Something has got to give. Electricity tariffs are up, so are those for water. And those pesky e-toll bills are not going to go away any time soon. We are paying more for petrol. Load-shedding is leaving us more in the dark than we think.Just look at Stats SA's quarterly statistics - power outages and fuel costs are hurting mining and manufacturing badly. Production in both sectors has fallen, resulting in turnover decreases of 6.5% and 28% respectively. Five other key industries have recorded similar drops. These are the biggest decreases in turnover since 2010.As if that were not bad enough, South Africa has lost 44000 white-collar jobs since the beginning of the year - office workers and other middle-income earners.Youth unemployment increased between 2008 and the first quarter of this year, and more young people have given up looking for work.For those in formal employment, average wage increases have been in the single digits for the past few years. This year they were in the region of 7%, but inflation is at 4.6%. So, in real terms, salary increases have been about 2.4% - not much in the context of rising rates for homeowners and recurrent fuel price increases.The number of South Africans applying for debt review has shot up by nearly 30% a month since December.It's unsustainable. The middle class, on whose backs the country runs, is taking too much strain.But the government appears oblivious to the crisis: where are the plans to arrest rising costs and bring relief to overburdened South Africans?The time for platitudes is past. South Africans want to get their hands dirty to make the country work, as is evident in the plethora of social investment projects and the mushrooming of the small businesses that create jobs. The government should create an environment that encourages this.Keeping the lights on would be a good start. Containing rising costs would be another...