Keynes was aware of the inflation problem.

And deflation (he published his General Theory in 1936).

The US had a balanced budget in 2001, after decades of most people claiming that was impossible. The problem with a balanced budget is we all have to live in the real world. The actual real world that you can measure, not each individual's theoretical world of choice.

But stories are much more fun than data, and we put everything on the credit card, and here we are.

Agreed. And driving 95mph is not a problem as long as there aren't any tricky situations hidden a few miles down the road.

There's seldom any problem when you're still driving at 95mph - it's slowing down (the sudden slowdowns are the worst) that's problematic

Great point. Almost by definition, as long as we're going 95mph in a straight line, we're still ok. But some alarmist passenger might get emotional anyway. (Sigh. People are people.)

A ratio (e.g. 100%) of quantities expressed in different units can be useful. "How many years of GDP is the debt?"

Miles per gallon is another example. It's a useful number.

But keep in mind the demographics of chat. 80% of the commenters are much smarter and more knowledgeable than the other 80%.

I think it can. In extreme cases (say grad school) I've had books and "book learnin'" suck the life out of my life.

"All I can do is read a book to stay awake And it rips my mind away but it's a great escape." - Blind Melon

Harness the power of Bayes' Theorem to achieve your personal goals!

Hard to say. They're much cheaper per pound than ground beef here in the Northeast.

Shouldn’t protein be expected to be more expensive?

I dunno. If people eat hamburger on a bun, we approve. If they eat avocado on toast, we disapprove. That's a luxury item. Ok.

It’s just a meme, no serious person disapproves of avocados due to price. However, both avocados and meat are higher priced foods that would be foregone in the event of a cash crunch.

I hear you. No serious person disapproves of avocados due to price. However at $1.00 to $2.50 a pound they are a higher-priced food. Another higher-priced food is meat at $6-$20 a pound.

Conscientious shoppers, or those in a cash crunch, might do better with simple, inexpensive foods. For example canned beans cost only $1-$1.50 a pound.

Right. We just need to kill off three key unrealistic expectations: democracy, medical care, and avocados. Once we relax and give up on those three things, we'll be happy again.

It's not meaningless if you try it.

I invite you to read my entire comment. It really is meaningless without anything even approaching proper proportions.

I read your entire comment, thanks. But you didn't write anything about trying it.

Also, why not reflect on the nature of fish sauce and the nature of tomato sauce? Does that give you any ideas about what ratio might be edible? Any constraints at all on what might be worth trying?

Trying it or not (I have) doesn't make OP's comment any more meaningful or less worthy of a downvote.

The fact that you have to focus on moving the conversation away from the the point and are trying to move the conversation towards incorrect assumptions and "the nature of tomato sauce" is telling.