How to kick inflation’s butt

We’re not as helpless as it may appear.

Inflation is killing us, OK. Paychecks don’t go as far as they did, like, oh, two days ago. Fixed incomes are anything but that in adjusted terms. A gallon of gas costs as much as a latte with a shot of hazelnut at Starbucks.

We keep waiting for the President or the Fed or the DOE or the NRA to make it stop.

But this is not entirely a top-down issue. We can do something about inflation ourselves. We are not powerless.

If you read up on our current surge in prices, you will find that economic experts widely agree that the uptick-tick-tick is the result of multiple factors, including global supply-chain snarls, disruptions set in motion by Russia’s monstrous attack on Ukraine, and pent-up consumer demand bursting out of the pandemic lockup like steam from an overheated boiler.

We can’t fix the supply chain and, sad to say, we can’t collectively will Vladimir Putin to melt like a wicked witch in water.

We can do something about our own spending. Demand does have an impact on price.

So, we could:

Drive less. I don’t mean stop altogether. Most of us have jobs to get to, kids who have soccer practice or piano lessons, votes to cast. But we could all reduce our weekly mileage by 10…