Inflation!

February 17th, 2024| Topic: RaMbLeS | 4

The annual inflation rate for the United States was 3.1% for the 12 months ending January, compared to the previous rate of 3.4%, according to U.S. Labor Department data published on last week.

If you were wondering about “inflation,” here’s the International Monetary Fund to help you out:

Inflation is the rate of increase in prices over a given period of time. … Inflation represents how much more expensive the relevant set of goods and/or services has become over a certain period, most commonly a year.”

Well, folks, one key piece of evidence: the tooth fairy’s charges.

So saith the Wall Street Journal. Journalist Serena Ng reported that when Kokoa Lawson’s daughter was about to lose her first baby tooth, Ms. Lawson wanted to make the tooth fairy experience magical and extra special for her only child. So she gave her daughter a $100 bill decorated with glitter and tiny removable rhinestones.

Holy molar!

Said Lawson, 40, of Temecula, CA, who works as a model and actress:

My daughter kinda lost her mind when she found it. But some cousins were jealous about the tooth-fairy haul. I simply said to their parents, ‘This is just what our tooth fairy does,’ and I suggested that they make it special in their own way for their kiddos.”

But Lawson learnt her lesson that such tooth-fairy productions can add up. The parsimonious dental spirit donated only $20 for subsequent teeth. (That’s called “deflation.”)

But It’s not only the tooth-fairy’s gifts that have been inflated.

Ms. Ng in the Wall Street Journal:

Global Pinterest searches were up for ‘potty-training rewards ideas’ (100%), ‘end-of-year school party ideas’ (90%), and ‘my first tooth party’ (40%) between 2021 and 2023.”

A poll last year by Delta Dental, a large U.S. provider of benefits, pegged the average payout per lost tooth at a record $6.23, from $5.36 in 2022: a 16 per cent inflation. That same poll also found that 20 percent of children now receive both money and something else for each lost tooth.

Mark Burhenne, 64, of Napa Valley, CA, a former practicing dentist who runs AsktheDentist.com, explained:

Cash, a videogame, sometimes an iPhone. It’s the parents competing to improve the gifts.”

In the U.K. Chidera Nig, 32, said the tooth fairy gave her daughter 60 British pounds, equivalent to $76.50, and a silver fairy necklace, along with a Louis Vuitton bracelet. Wow!

Said Ms. Nig:

Childhood goes by so fast and we believe in cherishing every moment, celebrating milestones and creating long-lasting memories.”

Not because he lost a tooth, or because God the Father was a tooth fairy, but this is what the latter intends to give his Son:

Ask of Me, and I will give
the nations as Your inheritance,
and as Your possession, the ends of the earth.
You [the Anointed Son = Jesus] will break them with a rod of iron,
like a vessel of a potter You will shatter them.’”
Psalm 2:8–9

But the curious thing here is that Psalm 2:9 is quoted again in the New Testament, in the mouth of Jesus himself:

“The one who overcomes, and the one who keeps my deeds until the end
[i.e., believers who have lived faithfully unto Christ],
I will give to him authority over the nations;
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are shattered.”
Revelation 2:26–27

What God says the Anointed/King/Son/Son will do is exactly what Jesus says his followers will do, when we, his people, reign with him! Talk about a gift!

Take that, inflation-affected tooth-fairy afficionado$!

SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal