The Costs That Keep Going Up

You probably have noticed it.  It seems like everything is going up these days.

Every day almost it’s in the news.

Among the latest are city water rates in San Diego that will be going up.  Before that it was garbage fees, and before that, parking fees.

Add to those electric bills, grocery prices, restaurant prices, health care costs, home insurance rates, and streaming services, like Disney Plus, going up.

Is anything not going up? While average home prices and gas prices are not going up as quickly as they were, they’re not falling my much.

We all hear about the stock market going up and while that can be good, economists are worried that the boom may turn into a bust with large companies laying off large amounts of employees.

But then there is the news this week from Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, already announcing big price drops for Black Friday but also saying the cost of tariffs could affect what consumers decide to spend for the holidays.

The unknown factor is the continued federal government shutdown, now almost a full month long, and how being without paychecks for a while will end up affecting consumer spending and prices.

(Photo Getty Images)