When scanning through the news of recent weeks searching for the theme of this article, I cannot help being struck by the frequent appearance of the word "inflation". Around us prices are rising, and they are rising fast. Our all-round daily spending, especially that on food and transportation seems to be on an upward spiral.

Various academic disciplines have their own definitions for inflation, and I will give you mine here. It is the general scrambling for the same amount of resources in an ever-expanding pie. In a relatively stable price environment everybody knows his share, but under inflation you are not sure what you are going to get. The only thing you know is that if you do not fight for a bigger share you are going to lose out.

Yes, you are right: There is going to be a lot more in-fighting among us. And the politicians know it too and they will scramble to be among the first to make the most use of it to win the up-coming elections, for if they don't the opposing side will.

Business, because it can seemingly set prices, appears to be the chief villain. The price hikes of public utilities despite their profitability in particular serve to reinforce the public perception of government-business collusion. Every time you get on the bus and pay with your e-card you will be infuriated by the higher number indicated on the console. And that happens many times a day.

This is not to mention rocketing property prices. With inflation eating into their daily expenditure and their meager savings shrinking by the day, the hope among the younger generation of owning their own homes one day evaporates even further. The natural question that will crop up in these young minds is: Why can they afford this and get even richer on the way, while I slave for nothing? Then you can understand why some of them chose to take to the street. More to come...

For the more sophisticated of our our readers here, we can appreciate this is the result of the Western world spending beyond their means, and we are forced by their ass-saving policies to foot part of their bill. They are the ultimate bad guys and are the ones to be protested against. But to the people in the street anger is directed against the rich and powerful and the government.

The author is a member of the Commission on Strategic Development.

(HK Edition 07/19/2011 page3)