EDITORIAL – Paying for inflation with our credit cards will end badly
(Image: Pixabay.com)
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
HAD COFFEE with a friend yesterday. Perhaps feeling a bit rebellious, I tipped the barista only 18 per cent, down from the 20 I was allotting during the height of the pandemic.
It’s not exactly going to reverse the inflation I’ve been paying for. Remember when the standard tip was 10 per cent for good service, and then only for certain things?
The tipping situation is only a symptom, the tip of the iceberg, of course. As we all know, we’re paying through the nose for everything from dairy products, veggies, rent, clothing and gasoline.
Our house got an email from a local service provider the other day giving notice that rates were going up, along with the expressed hope that we’d understand. Understand what? No explanation for the hike was offered.
So how are we paying for all this? With our credit cards, naturally. A report from the credit bureau Equifax came out yesterday that found Canadians are going more deeply in debt to keep buying the things they did before prices went up.
Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Hopefully one day you will write an editorial on frugality. If you want a first hand account about it you may have to buy me coffee. And tips should really only be for good service, not by default.