Inflationary Beatings Will Continue Until Consumer Confidence Improves

This idea that higher prices are going to disappear is wishful thinking.

Photo by Morgan Housel on Unsplash.

Wishful thinking is a funny thing. It gets us into a great deal of trouble and we don’t always know we’re doing it.

That’s too bad, too; because we are great at it.

Being so good at wishful thinking, and at covering it up with a nice veneer of rationalization, is what makes it such a problem for human beings. If we weren’t any good at rationalizing how our wishful thinking is not really wishful thinking it wouldn’t be a problem.

It is a logical fallacy to practice wishful thinking to a high degree, even though we are exceptionally good at it; equally illogical to be overly pessimistic about everything, though not as enjoyable.

For wishful, overly optimistic thinking to survive, it requires excellent rationalization skills.

We use rationalizations for logical fallacies all the time: “I went to the gym, so this cake doesn’t count,” or, “I’ve have a hard week, I’ll have that one extra drink I swore I wouldn’t have,” or, “I’ve been on-budget all day, I deserve to spend money I don’t have.”

Try to get through even one week without a good rationalization. It’s what makes the world go ‘round. Rationalization…