We have had a few issues with our heating system, where air has been getting into the batteries and keeping them from heating effectively. We had someone from the company who installed it here who said some membrane has broken, causing the issue and he replaced it and bled the air from the system. While we have had a few issues, the company itself has been true to its word of " we will fix it until it works properly" so far - which is rare in this day and age.
With the weather dropping down below -10 now, having a working heating system is important and with the prices of electricity being what they are (and will affect us more as our current contract ends at the end of year), it is even more important to ensure that it is working efficiently as possible.
Unfortunately, the newest nuclear power plant that was meant to be up and running already and would have added much needed capacity to reduce prices, has had further issues and won't be up and running until at least February. This project has been plagued with issues for the entire timeline, as it was meant to be operational for over a decade already, but right now is when it would have the greatest impact on supply.
50% more expensive, 33% less product.
That seems to be about the ratio on the shrinkflation at the moment, where for example, a 150g tube of toothpaste is now a 100g pack. The "argument" is that reducing volume is the only way the companies can survive, but that is nonsense. What they are actually doing is setting up for the future where the prices can decrease, but they will keep the reduced amount of contents, effectively increasing their profits even further. If they only increased the price, there would be a clear comparison that could be made, this way, they get to say "prices are back to normal" when in actual fact, based on volume, they will still be 50% higher.
My mother in law was complaining about the wool for woolen socks and how two balls no longer make a single pair, so she has to buy a third. This is happening with all products and perhaps the companies that do this should be penalized for increasing packaging material for less content and therefore what ends up in landfills. You know, can't have plastic straws, but they can fill the same size packet up with less and claim that it is the only way to survive...
Reducing the volume in packets doesn't help, people still need to eat. It really is a money grab and it is going to be a long-ranging one that will never get reduced again. This is going to be painful for a lot of people, for a very long time.
No wonder people are stressed.
And, the long-range outlook for the mental health of society isn't looking good. It was sketchy before the pandemic and has only degraded further across all sectors, but now with economic challenges on top, it is going to collapse. It can already be seen in the helpline calls around the world, as well as suicide numbers and attempts. However, it is also being seen in the increase in violence and especially the challenges in younger populations.
Totally predictable.
It isn't just one thing, there are a mass of things that are currently having major impacts on behaviors in society and the more uncertainty there is, the higher the stress becomes and the greater the chance of breakage. A lot of people are breaking in various ways and this in turn puts more pressure on an already fragile system, and puts more pressure on those who are already struggling, or are forcing to fall off that psychological cliff that they wouldn't have otherwise.
Much like the heating system in my home, things definitely aren't running efficiently or effectively, unless you look at it from the amount of value being transferred into a small group of pockets. The entire system is currently designed to move even more wealth from the poor to the wealthy in a process that is positioned as if it is in our best interest to do so. None of this is in our best interest and the more we support it, the worse off we are going to be.
But, what choice do we have?
Since we are seemingly incapable of doing anything for ourselves these days and make all of our decisions based on convenience - not much.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]