CSR Idea: inferior goods made better and price regulated

"Inferior goods" is the business or economic term for those things you'd
rather not buy. They're the no frills, cheap products at the bottom of a
product line in a supermarket.

This particular idea is about food. This is something essential to
everyone and essential for a longer life. It can't be reused or recycled.

I've been so poor (and drug addicted) that I used to spend £10 a week on
food. I know exactly what that's like. It's desiring to spend a few more
pence on a can of beans but having to make do with the worst, most
tasteless opinion. It's working out that for £1.50 I could make a 1500
calorie meal: 3 value pies with value meatballs poured on top then
microwaved.

The supermarket oligarchy cut back on everything in the manufacturing
process to make sure there's a decent margin on inferior goods. They
want people to buy products that cost more. Anyone with the money would
want to do that to. The tasteless value options are full of chemicals
and devoid of nutrition but the poor have no option but to eat what most
people who campaign for the poor wouldn't touch with a barge pole.

As people get poorer more and more will buy inferior goods. Fewer will
buy the standard or premium range. To protect their profits the
supermarket oligarchy will raise the price of the cheapest goods as more
earners become non-earners. The very poorest will find their food cost
going up significantly. Many will be so poor that they'll have to cut
back on food. There's no cheaper option for them.

If the supermarkets sold the cheap, essential food items at near cost
(say +10%, and this is total cost rather than unit cost) this could
ensure the poor live longer. My thinking is simplistic on this issue.
More food means people live longer (plus the rest of Maslov's heir achy
of needs as well but I'm still working on the other ones). Ensuring the
poor don't end up starving in this way will save lives. Adding vitamins
to the inferior food goods would be a very easy and effective way to
increase life expectancy across the nation during this crisis. It will
mean in 10 or 20 years healthcare costs will be significantly less be
cause less people will be ill. The economy will be in a better state
because more people will be able to work and work longer. I have no idea
if I've worked out the economics right but I think I'm right on the
healthcare side of things.

A single manufacturer could do this but they won't. It takes the
industry doing it. Either through corporate social responsibility or
through legislation the oligarchy need to do this to save many lives.