Have you recently felt this way – everything is quietly getting more expensive? Toothpaste used to cost a few bucks, but now a tube casually goes for thirty or forty; children's toothpaste can sell for over a hundred; shampoo with some anti-hair loss function suddenly costs dozens or hundreds more, getting pricier the more you wash, and you find your hair getting sparser; floral water used to cost four bucks a bottle when we were kids, but now even on platforms like Pinduoduo it’s over ten; cigarettes are even more outrageous, with 'daily cigarettes' that used to be a few bucks now all going for over ten; and sanitary napkins don’t even need mentioning, a few pieces can cost dozens, making you wince when you buy them. The same products are getting downgraded by manufacturers, and it’s easy to spend a hundred bucks for a month’s supply.

More ironically, things like houses and cars that everyone can’t afford are decreasing in price, while utilities, marinated snacks, bread, and small snacks that we use daily are soaring in cost. Buying a small sweet potato costs ten, and ordering marinated snacks weighs in at ninety-nine point nine; the rising prices are making people question life.

But the key point is – this wave of price increases is not an accident, but a policy direction. In May this year, the statistics bureau hinted: too low prices will drag down businesses, compress profits, and suppress employment; in August, the central bank directly made 'promoting reasonable price recovery' its top goal, though most people didn’t realize what that meant. As a result, three months later, water bills, electricity bills, subway ticket prices, and tuition fees are all on the rise, with CPI climbing for six consecutive months, making the entire society gently raise prices.

The logic is actually very simple: if prices can’t go up, businesses can’t make money, which means they can only lower wages and lay off workers; if businesses aren’t making money, ordinary people also can’t earn money, and everyone will be even more reluctant to spend, making the economy colder. Only by allowing things to 'rise gently a little' can businesses feel there’s profit to be made, willing to expand production and hire, and then everyone can afford to spend, allowing this cycle to move.

But the most awkward thing is, large consumer spending isn’t increasing, while the prices of necessities are soaring the most. When capital can’t move in the high-end market, it will reach into the areas with the least choice – people’s livelihoods.

So the real question isn’t 'Will there be increases?', but –

Can we avoid constantly raising necessities and let non-essentials bear a bit more of the cost?