[LINK] Cost Of Living

[Jim Birch]

The high cost of living is one of the "monkey" illusions of economics.  We
are kitted out by evolution to think from an individual perspective or
maybe at times as a small group not as part of a total system.  From the
individual's point of view, a higher cost of living appears to indicate
that we can buy less stuff.  But this viewpoint assumes that costs could be
shifted up or down with no flow-on effects.  From a system welfare
perspective, a high cost of living tends to mean exactly the opposite.  It
means that everyone in the product supply chain is getting paid decent
wages, has health care, aren't working long hours in unsafe conditions,
etc.  And those people also spend and consume too.  Was it Henry Ford who
said he wanted to pay his workers enough so that they could afford to buy a
car?

Do you really want to live in a country where people are paid a dollar a
day to stack supermarket shelves?  I don't.

Jim