The Normies Care About Inflation More Than You Know

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I’ve been an anxiety-ridden, bleary-eyed American consumer for long enough to know when something about our habitual consumption feels new and weird and abnormal. There’s lots of data and charts and graphs and polling that quantifies the low-simmering recognition that something about the American economy is fucked, of course, but there are also anecdotes that make the problems real among real people who trade their labor for a little money and hope it will be enough for them and their loved ones. Become a Bad Faith Times supporter today and get access to BFT videos and the BFT discord community, where we talk politics, sports, movies, music, and other stuff. Last August in Ocean City, Maryland, I witnessed three separate people cancel their food orders on the boardwalk over a 24-hour stretch. It was jarring and a little surreal to see it happen once. Three times felt like a call to get out of my head and pay attention to things happening around me during these unprecedented times (I would very much like to live in precedented times one day). One morning as I was being baked in the sort of humidity Maryland does best, I watched as a guy order four bagels and four orange juices from a breakfast joint on the boardwalk. The total came out to $68.88 – I remember the exact amount because it knocked me back – and the guy sighed and said never mind, I can’t pay that for four bagels and some orange juice. I had never seen a consumer decide not to consume. An hour later, cooling off under an air conditioning unit pumping out arctic air, I saw a college-aged woman ready to buy some trinkets and a beach towel before laughing at the cashier when she announced the total. The consumer, choosing not the consume, shook her head and smirked on the way out of the store. She was in disbelief. Read more at BadFaithTimes.com .