This is literally what liberal economic theory promises though. The main selling point of capitalism when it’s pitched to you in school as to why it’s supposed to be something that you as an average person should support is that free market competition will supposedly bring innovations in production that drive prices down and then everyone can afford more stuff. Material abundance for the everyman is supposed to be THE main appeal of the whole system. That’s the trade-off you’re promised for accepting to be a wage slave while a few people get obscenely rich off of your labor.

Yet now constantly the capitalist media tells us that stuff being cheap is actually not good, that it’s “bad for the economy”. And while they love to talk about “fiscal responsibility” when they blame the poor for being poor, they simultaneously berate you as being selfish and harming the economy when you don’t spend enough. At some point even the most apolitical person will start to ask themselves: if stuff isn’t getting cheaper but rather the opposite, then how are we supposed to afford to do that, and why the fuck are we even supporting this system anymore?

And the irony of ironies is that what the liberal fairy tales promised us would be happening here if we just did enough capitalism is now happening in socialist China, and most decidedly NOT in the neoliberal West where inflation is rampant, a majority of people are in debt, and a considerable chunk of us are struggling just to deal with the costs of living.

At $1.80 per meal you could either eat for an entire year, or buy one Balenciaga t-shirt.

Idk about you lot but I know what I’m choosing.

This reads the exact same as whoever it was that said that price gouging and scalpers are good actually.

Everything you hate is actually good for you, and anything that you strive for is actually bad for you. Just lick the boot and be happy that it’s high quality leather, you little peon.

$1.80

$1.80 per meal is about 12.6 Yuan which is honestly a pretty normal lower range for food products in China, adjusted for wages it’s closer to US prices but still lower.

Actually due to inflation the cost for that meal is now 1.79.

The single obligatory downvote will never cease to make me wonder who the hell comes here just to downvote everything.

I’m a bit confused as to what they’re tangibly evaluating when they say “economy.” What is being hurt? What even does a “successful” economy look like to them?