I’m No Economist, But…

By Marilyn Baron

I’m no economist (although my husband is) but even I know we’re experiencing inflation in this country. I’m just an ordinary citizen, but if someone wants my opinion, I can tell them that my grocery bill has increased, it costs more to fill up my gas tank and my insurance company just raised my rates 57 percent. Not to mention my cable bill and phone bill have just gone up. If you ask me, those are telltale signs of inflation. Inflation that is not offset by the interest you can earn on your savings or checking account in a bank or a money market or a CD—interest which amounts to practically nothing.

There are probably ways to combat this discouraging phenomenon. This morning I tried money laundering. I just washed a pair of my husband’s blue jeans and scored some folded up, but very clean, dollar bills and some dimes. In these inflationary times, though, that can’t buy you much.

Certainly not enough to cover dinner in a fancy restaurant where my husband and I recently went to celebrate a family occasion. Seated next to us was a beautiful woman with luxurious, long black hair enjoying dinner with her husband and young son. When I looked again, her hair was draped over her shoulder, and hanging out of the back of her dress was a large PRICE TAG. I had the urge to stick the tag back into her dress or at least alert her or tell her husband, “Did you know there’s a PRICE TAG sticking out of your wife’s dress?” It was very incongruous in the situation. I didn’t see the cost of the dress, but I’m sure it was inflated.

As a writer, I began imagining all the possible scenarios. Maybe the woman was about to have surgery and her husband was taking the family out to dinner before she checked in to the hospital. Being the considerate husband that he was, he’d bought her a nice new dress to take her mind off the surgery, but (like a man) had forgotten to cut off the price tag. Or maybe she was in town on a job-hunting trip and she needed some extra clothes, which in her haste, she wore without removing the tags. Or maybe it was just a typically hectic day for her and she just plain forgot. At any rate, I’m sure she would have been embarrassed about it. I was embarrassed for her.

That reminds me of the time when my husband and I went to a movie in Roswell with friends and sitting in front of us was a man with a leaf sticking to the back of his head. My friend and I wanted to swat it away with our hands. We had to look at that darn leaf throughout the advertisements and trailers until the theater went dark. Then, mercifully, we forgot all about the leaf and enjoyed the movie. How had that annoying leaf managed to cling to his hair? Inquiring minds want to know.

Have you experienced any incidents like the ones I’ve described? How about the signs of inflation? Any thoughts about that? Do you really believe what the experts say, that there is no inflation?