Collars and chains and raccoon traps

We went grocery shopping for a staple we forgot on the last trip: lentils. 

Back when George W. Bush was in office, lentils went for $.48/pound.  The last time I bought lentils before this (about six months ago), they were $.98/pound.  This morning, they were $1.08. 

But there's little to no inflation, if we listen to government sources, rather than our wallets. 

QE 1 and QE 2 are partial causes; another root cause is raising minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25.  Basically, they print money, and assume prices will stay the same.  They raise the cost of doing business to the retailers, and assume that those costs will not be passed on. 

The stage is set.

On to step two: creating a larger underclass of government dependents.

We know prices are rising.  Honestly, they're rising faster than the inflation caused by the minimum wage increase can account for (though the Monopoly money coming into the economy through the firehose of quantitative easing certainly does).  Suddenly, groceries cost a bit more than twice what they used to (though that isn't inflation--food and fuel prices somehow don't count).  Paychecks in the current economy are stable or falling.  More and more people are losing their jobs entirely.

And our federal government is there to pick up the slack with welfare turned back to pre-Clinton rules (i.e., sit on your ass and collect a check, rather than work a shit job for government minimum wage as an incentive to find something better for yourself in the private sector), and food stamps.  It's currently a financially better choice to sit on your ass and collect government bennies.

Hook, line, and sinker.  Fire up the metal works--we've got a whole new class of slaves coming in.  We caught 'em in the raccoon traps. 

Bastards.