THE DOLLAR MAY NOT HAVE DEVALUED, BUT OUR MONEY CERTAINLY HAS!

When the cost of living rises faster than our earnings, does the technical definition really matter?

Everybody seems to be talking about the dollar these days.

Some are calling it devaluation. Others are calling it inflation. The economists have their explanations, the politicians have their talking points, and the financial experts have their charts and statistics.

But while everyone is busy debating what to call it, ordinary people are standing in supermarkets wondering how a bag of groceries that once lasted a week can now barely last three days.

And that is where I have a problem.

Because whether you call it inflation, currency depreciation, dollar devaluation, or the rising cost of living, the reality is that our money is losing its purchasing power.

And no amount of fancy economic terminology is going to change what happens at the cash register.

When Did Simply Living Become So Expensive?

Think about it.

Food is not a luxury.

Electricity is not a luxury.

Water is not a luxury.

Having a roof over your head should not be considered a privilege reserved for those who can afford increasingly unreasonable prices.

Yet these are the very areas where ordinary families are feeling the greatest pressure.

You walk into the supermarket with $200 and walk out wondering whether you accidentally left half your groceries behind.

You open your electricity bill and start questioning whether someone has secretly connected the entire neighbourhood to your meter.

You pay rent, utilities, transportation, insurance, and groceries, and suddenly your salary has disappeared.

And the month still has another two weeks to go!

We are no longer simply budgeting to live. Many people are budgeting to survive.

The Real Devaluation Is Happening in Our Homes

Let us understand something important.

A currency does not necessarily have to be officially devalued for its people to experience a reduction in what their money can purchase.

If $100 bought ten essential items a few years ago but now buys only six, the purchasing power of that $100 has fallen.

The note still says $100.

The bank still recognises it as $100.

Your employer still pays you the same $100.

But your household knows differently.

Because your money no longer stretches the way it once did.

And therein lies the real problem.

The value printed on our money may remain the same, but its value in our daily lives is shrinking.

Why Are the Necessities Taking the Biggest Bite?

Here is something that should concern every government, employer, business owner, and citizen.

When luxury goods become more expensive, consumers can decide to postpone purchasing them.

You can delay buying a new television.

You can keep your existing phone another year.

You can postpone that vacation.

But how exactly do you postpone eating?

How do you tell your children that electricity is now optional?

How do you negotiate with hunger?

You cannot!

That is why rising prices in essential goods and services are particularly damaging.

The wealthy may notice the increases.

The middle class must adjust their lifestyles.

But the working poor are often forced to make decisions that no family should have to make.

Food or electricity?

Rent or medication?

Transportation to work or lunch for the children?

And while we continue discussing economic growth, I want to ask a simple question:

Growth for whom?

Because an economy can look impressive on paper while the people living within it are struggling to breathe financially.

The Salary Is Standing Still While Everything Else Is Running

Another uncomfortable reality is that wages do not always increase at the same pace as living expenses.

An employee may receive a small annual salary increase and feel that progress is being made.

But if food, housing, electricity, and transportation costs increase faster than that raise, the employee has effectively become poorer.

They are earning more money but can afford less.

Think about the irony.

We encourage people to work hard, become productive, improve their skills, and contribute to the economy.

Yet many hardworking people find themselves further behind despite doing everything society told them to do.

At what point do we admit that hard work alone is no longer guaranteeing financial stability?

And before someone suggests that people simply need to budget better, let me say this:

You cannot budget your way out of a situation where the basic cost of survival consistently exceeds your income.

Financial discipline matters. Absolutely.

But discipline cannot manufacture money that does not exist.

Are Businesses Part of the Problem?

Now, as an entrepreneur myself, I understand that businesses face increasing expenses too.

Rent increases.

Electricity increases.

Shipping increases.

Insurance increases.

Suppliers increase their prices.

And businesses must remain profitable to survive.

