Well gee, Mr. President. I'd like to be euphorically optimistic about your fattening wallet, but mine keeps getting skinnier.
Prices seem to be relative to the cost of fuel (Shipping) in some cases and as far as the citrus prices, that would be due to the freeze of last year. We are still trying to recover here in Citrus growing S. Calif.
Geez, is Bush out of touch with the reality of the working man. Food, gasoline, tobacco and home heating fuel have doubled in price in the past few years while blue collar jobs have taken a big hit in terms of both employment rates and wages. Fines, court costs and government fees have escalated dramatically. E.g., 8 years ago a septic tank installation permit was $50. Now its $500.00.
It seems the only people buoyed by the economy are stock brokers and government bureaucrats.
Not good.
Hmmmm, it seems they don't have a lock on the prices...
For me, Bell Peppers, Tomatoes, Squash, Beans, Potatoes, cucumbers, Eggplant 4 herbs are free for six months or more of each year. Gardens Rock!
I have no idea who to blame but it is obvious to anyone living on a retirement income as I am, that the cost of necessities has recently risen dramatically, and at a far faster rate than cost of living increases.
If a person is willing to eat beans and rice and cornbread then one can survive on almost nothing but just eating inexpensive meals has gotten very expensive.
I do remember when I was in college. My first four years I was on athletic scholarship and ate at the training table in additon to having other expenses covered. My last year, I had used up my eligibility and had to survive on a part time job.
I noticed that Wendys had a 99 cent salad bar and it had a large number of items including several types of ground or cubed meat. I would go in once a day and eat a huge amount of salad and dressings and drink water. Literally a huge meal for 99 cents.
I noticed a while back that they no longer have an unlimited salad bar, probably because too many people like me were surviving off it.
Dangerous pesticides and herbicides that have been banned for decades in the US are used liberally in most of the South and Central American countries and Mexico where so much of our winter fruit and produce is grown. Some of those chemicals have been proved to cause cancer in controlled tests, but the US allows foreign fruit and veggies treated with them to be sold here just as though they were grown under US regulations. Aint NAFTA just ducky?
AFAIC our health, and possibly our very lives, are more important to us than bargain prices for possibly dangerous or at least questionable food products from who knows where.
I read somewhere that the drought in much of the US this past summer has caused some of the increased food prices.
I’m sure there are several reasons for the increase, but there has definitely been an increase.
On a positive note, we can all still buy cheap Chinese crap at Walmart. What a relief./s
I thought all this illegal slave labor was warding off inflation. Or said said Linda Chavez at one time.
Excellent news. Time to diet.
The rise in cost of fuel for a 45,000 lb. load does not warrant such steep price hikes for the food carried in such a load.
And producing ethanol with corn is a bad move.
Mr. President, you personally have clouded my sense of optimism.
50 gallons of ethanol/acre. Sounds like a zero net gain to me.
I'm going to the fridge and see what else I can burn as fuel.
I have been saying this for months. I would hope Fred Thompson would get out into the stores and see what is happening because the rest of the political establishment is hurtfully disconnected.
Carolyn
During the Depression, food was expensive and housing was cheap. We may be headed back that way...
A couple weeks ago all prices for grain-based foods went up at the local supermarket. Way up. 20%
Shoppers were looking kind of confused. One lady grabbed her favorite bread without looking at the price—4$