Ready For The Price Of Food To More Than Double By The End Of This Decade?

zero hedge ^ | 4/20/14 | Tyler Durden

[JRandomFreeper]

Everybody's got the big-screen TVs, the video games, the fancy cars and all those tablets, iPods and cell phones and whatnot.

No, not everyone does. Some of us do without running hot water.

I've lived the mid 1800s lifestyle without electricity, running water, and access to grocery stores. I did that for almost 2 years.

You might want to get out more, and meet some of the people on the ground. It's not like the neat little picture you paint.

/johnny

[Sherman Logan]

Just for fun, I figured out apples to apples comparison for food prices between 1960 and today.

Took median family income, divided by 2000 hours per year to get median hourly income, then figured number of minutes needed to pay for several different items in 1960 and 2014.

Median income 1960: $6600 = $3.30 /hour
Median income 2014: $30,000 = $15.00 / hour

Gallon of milk: 1960 – 19 minutes; 2014 – 16 minutes
Dozen eggs: 1960 – 10 minutes; 2014 – 8 minutes
Pound sirloin steak: 1960 – 17 minutes; 2014 – 28 minutes
Pound pork chops: 1960 - 20 minutes; 2014 - 15 minutes
Pound chicken: 1960 - 6 minutes; 2014 - 6 minutes
Gallon gasoline: 1960 – 6 minutes: 2013 – 15 minutes

BTW, I’m perfectly well aware it’s difficult to compare prices from one era to another. I think this one is as defensible as any, certainly more so than the bizarre inflation calculators on the web.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Time for the Delta Smelt to take one for Team USA

[SamAdams76]

I've lived the mid 1800s lifestyle without electricity, running water, and access to grocery stores. I did that for almost 2 years.

And you are posting to Free Republic how?

[JRandomFreeper]

Because I'm not living in the mountains now.

Don't get defensive, but reality on the ground isn't like your pretty little picture. There are American families living in tents.

/johnny

[Kackikat]

Historically speaking.
We do however live in the present and not the past, so people will think relative to now, not yesterday. We cannot pay the bills from yesterday, and cell phones are some people’s only phone.

Online now seems necessary for most people due to checking or savings accounts, and keeping up with long distance family. WE could live without it, but business keeps it difficult.

Video games aren’t necessary but most computers come with some downloaded...TV is expensive, if you don’t want all reruns. I could live without tv, cell, or online...but then I did when I was young....this generation hasn’t.

[Marcella]

“The Preppers are right. Time to stock up on those price inflated freeze dried meals.”

No, it's time to learn how to garden and do it. I started learning last year and now there is food growing in my container garden - grew most of it from seed. I'll have most of the foods listed in that article as being expensive.

You can have your own food and not depend on California to get water from the feds - how likely is California to get water??

Cocoa: Buy cocoa powder, not a mix, and store it (it's either with chocolate drinks or in the baking section of grocery). Doesn't take much powder to make hot chocolate. Here's a simple way to make hot chocolate:

Hot chocolate made using unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp. cocoa powder
2/3 cup of water
1/3 cup of milk (skim or other)
Sugar, other sweetener to your liking (or no sweetener)
Heat cocoa with water almost to boiling point, add milk and sweetener.

[GreyFriar]

Remember the EPA/Government/Greenie chant: It is better to grow corn for ethanol than it is to grow it to feed people and animals.

[SamAdams76]

It must be their choice then because there are tens of millions of people living on the welfare that my tax dollars pay for and in many cases, they live better than me - in terms of "leisure time" and not having the stress of a demanding career. And all their basic needs are provided for including health care. I had to recently get a catscan for a kidney stone and had to come up $400 as a "co-pay" when I know full well that welfare recipients get it for absolutely free and they can show up at the emergency room whenever they want and never have to worry about a thing.

So I guess my "compassion level" is at an all time low. Especially as I have to get up a 5am tomorrow to start another workweek while the welfare class relax at home and decide what TV show they are going to binge-watch next on Netflix.

[dragnet2]

Still, the price of food is extremely low historically speaking.

The problem is wages have been stagnate for 15+ years and the dollar becomes worth less all the time. This is kicking economic butt on the middle and lower income classes...All this while other products creep up and up.....Like gas...

[JRandomFreeper]

In your narrow north-eastern corridor world.

/johnny

[Balding_Eagle]

What actually happens with food shortages and price hikes is that the peasants usually kill their government.

Exactly. That has been the motivation behind the last 60 years of so called farm programs.

They were designed, very cleverly, to keep US food prices down. The programs have been very successful.

[Balding_Eagle]

If we stopped burning food for fuel (and it doesn’t reduce dependence on foreign oil, but does waste water), food prices would come down.

Corn prices are 60% of what they were a year ago. You'll have to find another boogieman.

[Balding_Eagle]

See post 53.

[Balding_Eagle]

You are correct, and here is some data to back up your assertions:

“the key is that as a percentage of disposable income food prices remain ridiculously cheap. Yes, they’ve gone up, and sure wages have gone down, but it’s all about perspective. Food prices aren’t a big crisis, at least in America.”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2616318/posts

[WilliamofCarmichael]

RE: The latest government to fall over bread prices was in Egypt.

But we did not fall.. we paid off the WWII debt lickety-split.

Now we pay off the Bush-Obama debt the same way.

Bread $40.00 a loaf. I do expect salaries to keep up. $200/hour?

[blam]

"I used to take two dollars to the store and come back with a loaf of bread, baking potatoes, salad makings, and steaks for dinner."

In 1965, in San Jose, California, at McDonalds, I got a hamburger, fries and a Coke for $0.18.

Anyway....

Real Inflation Fear - US Food Prices Are Up 19% In 2014

[JRandomFreeper]

There is a big difference between privation that is caused by government, and privation endured by a population for a popular cause like wiping out the Nazis.

Government caused privation has almost always resulted in the fall of the extant government.

I expect the Venezuelan government to swing from lamp-posts before too much longer.

/johnny

[TribalPrincess2U]

The only thing left is to become like the entitlement crowd and that’s 0bama’s end goal.

[blam]

Here Are The Countries That Spend The Most On Food