What’s Inflation Really Mean?

When I was a kid, which is when Eisenhower was President, I would walk down to the corner drug store and buy myself a Snickers bar for five cents. They still sell Snickers bars in the local CVS and the convenience store where I buy my gas, because there’s really no better taste than the combination of chocolate, caramel and peanut chips — there just isn’t.

The only difference is the Snickers bar I buy today now costs a buck, twenty-five, not five cents.

Okay, I get it. Everything sooner or later costs more than it used to cost. That’s called inflation, and we are told that inflation is caused by increased costs of production, increased demand, problems in the supply chain, increased costs for raw materials and maybe some kind of tax imposed by the government like the way we now have to pay more taxes to enjoy puffing on a cigarette.

That being said, yesterday I drove through the new Starbucks kiosk which opened in my neighborhood last month, ordered a medium hot coffee with two sugars and cream and when I gave the girl at the drive-thru window a five-dollar bill, she handed me my coffee and three quarters, a dime and a nickel for my change.

Four bucks for a fucking cup of coffee? What the fuck is going on? How could any kind of increased costs of production or a disruption in the supply chain make 12 ounces of warm…