Want to boost demand? Households need fatter wallets, not thinner ones. Yet here's the paradox: the system keeps saying demand is weak—everyone sees it—but refuses to pull the demand lever. Instead, it doubles down on supply-side fixes. The result? Widening the cracks it's trying to patch. You can pump more goods into the market, cut costs, optimize production all you want, but if people's pockets are empty, nothing moves. It's like pushing on a rope. The real gap between what policymakers admit and what they actually do reveals how trapped the system is. Addressing weak demand means redistributing purchasing power, which challenges too many entrenched interests. So we get band-aids on a structural wound—and the contradictions just compound.