Inflation Is Eating the Poor Alive

I’ve been thinking about the whole concept of inflation and it has just been bugging me. You wake up one morning, go to the market with the same amount of money you had last month and suddenly discover that it can no longer buy the same things. The quantity of food you used to buy in the market has reduced, transport fares have increased and even the little comforts you once enjoyed are gradually becoming luxuries. Yet, somehow your salary or income remains almost the same.
You begin to wonder how you are earning money but becoming poorer with each passing year. It is almost as if you are running on a treadmill putting in more effort just to remain in the same position and when you ask what is going on, the government just tells you, its inflation and just tell you to adapt because it is affecting everybody equally but in the real sense is it actually affecting everyone equally? For me it doesn’t it just in most cases widens the gap between those who already have wealth and those who are struggling to build it.
Take a look at this example of two people. The first is a wealthy businessman who owns several houses, land, shares in companies and a number of businesses. The second is an ordinary salary earner who depends almost entirely on his monthly income to survive. When inflation strikes, both will notice that prices have increased but their experiences will be completely different. The businessman may/will increase the prices of the goods and services his businesses provide. If he owns rental properties, he may review the rent when existing agreements expire and so on.
The salary earner, on the other hand has very little room to manoeuvre. His employer may not increase his salary immediately and even if the employer does, it hardly ever matches the inflation rate. His income remains relatively fixed while his expenses continue to rise.
This is where inflation for me is particularly cruel. It reduces the purchasing power of people who depend on fixed incomes and this is how poverty becomes more difficult to escape. The poor are not only struggling to earn money, they are also struggling to preserve whatever little money they manage to earn.
Imagine saving 10 thousand dollars over several years towards buying a plot of land, only to discover that the price of the land has doubled before you can complete the purchase. You have technically saved money but you have moved further away from your goal. That is what inflation does, meanwhile, someone who already owns several plots may find that the market value of those properties has increased.
This is particularly concerning in developing countries where many households already struggle with low incomes and inadequate social protection. When the cost of basic necessities rises, the consequences go beyond having less money for entertainment or personal luxuries. It can mean children eating less nutritious meals and workers taking on additional jobs just to maintain their standard of living.

What makes the situation even more frustrating is that the masses are just told to manage and adapt or cut costs by the government whilst the government does nothing in terms cutting costs, instead more often than not they increase taxes to maintain the privileges they are already used to. I sometimes think we have normalised a situation where ordinary people are expected to continuously adjust their lives to accommodate economic difficulties. This story is old as time itself, whenever things get hard the government raises taxes whilst maintaining their perks until the people can take no more and revolt.