Eat lentils and let your pets die to beat US inflation, Bloomberg op-ed says

According to one American labour economist, it’s time to let your pet die of cancer and start eating more greens if you want to tackle inflation – advice which has since been mocked by users online.

The piece from Teresa Ghilarducci, published by Bloomberg last week but reshared to Twitter on Saturday, sees the writer offer up some ideas on “how to reconfigure consumption” and, in terms of inflation, “lessen the blow”.

Because killing your household pets will certainly do that - not.

Even the Twitter account for the US outlet’s opinion desk was aware of how bleak this all sounded, when it wrote that “nobody said this would be fun”.

Ms Ghilarducci’s piece reads: “To deal with gas prices, it’s worth reconsidering public transportation if it’s an option where you live.

“Meat prices have increased about 14 per cent from February 2021 and will go up even more. Though your palate may not be used to it, tasty meat substitutes include vegetables (where prices are up a little over 4 per cent, or lentils and beans, which are up about 9 per cent).

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“If you’re one of the many Americans who became a new pet owner during the pandemic, you might want to rethink those costly pet medical needs. It may sound harsh, but researchers actually don’t recommend pet chemotherapy - which can cost up to $10,000 - for ethical reasons.”

The word “harsh” doing some heavy lifting there, of course, as Twitter had some more brutal remarks to levy at the article and its writer:

The comments from Ms Ghilarducci come after The Guardian reported that inflation in America reached its highest level in 40 years in January. At the beginning of March, US president Joe Biden said there was a “choice” when it comes to tackling the economic challenge.

“The way to fight inflation is to drive down wages and make Americans poorer or have a better plan to fight inflation: lower costs and not your wages,” he said.

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