Inflation: So how bad is it?

David of Photon Courier linked to this New York Times chart. It's kinda complicated, but interesting. FYI: Take your cursor and scroll over the parts and pieces and you'll see what they stand for. It's interactive. You'll find out how every little thing is inflating and possibly making your life harder. It could get a lot worse, though.

What should concern you about the economy, if things are humming along for you personally? MaxedOutMama knows:

Since all of our presidential candidates are favoring a carbon cap and trade system (total economic insanity), and since the US federal government remains stubbornly in favor of the ethanol subsidy, even while the individual politicians bewail inflation, I thought Climate Skeptic's superb post examining Al Gore's theory that the US can generate all its electricity from solar panels would be a great read for anyone who cares about plausibility in government. It's only a matter of time until some economically illiterate politician gets on this bandwagon.

If you won't read the post, the bottom line is that just installation costs would be 21 trillion dollars. By the time it was done it would have cost more than 2 year's GDP (with inflation). Maintenance costs would add to that. For example, you have to keep the dirt off your solar panels for them to produce energy!!! And that doesn't address the problem of storing the energy (unless the nation is prepared to experience nighly blackouts), which would have to be done somehow and would cost a great deal extra.

The reason our politicians don't get anything done is because they don't spend the time to understand problems before they recommend solutions. This should worry us all. We are going to become a benighted civilization if we don't stop this trend. Someone should have called Al Gore on his increasing trip into fantasy a long time ago. No doubt the reason Al Gore gets away with his nonsense is the same reason that Nancy Pelosi walks around claiming that Social Security and Medicare can be paid from non-existent trust funds for many years to come. Our politicians are entertaining lunatics. They would be great for a sitcom, but we cannot run a country this way.