Do you want bread for lunch?

Do you want bread for lunch?

The question could not mean ‘Do you want bread for lunch?’ as in ‘adding bread to the list of edible items you will have for lunch’ but merely ‘do you want bread as the only edible item you can have for lunch?’. The question is becoming more and more relevant as the second interpretation given the prices we have become accustomed to see in food shops.

When a movie DVD costs the same as four cuts of chicken breast, you know that there is an abnormal imbalance between the prices of essential and non essential products. Shop prices have literally become irrational.

When faced with huge price reduction offers, my wife asks ‘if they can sell at lower prices, why don’t they have lower prices all the time?’ The question is absolutely relevant. We have an over-priced economy and ordinary people are kept and treated as hostages.

Another scheme very often used by service providers is low tariffs for new customers while over-charging their existing customers. This sort of scheme should be banned and customers both old and new should be offered the same tariffs. We know that is merely a ruse to take customers away from other companies because after a short-while the temporarily happy individuals that were seduced by the scheme end up paying over the odds being locked up in 24 months contracts.

When the economy is going downhill and people are getting less and less, it should be the duty of any government to play an active role ensuring that there is fairness by getting rid of cowboys and rip-off schemes.

Rip-off prices charged for food products show the state of the real economy. Forget about official inflation figures. Real inflation in Britain is now measured in 3 digit figures. If the chicken you used to buy for £3.50 now costs £7.00, the increase has been 100%. If a pound of apples that used to cost £0.30 now costs £1.50 or £ 2.00, the price increase has been of betwen 400 and 560%.