Originally published at: Item-by-item chart to see how much more expensive your groceries are due to inflation | Boing Boing
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The changes have been noticable enough that I’ve reverted to price watching and bargain shopping in the supermarket in a way that I haven’t in a long time. I’m saying this from a privileged position, and would assume this is making life mch more difficult for people of more limited means and pensioners on fixed incomes.
Part of me wonders if we in the West have reached the end of goods supporting the lower tiers of Maslow’s pyramid being relatively cheap compared to other historical eras. Housing, fuel, and food prices seem to be getting out of reach for too many people again.
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That’s great! Now where’s the chart for 2020, when prices for food actually started going up? The way this chart is set up, it appears the “journalist” intends to frame inflation as something Biden created rather than truthfully expose inflation as a problem Biden inherited.
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A few years ago, Ms. Pane and I noticed that we weren’t paying as much attention to the grocery budget. It was the first time in 20+ years that we weren’t measuring it to the penny, planning meals, etc etc etc. We chalked this up to her successful private practice, and congratulated ourselves.
We’re back to price watching, bargain shopping, etc etc. The sad thing is that we make more now than we did then. Not much, but the fact that we do, and that we’re backsliding financially, is very depressing.
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Half of the crap on the list, you shouldn’t be eating, inflation is doing you a favor. I think…
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I didn’t read that as a journalist with an agenda to take down Biden, as it didn’t even mention the administration or government policy at all. And government statistics do indicate that the consumer price index really has gone up more in 2021 and 2022 than it did in 2020.
This isn’t just an American phenomenon, as inflation is up by similar levels globally. I hate Trump and he did lots of damage but it would be silly to pin the current high inflation rate all on one administration, or even one country.
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I’m good with a 70 / 30 percent split with tRump Co. taking the 70% end.
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These, and buying fresh foods or buying in bulk, aren’t necessarily onerous or negative habits either. The problem is that they’re unavailable to a lot of people, especially those who live in small apartments in food deserts and don’t have a whole lot of time or energy to cook.
Yes. That perception, especially on the part of people who (like you and I) had the luxury of easing up on being household budget hawks, can lead to real 1970s-style societal malaise (without the comfort and hope of the post-war economic anomaly to fall back on).
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Seriously… Donuts, frozen fried chicken, spam, Chips Ahoy, ice cream and soda??? Just don’t buy that crap.
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A minute on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.
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For sure. We’re still very lucky, and in our backsliding we’re still ahead of most.
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Well of course. Contrary to actual facts, the Democrats ruin the economy and it’s up to the thrifty GOP to “save” it… by cutting taxes so they can justify gutting programs we all need to live in a society.
Sure… pointless tax cuts for corporations that allow for the growth of CEO salaries and stock buy backs, while those same corporations raise prices on consumers whose pay haven’t meaningfully increased since the 70s played absolutely no role in the current economy… /s
See above.
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I’m just going to leave this Orwell quote from Road to Wigan Pier here.
Would it not be better if they spent more money on wholesome things like oranges and wholemeal bread or if they even, like the writer of the letter to the New Statesman, saved on fuel and ate their carrots raw? Yes, it would, but the point is that no ordinary human being is ever going to do such a thing. The ordinary human being would sooner starve than live on brown bread and raw carrots. And the peculiar evil is this, that the less money you have, the less inclined you feel to spend it on wholesome food. A millionaire may enjoy breakfasting off orange juice and Ryvita biscuits; an unemployed man doesn’t. Here the tendency of which I spoke at the end of the last chapter comes into play. When you are unemployed, which is to say when you are underfed, harassed, bored, and miserable, you don’t want to eat dull wholesome food. You want something a little bit ‘tasty’. There is always some cheaply pleasant thing to tempt you.
Now they’re all a lot less cheap, including the oranges and raw carrots.
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Sorry, but I don’t believe I’m being morally superior by saying that ice cream, cookies and soda should not be on anyone’s shopping list regardless of income.
I guess the working class people who live in food deserts can eat rocks and dirt then… /s
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A world where no one has the right or expectation to enjoy the occasional ice cream is a world I don’t want to live in.
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Indeed. We don’t have to indulge in absolutes. “Sometimes” is better than “never” when it comes to things like soda and ice cream.
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I’m less concerned with that, and more concerned that there are places in the US where people have literally NO access to healthy food, because their choices for shopping are the Dollar Store or a gas station. But those people are, apparently, morally inferior if they don’t find a way to ride miles out of their way between their 2 or 3 jobs to get fresh food for their kids and then spend an hour or more cooking it. Or if they don’t find a way to live in a neighborhood that has those things, but that they can’t afford.
It’s really fucking irritating for people to miss that very salient point, that there are plenty of reasons why people can’t eat fresh food (much less vegan, organic food), and it’s not because they are bad people or they who don’t know better. They can’t ACCESS healthier options, and pretending like the whole world has the choice to just hop down to the local grocery store and get fresh veggies is really just some next level bullshit.
But god forbid we inject some facts and a little fucking empathy for the working poor here. After all, as the GOP has told us, those people are poor because they CHOOSE to be, not because the system is entirely stacked against them. /s
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Which, along with the corner bodega/deli or convenience stores, are not cheap options on a measured-quantity and/or quality basis, either. American late-stage capitalism is based to an ever-increasing degree on finding ways to put the squeeze on those who can least afford it.
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No, but it’s nearby and it’s what people CAN afford. Adding traveling costs on top of the costs of buying food increases the cost considerably.
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