Food for Thought

Some years ago there was an olive commercial on television. In the commercial a man is pondering a jar of olives. He reasons; suppose his company puts fewer olives in the bottle? It would increase profits. No one is likely to notice a couple less. But it would make a big difference to the company when it produces hundreds of thousands of jars of olives. He sends his idea to higher management. Their response was to take out even more.

This is the mindset of American business in regards to consumers. If you buy something that is in a powder form, have you noticed the grains are larger? It means you are getting less. Have you noticed it takes more packages of artificial sweetener to achieve the same sweetness?  Have you noticed that the ounces of things are less then they were in containers?

Even meat is not immune. Look at the controversy over the "pink slim" being added. It is another form of adulteration that results in less. Have you noticed a big air bubble in your tube of toothpaste? What about the products that claim they are better because they are whipped. Whipping inserts air bubbles and reduces product density. Have you noticed reduced gas mileage? Less gas mileage than can be reasonably attributed to the lower octane ethanol additive?

By design, these changes are hard to pin down. It used to be much easier in regards to some products. The quantity was a part of the product descriptor name. An example is a "pound" of coffee. One company was challenged on advertising a "pound" when it was less than 16 ounces. The company said “pound” was not a measure, merely part of the name.

In aggregate Americans are getting poorer. Inflation in the costs of everything is escalating. The other “hit” is charging for things that used to be free.

It does not really impact you very much paying more for less with a jar of olives. It impacts you greatly when price increases are ubiquitous. At some point in this cycle economic sustainability will collapse.