Supply chains messed up, a war in the world’s breadbasket, Ever Given parked sideways, car owners very angry and cucumber costing six euros a kilo?!
Lately, there’s been a lot of discussion about inflation. In general, inflation is seen as an increase in prices. The rise in prices affects various consumer profiles in different ways. The most common segmentation is among all urban and rural residents. The metric for urban residents, C-CPI-U, would intuitively seem like a good fit when we’re considering the change in costs for students. Urban residents often live renting, use less energy directly, and use more services.
Students live in a very different world when it comes to costs. Students often live within housing foundations or in ARA housing, eat subsidized student meals, and use public transportation where long-term contracts prevent payment changes for consumers. It’s easy to feel that students are partially safe from the soaring costs of energy, rents, and construction. However, those who provide the services to us students are facing the turmoil of the world. If nothing changes, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to organize sustainable and profitable activities. For future generations of students, services that help and improve students’ daily lives must continue to exist at least to the same extent, so the difficulties experienced by our inflation breakwaters affect students.
What can a mere mortal do? When you think about our global dilemma, it’s easy to get the feeling of embarking on straight-up crusade against the windmills. It’s possible to make a difference – if only in your own life. As the differences in consumption profiles show, inflation does not treat everything equally even if it’s measured across the board. It’s possible to build an inflation resilient consumer profile of your own. Multidimensionally sustainable consumption choices aligning with the inevitable development of the planet will help to ensure that cargo ships sideways or consumption preferences with massive carbon footprints don’t burden the wallet of future you.
Voting and active citizenship are the primary means of intergenerationally sustainable economic policy.
