asked to vaccinate themselves against COVID. They organize gangs of people to rush into a mall, crash display cases or rip clothing off of racks, then dash out with what they’ve stolen. The cost of all this looting and vandalizing falls on us, because the business owners’ expenses rise as a result, at the same time the owners are facing goods shortages and delays.
The police are doing what they can, but they can’t patrol each and every business. We must do somethging. First, we must speak out against it, not for it. That is, social media has postings where people show videos of the looting and make comments that indicate admiration or humor in the situation. Don’t repost; do post a comment against it. Next, we must reinforce within our family and sphere of influence that this is wrong on three levels: moral (the business people didn’t create the problem but are suffering for it), logical (it doesn’t solve or change anything), and practical (it hits our wallets very hard). If enough of us fight this absurdity, we can stem the rising tide of looting and vandalism.