this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2024
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Between groceries and restaurants, Americans are spending more of their income on food than they have in 30 years.

That's according to the latest data from the USDA, which shows that U.S. consumers spent more than 11% of their disposable income on eating — whether at home or at a restaurant — in 2022, the highest percentage since 1991.

"This is really a metric that's about the share of our disposable personal income which the USDA tracks, and which recently was at essentially a 31-year high," Jesse Newman, food reporter for the Wall Street Journal, told CBS News.

Experts say painfully high food prices, and ongoing inflation more generally, help explain why many Americans are down on the economy despite low unemployment, rising wages and steady economic growth. Inflation is expected to continue slowing this year, with the National Association for Business Economists on Monday forecasting that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) — a basket of common goods and services — will decline to an annual rate of 2.4% this year, compared with 4.1% in 2023 and 8% in 2022.

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 6 months ago

Honestly, Americans could stand to eat a little less than they have been. Like yes, skipping dessert. Americans gained what, an average of 40 pounds during the pandemic? And those pounds never went away either. Personally, I went from 165 to 180. >:(

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago

I barely remember the H.W. Bush recession. I didn't remember this aspect of it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I'm curious what the long term health affects of this are going to be as people are forced to eat less and less. Yes, it may help with obesity, but what about malnutrition? I'm overweight, but I've lost a fuck ton of weight in the last year from not being able to afford food and I'm at the point where it's not uncommon to go a day or 3 without eating. And it's only going to get worse for me. I just went to the grocery store today and bought food for the first time in a month and some sandwich fixings/bread, a pound of chicken, 2 tomatoes, a container of greens and two small bags of snacks cost over $50. Hopefully I can stretch that for a few weeks.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago

I'm so sorry for what you're going through. Check out local food banks - they typically don't ask questions and you can go to multiple food banks if you need to. Good luck to you.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago

And here I am just stealing more food than ever.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

In case you don't understand who you should actually be mad about here, it's not fucking inflation when (the 6 remaining) food companies are making record profits, and have been for 3 years now.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Gee, I wonder what could be causing this?

“There are other factors that contribute to inflation that have not received enough attention. One of those factors is extreme price hikes — in other words, companies raising prices far more than required to offset higher costs even when accounting for shifts in supply and demand, resulting in the highest profit margins we have ever seen in the last 70 years,”

https://thehill.com/business/3756457-corporate-profits-hit-record-high-in-third-quarter-amid-40-year-high-inflation/

[–] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago

Yup. Nothing like decades of GQP policies allowing companies to create what are essentially monopolies. Merger after merger without government intervention means competition is dying and companies can and do charge whatever they want.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 6 months ago (3 children)

I'm not rich but I do pretty well, and I honestly cannot understand how the vast majority of people can afford to eat dinner. We try to eat mostly fresh, home cooked foods and it costs a fucking fortune.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It probably depends on where you live. Our groceries got cheaper this year compared to last, so that's cool.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Yes but "cheaper this year" is still absurdly high compared to before the pandemic and we never got any increase in wages during that time.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

I find cutting meat makes a massive difference

[–] [email protected] 33 points 6 months ago (1 children)

You should try eating shitty ultra-processed foods instead. They're much cheaper.*

*"Cheaper" only refers to cost of food and does not in any way refer to increased health-care costs related to poor diet.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

My experience has been the exact opposite...the processed stuff in boxes has gone way up in price, but most of our produce has stayed pretty stable. Fresh berries have gotten a lot more expensive, but we just get frozen ones which are much cheaper. Seems like we're always able to find great deals on melons, oranges, avocados, carrots, zucchini, etc. All hail HEB

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