Bloomberg Opinion: Fight Inflation by Letting Your Pet Die, Selling Your Car, Eating Lentils
Bloomberg editors apparently thought Americans could use some tips on how to survive in today’s inflationary environment.
But instead of advising us to support Republican candidates this year, they brought in Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor of economics at New York City’s New School for Social Research and a board member of the Economic Policy Institute, a leftist think tank in Washington.
Her suggestions run the gamut from the presumptuous to the egregious. We’ll start with the egregious.
Ghilarducci tells Bloomberg readers: “If you’re one of the many Americans who became a new pet owner during the pandemic, you might want to rethink those costly pet medical needs. It may sound harsh, but researchers actually don’t recommend pet chemotherapy — which can cost up to $10,000 — for ethical reasons.”
Either she never owned a pet and knows nothing about the human-animal bond or she’s extremely callous. For most pet owners, a pet becomes a member of the family in about a nanosecond. My golden retrievers are a source of true joy to me. Being asked to live without them solely in order to save money on vet bills is offensive, cruel and borders on the authoritarian.
Sorry, professor, giving up our dogs because our incompetent, power-mad government’s reckless spending has triggered record high inflation is too much to ask.
Next, we are told to consider depending on public transportation. She informs us (emphasis added): “Fares are up about 8% compared with 38% for gasoline. Now may even be the time to sell your car. It certainly isn’t the time to buy a new or used one. Prices have stabilized a bit, but used-car prices are still up more than 40% from a year ago, and new ones are up 12%.”
First, public transportation isn’t available to all Americans. Second, it would be inconvenient, inefficient, unpleasant and it amounts to an additional encroachment on our freedom and mobility. In some cities, it can also be downright dangerous.
Clearly, the current administration would like nothing more than to see everyone sell their gas-powered cars. And although Team Biden encourages Americans to buy electric cars, even offering incentives to do so, private vehicle ownership itself is becoming a political issue.
“America is gently following a pattern established in Europe for decades, and now accelerating. On both continents, city leaders want to reduce car ownership, so as to cut congestion and pollution,” The Economist reported in December.
Next, Ghilarducci asks us to consider substituting vegetables for meat.
“Though your palate may not be used to it, tasty meat substitutes include vegetables (where prices are up a little over 4%, or lentils and beans, which are up about 9%),” she writes. “Plan to cut out the middle creature and consume plants directly. It’s a more efficient, healthier and cheaper way to get calories.”
She tells us to be as “flexible and creative as possible” and even suggests that “trying novel things” will improve “our brain flexibility.”
“There’s an advantage to mixing up what you consume to cope with unusual price spikes: You become more resilient as you create a locus of control and interrogate your habits,” she concludes.
Predictably, Ghilarducci was widely mocked over this article.
Complaining about the price of gas? The elite say, #LetThemEatLentils.
My solution is to:
1. Temporarily suspend the state gas tax.
2. Open up domestic energy.
3. Send me to Congress to fight for energy independence.
?https://t.co/qq2E6DkCvN https://t.co/DxEHcJfEuz— Senator Jessica de la Cruz (@JessicaforRI) March 20, 2022
I don’t think “get rid of your car and eat lentils instead of meat” is a winning message for Democrats. https://t.co/gtxBAVEm5U
— Matt Rinaldi (@MattRinaldiTX) March 20, 2022
Basically the elite want normal people to “own nothing and be happy” about it. I will fight this ideology with every fiber of my being. Americans are being abused by globalists. It’s time for new blood who put globalists on the run! https://t.co/Yjl8WSqRse
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) March 20, 2022
Wow. Imaging how out of touch one must be in order to offer these suggestions. @tghilarducci to single parents working two jobs: take the bus and eat lentils. https://t.co/uYnOVrVuld
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) March 20, 2022
Is it a coincidence that Ghilarducci’s proposals come straight out of the Green New Deal?
Of course not.
These are the objectives of the far left. We’re not shocked because we learned about them when Democratic (socialist) Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York unveiled the Green New Deal in 2019.
Ultimately, what this is, is communism. Sell everything. Own nothing. Let your dog die. Stop eating meat. Rely on the government to ensure your basic needs are met.
Ghilarducci is an economist. She and her peers should be working on finding ways to reduce inflation.
In 1978, while gearing up for the presidential run that would change American history, former California Gov. Ronald Reagan said, “Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man.” During his eight years as president in the 1980s, as economist Kimberly Amadeo wrote on the personal finance website The Balance in February, Reagan oversaw dropping inflation and a booming economy.
In a 2013 address to The Heritage Foundation, economist Arthur Laffer, who served in the Reagan administration, explained the approach the administration used to tame the rampant inflation and revive the bleak economy in 1981.
He described the “four pillars of Reaganomics,” which include cutting federal spending, cutting taxes, reducing government regulations, and tightening the money supply to fight inflation.
Biden officials should read Laffer’s speech. They might learn a thing or two.
But instead of implementing these obvious solutions, which mostly run counter to the left’s playbook and to the Biden administration’s dreams of power, they’d rather increase government, raise taxes, increase regulations and print money.
How better to control us?
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