When that show was new, I could sing them all. Kinda. I certainly had no idea what the words were, but I listened to them enough that I could fake it lol
i shop bulk as much as i can, eat oatmeal for breakfast daily, and after i had my gall bladder removed i got in the habit of eating 2-3oz portions of animal protein no more than 5 times a week. i spend a bunch of time in the kitchen every week but it definitely softens the blow. it also helps that i have a couple of cheap staple meals i can make for less than $5 per serving.
i also shop around for value. i live near 4 different grocery stores so i dont spend a lot of time doing it, but i do make a run to grocery outlet every month in order to get discounts on bigger items but it can be hit or miss.
I’ve been slipping over to Aldi or Costco for produce. Sure I have to buy more at Costco, but the price is there are still lower per pound than they were at my grocery store before inflation.
I make a lot of stuff from scratch I don’t rely on a lot of mixes. The price of bulk flour and the price of bulk rice hasn’t gone up nearly as much as Purdue chicken breast.
The ramifications are that the USA would lose its position as world hegemonic power.
But that’s happening anyway. I’ve heard Ray Dalio’s argument about China being the next country up in a big cycle of hegemony, and it makes a lot of sense.
The basics are that in a period of upheaval, the US currency will devalue making the US’s ability to project power weaker, creating a reduction in the monopolarity of military power, and an eruption of military violence. It will begin as proxy wars and end up as fighting between the old and new hegemon. The new hegemon’s currency will take over as the most trusted currency of international trade.
There’s a lot more detail to the whole thing, but that’s somewhat of the gist.
The US took over the hegemon role from Britain, which won it from Spain, which took it from Denmark, if I’m remembering this right. Each of those transfers of world hegemony involved that same collection of connected events:
old power has global military dominance
their currency becomes international standard
projected power is costly
somehow hyperinflation happens
reducing purchasing power and ability to maintain the global military presence
they pull back to save resources
new hegemon gathers influence in un-covered places
fighting breaks out as result of more symmetric power distribution
it morphs into old hegemon vs new
new hegemon wins
triggering change in dominant currency
fueling their expansion from “new hegemon” to “the hegemon, duh”
We all grew up in the “The US, duh” era. When that was the answer to which country was top dog, which country would adjudicate in global questions, which country’s citizenship you want your kids to have to be safe and successful, etc.
By the end of our lives (I’m speaking from age 41, so y’all’s experience varies on this), by the end of my generation’s lives, we’ll probably be in the early part of the “China, duh” part.
But we’ll have a few decades where it’s the “Well actually, it’s China now” era. Where China’s on top, not only economically but morally and culturally, as a trusted world authority and the government the aliens meet with in the sci fi movies. But that it’s noticeably new.
Just like there was basically the “Britain, duh” phase, where anyone on earth would use “The King of England” any time they wanted to conversationally refer to the most powerful man in the world. It was just known.
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