The Will Rhodes Portmanteau

to something like - The Will Rhodes Cynic Page. Because - that is exactly what I am.

This story brought about a voluble “DUH!” as I read it. I cannot believe how dumb people can be sometimes - it really does amaze me. One of the Scary Movie’s Movie’s had on it, ‘I see Dumb people’ - quite apt!

Now you may ask why?

If you go to a local store, a corner shop we called them in the UK, a convenience store you call them in North America - you expect to pay higher prices - they don’t have the buying clout that Wal*Mart has. And when you get a crisis that is the oh so high 4 bucks a gallon of gas in the US - they are going to rip you off more. The local store that is. Why? Because they can - they expect you to understand that ‘things’ cost more. There is enough about it on the news, yeah?

Forced to pay for once-free sandwich toppings and twice as much for some steak cuts, shoppers are wondering whether higher grocery bills and restaurant tabs truly reflect the trickle down of a global rise in food prices.

Tom Seluzicki, a certified public accountant in Washington, said he assumes some food prices are artificially inflated to “compensate for lost margins on other products.”

Without a doubt, basic economic principles account for most of the increase in the wholesale cost of food worldwide. Bad weather has hurt crops. Economic prosperity has driven up demand in developing countries. And soaring fuel prices have raised transportation costs. Mix in investors betting on continued food-price inflation and you have a recipe for a run-up.

Foodstuffs from rice to steak cost more than a year ago — so much, in fact, that some consumers don’t quite believe it all adds up.

So why are people so dumb as to expect that prices won’t go up?

You see it every day on the TV, assuming you actually watch TV news and not some daytime diatribe of a soap - if things cost the manufacturer/grower/producer more, he is going to pass that on - and you are going to pay more for it.

Get on a bus!