How commoners can cope with inflation

The cost of meat has soared considerably, as well, but not to worry, porridge is good for you! Simply replace your Sunday pot roast with a bowl of lentil and bean soup.

Though her column didn’t mention it, some think now is also a good time to try another alternative to meat: edible bugs!

Unlike cows and pigs, raising edible insects requires a fraction of the land, water and other resources. Bugs are cold-blooded invertebrates. They are efficient. Much more of the food they eat is converted into edible bug body parts than is the case with our friends the cows.

Cows are warm-blooded vertebrates. They need to consume lots of food just to keep their body temperature steady. Their food is grown on farms. Fossil fuels must be burned to harvest, process and transport that food. Farming requires lots of land and water.

In other words, inflationary pressures offer a great opportunity to explore new delicacies, such as Bug Wellington and Bug Tartare.

Were you among the millions of Americans who got a pet during covid? I am. I was blessed to be joined by my best buddy ever, Thurber the yellow Labrador.

But being a plebe, the column suggests, I probably didn’t think things through and I’d be wise to “rethink those costly pet medical needs.”

That is, if it comes down to Thurber getting a pricy medical treatment to save his life, maybe it’s better to just let the little guy suffer on to an untimely end — because pet medical procedures are best paid for by people earning $300,000 or more per year.

I know I am just a commoner, but I, too, have some ideas on how to beat inflation.

I’m going to vote the dummies out of office whose inane government spending policies are directly causing the value of our money to erode.

And when they lose their taxpayer-funded paychecks, I’ll gladly point them to the least expensive places to get edible bug soup.

Tom Purcell is an author and humor columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Email him at Tom@TomPurcell.com.