Two adults arguing about the price of Weet-Bix in aisle four. I was just trying to get cereal. I ended up thinking about the whole country.
We were at the supermarket on Sunday. I was in charge of cereal, which is a job I take seriously.
In front of the Weet-Bix, two adults were having a very quiet, very intense argument. Not fighting. Just that grown-up voice where you can tell they've had this conversation before, probably in the car, probably three times.
One of them said, "It was nine dollars last month." The other one said, "It was not." The first one said, "It was. I remember because I said something." The second one said, "You always say something."
I stood there pretending to read the back of a box.
Here is the thing I noticed. They weren't really arguing about Weet-Bix. They were arguing about how tired they were. About the power bill. About the fact that the trolley was already at a hundred and forty dollars and they hadn't even hit the fruit yet.
Cost of living isn't a number on the news. It's a small argument in aisle four that isn't really about cereal.
I don't have a big point here. I just think when politicians talk about "the economy" like it's a chart, they're missing the actual thing. The actual thing is two people who love each other being a bit snippy in a supermarket because everything costs more than it used to and nobody has said sorry.
Anyway. I got the Weet-Bix. It was $8.49. Both of them were sort of right.