Posted on 12/08/2023 9:45:12 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Do you believe the politicians in Washington or do you believe your own eyes?
The politicians keep telling us that “inflation is low”, but everyone can see that everything sure does cost a lot more than it once did. Our standard of living just keeps going down, and even JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is admitting that “inflation is hurting people”. But how can inflation be “hurting people” if it is under control? Of course the truth is that it isn’t under control. If the official rate of inflation was still measured using the formula that was in place in 1980, it would be well into double digit territory right now. Prices have been rising much faster than paychecks have, and that is putting an extraordinary amount of financial stress on the more than 60 percent of U.S. adults that currently live paycheck to paycheck.
Vox is a website that leans very far to the left, and even they are complaining about inflation.
In fact, a recent article posted on Vox boldly declared that life in 2023 “means being in a constant state of sticker shock”…
Life in 2023 means being in a constant state of sticker shock.
You walk out of the grocery store feeling like you’re not really sure what happened, but somehow, your normal fare ran you $50 more than you swear it should have. Did Diet Coke always cost that much? Or eggs? Maybe you’ve been putting off buying that new car in the hope prices go back to where they were pre-pandemic, but you’re starting to feel like the wait is awfully long. Or, the morning after a post-work happy hour, you’re left scratching your head. You swear you had two glasses of wine, but the size of your credit card receipt makes you wonder if it wasn’t four. “How expensive everything is today” is a top theme of conversation. The whole situation can be infuriating.
I don’t care for Vox much, but those two paragraphs are quite accurate.
Prices have reached absurd heights, and most of us really are “in a constant state of sticker shock” these days.
And the cold, hard numbers back this up.
According to a report from Republican members of the U.S. Senate Joint Economic Committee, the typical household in this country “must spend an additional $11,434 annually” in order to have the same standard of living that it did when Joe Biden entered the White House…
The typical American household must spend an additional $11,434 annually just to maintain the same standard of living they enjoyed in January of 2021, right before inflation soared to 40-year highs, according to a recent analysis of government data.
So let me ask you a question.
Has your household income gone up by $11,434 a year since January 2021?
If you are like most Americans, your income has barely moved.
As I discussed last week, half of all American workers made less than $40,847.18 last year.
If you are one of those workers, life is not easy in 2023.
Even really basic things just cost so much at this point. For example, a Big Mac value meal will now set you back 18 dollars in some parts of the country…
A Big Mac burger, a medium beverage, and a medium fry meal now costs 18 dollars in some locations, up $10 from 2018 when former President Donald Trump was president.
Visiting McDonald’s has become something that only wealthy people can afford to do on a regular basis.
Of course it isn’t just fast food that has become painfully expensive…
A pound of ground beef now costs $5.23 on average, up from $3.89 in January 2020.
Coffee is up some $2 a pound. Prices for fresh fruits and vegetables are nearly 14% higher.
At one point, the price of a carton of eggs was triple its pre-pandemic price.
When I was growing up, my mother would feed us ground beef all the time.
Now it is considered to be a luxury item.
Let me give you another example of how inflation is killing us financially.
The cost of auto insurance and the cost of home insurance are both going through the roof…
The skyrocketing cost of auto and home insurance is increasingly weighing on cash-strapped Americans.
In 2022, the average price of both types of insurance saw its biggest spike in more than five years.
And this year rates are projected to grow by an even greater amount, according to analysis from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Within the first seven months, both had already jumped by double-digit amounts.
When you combine both expenses, the average American household is now spending over $3,700 a year…
According to the latest analysis from Forbes Advisor, the average cost of home insurance is $1,582 a year for a policy with $350,000 coverage. And typical motorist pays $2,150 a year for full coverage car insurance.
That means on car and home insurance alone a household can expect to spend more than $3,700 a year.
How can anyone afford that?
And don’t get me started on health insurance.
Our system is so broken that only those with lots of money can afford a decent health insurance policy that actually has adequate coverage.
Needless to say, Joe Biden doesn’t want to take the blame for any of this. Last week, he was accusing large corporations of “price gouging”…
President Joe Biden delivered remarks from the White House on Monday to announce the new council’s creation. He touted the lower inflation rate and falling grocery prices but admonished American companies for, in his view, not going far enough.
“Let me be clear: To any corporation that has not brought their prices back down—even as inflation has come down, even as supply chains have been rebuilt—it’s time to stop the price gouging,” Biden warned, imploring them to “giv[e] the American consumer a break.”
Seriously?
Other liberals are actually blaming you for inflation…
People hate inflation, just not enough to spend less: This is one of the central tensions of today’s economy, in which things are going great yet everyone is miserable. And in some ways, Americans have nobody to blame but themselves.
