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Democracy

'We're not living, we are surviving': Inflation is making people rethink consumer culture

"We are finding new ways to define success and we are building communities."

"How are people affording life right now?"

Inflation has strained countless American households, forcing many to ask each other the big question: “How are people affording life right now?” A TikTokker named Loc_Rants responded by reframing the current moment into something more hopeful.

They believe we can get through challenging times by turning away from consumerism and focusing on what matters.

Loc_Rants describes themself as a “non-binary Christian Commie” and regularly creates videos on how economic life for the Average American has changed over the years.

The video begins with TikTokker Blaire Allison asking how people can afford to live right now, to which Loc responded, “We can't afford life, so we've just stopped buying things, which is delightful because companies don't know what to do about that,” Loc said in a video that’s been seen over 1.3 million times.

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Alanya Williams makes tasty meals that don't break the bank.

One of the biggest shopping trends over the past 20 years has been the steady increase in the number of dollar stores across the U.S. According to WWNO, the number of Dollar Generals in the U.S. has nearly tripled since 2004.

Low-cost retail stores have become especially popular as inflation has squeezed shoppers in recent years. Dollar stores are a lifeline for low-income people, but they’re also a sign of economic uncertainty.

The steady growth of these stores has attracted the attention of major grocery store brands that now, instead of sending their cast-off merchandise to dollar retailers, are making specific products to line their shelves. Dollar stores now have more fresh food options to help provide healthier choices for their shoppers.

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Identity

17 things that ‘poor people’ loved until rich people made them too expensive

Why does everything have to cater to rich people these days?

A gentleman camping and a woman shopping in a thrift store

Do you ever feel that just about every experience in life now caters to upper-middle-class and rich people? Sure, everyone is feeling the brunt of inflation, but something else happened along the way.

For example, over the past 20 years:

The price of going to a concert has quadrupled.

A one-day admission ticket to Disneyland has gone up around three times.

The cost of the average American home has gone up around two-and-a-half times.

Pleasures that were affordable to everyone suddenly had to become luxury experiences. Face-value tickets went by the wayside in favor of having to buy things on the secondary market. Simple things that blue-collar people enjoyed have been gentrified by upper-class people who thought they were cool and “authentic.”

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Family

People are helping a dad explain his 'cheap' grocery purchases to his 11-year-old daughter

There's nothing wrong with buying generic products instead of brand names.

A dad with $5 in his wallet

Even though parents may try to shield their children from tough topics such as economics and social status, they develop their own sense of them as they age. Studies show that children as young as 5 know the difference between being poor, middle-class or wealthy.

By age 11, children are fully conscious of brands and see them as the “dominant feature in their product categorization compared with other perceptual attributes.”

A father was recently embarrassed by his 11-year-old daughter at the supermarket when she called him out for buying generic products instead of brand names. He shared the story on Reddit’s Mildly Infuriating forum, where many commenters shared advice on teaching preteens about household economics.

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