like I went to taco bell and they didn’t even have napkins out. they had the other stuff just no napkins, I assume because some fucking ghoul noticed people liked taking them for their cars so now we just don’t get napkins! so they can save $100 per quarter rather than provide the barest minimum quality of life features.
It’s a pretty complicated economics question why inflation is happening. They’re working on it by adjusting interest rates, I guess.
As for why the average American isn’t doing so well, it’s basically the rich getting richer while the poor get poorer. If this same inflation was happening with a 70’s distribution of wealth (and IIRC it actually did) it wouldn’t be fun but it wouldn’t be pushing so many people to the brink, either.