No matter how high prices go, most of us still have to pay the bills and put food on the table.
So there is only so much that we can “cut back” on our spending.
However, one recent survey did find that approximately a quarter of the U.S. population has been engaged in “doom spending”…
Nearly all Americans, 96%, are concerned about the current state of the economy, according to a recent report by Intuit Credit Karma.
Still, more than a quarter are “doom spending,” or spending money despite economic and geopolitical concerns, the report found.
A lot of people figure that if everything is about to fall apart they may as well enjoy things while they still can.
But I think that a much wiser approach would be to use the resources that you have to get prepared for the tremendous chaos that is ahead of us.
Economic conditions are going to get a whole lot rougher from here.
So enjoy these relatively stable times while you still can, because they will not last indefinitely…
* * *
-PJ
All sarcasm aside, I bet a fair number in this country do just that.
Because of the shortages in the last few years, I started paying a little attention to food futures so that I could stock up on canned goods ahead of big price jumps.
My anticipating prices did help a little in leading me to stock up on various meat products and coffee, if I thought beef would be going up then canned stew, canned chili, etc was the thing, canned chicken and canned chicken foods were something I stocked up on, same with canned vegetables.
It is nice to see cases of spam bought at $1.87 per 12 ounce can or Dinty Beef Stew for $1.91 for the 20 ounce can, or cases of canned chili bought at super low prices and that goes for all the related products, the meat-based soups, all the canned chicken products and such.
Thankfully the adults are in charge. John Kerry said we need to destroy farms and Gavin Newsom believes windmills will produce green electricity for the country( along with Joey B).
We must believe our elected leaders because they would never ever do bad things to American’s. Look how well they vaxesd and boosted and killed non essential businesses.
Give them a few more years. Send your children to Ukraine and feed 8-9,000,000 illegals...just believe.
Amen
...”People hate inflation, just not enough to spend less:...”
Kind of hard to spend less when everything costs more.
My homeowners insurance just went up 380%, with not one claim in 12 years. Liberty Mutual says that’s because the value of my home more than doubled. It has not. Everyone is on the inflation band wagon.
I know I will sound like a contrarian, but it’s good that your insurance company is increasing the value of your home. Home prices have skyrocketed and if you were to lose yours, you would not be able to purchase a similar home or rebuild at the rates from just a few years ago. Also, your contents coverage also increases as the home value increases, giving you more money to purchase whatever may have been lost.
As a Risk Manager, being underinsured is the first fail point in any recovery plan.
“ Maybe it should be called “apocalyptic spending.”
Local fried chicken house:
Small breast, small leg, fried okra, small roll, drink/$8.99 plus tax.
Over $9 for what cost less than $5 when Trump was President.
Thats just one example of inflation.
Mine has gone up as well, State Farm.
I was in our local car dealership yesterday and had a look at a few sticker prices...what a shock. My truck is 6 years old and the same truck has more than doubled in price. I can remember when my grandparents sold an 80 acre farm and house for less money.
Uncle Sam quit counting energy and food costs when computing the Consumer Price Index back in the Boi Clinton ‘90s. Social Security would have gone insolvent by now if they hadn’t started cooking the books back then. The real inflation rate (with energy and food counted) is probably as bad as, or worse than, the Carter era.
99 cents for Campbell’s soup 🍲🍲🍲 went to $2.26 under Biden (WalMart)
0.84 white bread 🍞🍞🍞 now $1.34
0.84 two liters pop now 1.38 or so
3-1/2 pound ham was almost $25 name brand
Great job, Democrats. Thanks a lot.
Yep.
BidenDepression 2023 / Spring, 2024
War - Inflation
The Great Reset
Globalism
Mine went up about $860 dollars in one year, from ~$2350 to ~$3210. That’s about 37 percent, and I’m not the only one, apparently.
Dunno how that’s good for the consumer in the long run. The companies can use their Blackrock overvaluations all they want*, but if lots of people drop their policies, the companies ultimately lose as well.
*Blackrock is infamous for buying homes at up to 3 times the list price and then making them into rentals. You will own nothing, etc.
But, is anyone complaining about the value of their home going up? Inflation is so much worse for the poor and less affluent. Congrats politicians, we're gonna get more of those people in the future.
BIDENOMICS: when 1990 “Home Alone” tyke, Macauley Culkin, bought a half gallon of milk, a half gallon of orange juice, a TV dinner, bread, frozen mac and cheese, laundry detergent, cling wrap, toilet paper, a pack of army men toys, and dryer sheets it cost $19.83.
Last year, the same grocery list cost $44.40,
and this year, the same items cost a whopping $72.28.
I’ve seen the prices of some things go down a bit, but prices of everything still remain pretty high. Houses, used cars and rent is just crazy high.
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