Should we all get 40% raises?
Given the $$ printed by the fed, and the fact that the Austin city council raised their salaries by 40%, should we all either supply or ask for a 40% raise to combat inflation?
If they got a 10% raise last year and if their "compensation" was already in line with other similar jobs then clearly a 40% raise is ludicrous. If they have not had a raise in 20 years, perhaps it was high time they got a 40% increase.
Maybe you could add more local context for us (assuming you are from the Austin area).
Also some of the effects are temporary or one time. For instance the supply chain problems are still going on. Different things are out of stock from what were out of stock a year ago, but the effects are severe. Most notably a person who can’t get the $40,000 car they want is not going to spend that $40,000 on something else.
The Trump administration also slapped a 20% tariff on imports from China which obviously makes many things more expensive.
If people try to get around this by wage increases they could transform an 8% one time price increase to an 8% price increase every year. We’ve got the current advantage that people haven’t complete acquiesced to inflationary psychology. When you go to McDonalds and see a Big Mac meal costs more than $10 you might think ‘crap I can’t afford that!’, an attitude that will drive prices back down. If you'd lived with high inflation for 10 years you might not slow down your consumption faced with high prices and worse, think ‘I better buy that now because it will be more expensive later’, which accelerates inflation.