Based upon what I've read in social media posts from some of my 'friends' it's clear they don't understand how inflation works. I've begun seeing quite a few posts comparing the cost of living today to what it cost in the '70s or '80s. You've seen the charts, the cost of a new car or a house; groceries etc. They just can't understand how their parents lived so well on $50,000 a year and today you can barely make ends meet with the same salary.

Joe Biden and his supporters were touting the inflation rate of 3.4% released earlier this week. Too many people loved the number but don't understand that it is cumulative on top of all other inflation numbers. I'll wait while you look up the word 'cumulative.'

I had a friend in college that bought the same food every week. A loaf of bread, a small ham, a steak, a couple of potatoes, some cereal. You get the idea. Every week he bought the same things. He would have loved the Walmart order online and pick up because he could have just hit repeat every week.

Let's say for illustrative purposes those groceries cost $100 per week. After a few months, inflation at 3.4% meant he had to spend $103.40 to buy the same food. A few months later, the inflation rate was 2.8%. The inflation rate went down which many would think that meant the food wouldn't cost as much. But some of you know the truth; that food now cost $106.29. The cumulative increase was 6.29%, which is something the government never tells you, because then you'd be more informed and probably upset.

You might realize that printing money to stimulate the economy or buy compliance because of a pandemic shut down actually stimulated inflation more than anything else. But most people just go about their lives doing what they have to do to get by without stopping to think about why it gets harder and harder to make ends meet. And that is why we have a huge bureaucracy run by career politicians getting rich beyond their wildest dreams.