Shrinkage

When Sarah Hoyt talked about the new normal she didn’t discuss just what that means.  Well, while it’s not a conspiracy, in order to keep the price point in inflation, many of the things that we buy for consumption have been shrinking for some time. Like ice cream containers.  Or package sizes in frozen foods.  And one thing that most people haven’t noticed, but probably should have, toilet paper.

Slowly but surely, toilet paper rolls have been shrinking.

Toilet paper squares, the individual sheets that connect to make each roll, were once 4.5 inches wide and 4.5 inches long. That standard, however, has shifted, or at the very least loosened its grip on the industry, to a point where companies are selling sheets that are a half-inch shorter or thinner, or both.

A reader wrote in to a columnist at the Los Angeles Times saying he has noticed a roughly 26 percent reduction in the surface area of his toilet paper.

“The old standard for a single sheet of tissue was 4 and 1/2 by 4 and 1/2 inches, a nice square,” the reader wrote. “Some tissue companies have changed the length of the sheet to 4 inches, with a width of 4 1/2 inches, no longer a square.”

Others, including Consumer Reports, have noticed the trend, too. The consumer advocacy group said that rolls are becoming “narrower,” cardboard tubes are getting bigger, and sheets are shrinking in size and number. So toilet paper rolls might look the same at a first or even second or third glance, even though they carry less toilet paper.

But consumers are still paying the same price. Toilet paper sales have barely budged in recent years, but the value per weight has. In 2013, the unit price rose by 2 percent, after growing by nearly the same the year before, according to data from market-research firm Euromonitor.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/01/26/youre-going-to-have-to-spare-more-than-a-square-toilet-paper-is-shrinking/

http://www.npr.org/2015/01/28/382218337/yes-your-toilet-paper-squares-and-rolls-are-shrinking

It’s a slow shrink, making the stuff we use smaller to mask the fact that things are getting more expensive or trying to help people stretch their dollars. Still everyone of these things is a shrinkage in our standard of living.

Which is what the Progressive and the rest of the people in charge seem to want. Otherwise why else would we be constantly encourages to feel guilty about just about everything we consume or use.  The attacks are constant, ranging from attack on the cars we drive to well, toilet paper use.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/apr/23/musicnews.music

If Ms. Crow wants to reduce her usage of cleanliness materials I won’t have problem with that because it’s highly unlikely that I would be close enough to her to have deal with the stinky consequences and any health issues are likely to be hers and her partner’s.

Still, the bombardment of propaganda  from the likes of the ad council and various government agencies is endless. It also seems to be working.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3008044/Two-thirds-Americans-admit-feeling-guilty-failing-protect-planet-despite-aware-issues-ever.html

One thing to remember about feeling guilty about what you use and the environment is that the people prostelyzing you don’t.  If you worry about your “carbon footprint” just remember that Al Gore’s or Lenny Decaprio’s is 1000 or more larger than any impact that you could have and they obviously feel no guilt about.  while they are saying that yo should live in a smaller apartment, they live in houses with the square footage of football fields that require huge power plants to keep cool in the hot climates they like to live in.

What the swells are trying to do is make the rest of us Malthusian suckers, which never ends well for the rest of us.  There’s plenty of everything and nobody’s likely to run short of anything critical, so there’s no reason to accept a lower standard of living simply because some elitist who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth says so. If things are going to be so rough, why don’t they walk the walk, dump all their money and live the kind of lifestyle that they want the rest of us to.  Until I see Al or Lenny flying coach and living in studio apartments, I’m not going to feel any guilt about anything involving the lifestyle that I have.  It’s time we just told the nannies to shut up and lived the lives that we earn again.

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