So things I need have gone up. Things I don’t need have gone down
Exactly as designed to pull the most amount of money from the most amount of people. Spend money on things that you can’t go without easily and make sure that the things that you don’t “need” are cheap enough to get whatever you have left. Best way to take all the resources of the poor while not leaving those with more with too much left if they want “nicer things”.
h/t Perfect_Alarm_2141