However, we also need to have an uncomfortable conversation about pricing practices.

Not every price increase is necessarily justified by an equivalent increase in costs.

Sometimes businesses increase prices because their expenses have increased.

Other times, prices increase simply because the market has demonstrated that people will continue paying.

And when that happens with essential products and services, consumers have very little bargaining power.

This is where corporate responsibility must enter the conversation.

Profit is necessary for business survival, but exploitation should never become the business model.

A society in which businesses prosper while consumers become increasingly financially distressed is not building sustainable prosperity.

It is creating an imbalance that will eventually affect everyone, including those same businesses.

Governments Cannot Simply Celebrate Economic Growth

I believe governments must begin measuring economic success through more than investment figures, development projects, employment statistics, and revenue collection.

Those indicators matter.

But so does the ability of a working parent to purchase nutritious food without anxiety.

So does the ability of a pensioner to pay an electricity bill without sacrificing medication.

So does the ability of a young couple to afford a home without committing nearly their entire income to housing.

What good is economic development if the people contributing to that development cannot afford to enjoy the benefits?

We need serious conversations about food security, energy affordability, import costs, competition, wages, housing, and consumer protection.

Not temporary political sound bites.

Not promises that disappear after elections.

Real solutions.

Because people cannot eat statistics.

And economic reports do not pay electricity bills.

We Must Also Change How We Think

As consumers, we have responsibilities too.

We need to become more conscious of how and where we spend.

We need to support local production where practical, reduce unnecessary waste, compare prices, and rethink our dependence on expensive consumption habits.

We need to explore cooperative purchasing, community agriculture, renewable energy, and other opportunities to reduce household expenses.

We must also stop measuring success by how much we appear to own.

There is nothing impressive about maintaining an expensive lifestyle that leaves you financially vulnerable.

But individual responsibility must be matched by institutional accountability.

Consumers cannot carry the entire burden of fixing an economy.

The Question Nobody Seems to Be Asking

Perhaps we have been asking the wrong question.

Instead of spending all our time arguing about whether the dollar has been devalued, perhaps we should be asking:

Why does it take more money today to maintain the same basic standard of living we had yesterday?

And more importantly:

What are we collectively prepared to do about it?

Because this is not simply an economic issue.

It is a family issue.

A health issue.

A productivity issue.

A social stability issue.

And ultimately, a question about the kind of society we are building.

When parents must work longer hours simply to cover basic expenses, their children lose valuable time with them.

When families cannot afford nutritious food, their health may suffer.

When workers are constantly worried about bills, their mental well-being and productivity can be affected.

The cost of living is therefore much greater than the numbers appearing on our receipts.

We are paying for it financially, physically, emotionally, and socially.

My Final Thought

I am not particularly interested in winning an argument over whether we should call the current situation inflation, devaluation, or something else.

I am interested in the people living through it.

The mother putting items back on the supermarket shelf.

The father calculating which bill can wait until next payday.

The pensioner afraid to turn on the air conditioner.

The small-business owner wondering how to keep prices affordable while still paying employees and suppliers.

These are the realities that deserve our attention.

Because when the cost of necessities continues rising beyond people’s ability to pay, the problem is no longer just about money.

It becomes a question of dignity, opportunity, and survival.

The dollar may not have officially devalued.

But for many families, its ability to provide a decent standard of living certainly has.

And until we address that reality, we are merely debating the name of the problem while the problem continues to grow.

Now I want to hear from you:

Has your income kept pace with the cost of living?

Which expense is putting the greatest pressure on your household: food, electricity, rent, insurance, or transportation?

And do you believe the problem is genuinely rising costs, excessive profit-taking, inadequate wages, or a combination of all three?

Let’s have the conversation that matters. Because silence will not make our money stretch any further.

Kerwin Boxill
The Positive Interrupter

If this resonates with you, share it. Someone else is feeling the same squeeze but may not have found the words to express it.