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.
I really wish the media would stop spouting this tripe about lots of jobs, rising wages, and economic growth. None of those things are actually happening in ways that benefit average people.
My raise this year: .
Inflation this year: ⚪
Thanks, boss. Appreciate it.
This is by design. Inflation is designed to make you work harder to justify a raise that barely keeps your standard of living intact.
More profits for your boss, same standard of living (or lower) for you…
Inflation is wildly out of control now, but even pre-pandemic, the central bank’s 2% target inflation is designed to make you work harder for nothing in return
2% inflation isn’t designed to hurt workers, it’s meant to encourage investment in the economy. It helps workers and people who are net borrowers.
If you are a net borrowers, you pay that back with future dollars. Inflation reduces the value of future dollars. Let’s say you get a 3% raise but inflation is 3%. Your boss is being stupid and you basically didn’t get a raise.
But if your mortgage is $2,000 per month, you now have 3% more money to pay it off. That’s because your mortgage doesn’t increase with inflation. So the inflation helps you pay off your loans.
It’s the same with businesses. Investors could either loan money out or invest directly in businesses. Higher inflation makes them more likely to invest in their businesses, because money sitting in the bank loses value due to inflation. This causes them to hire more people.
2% is a good sweet spot that encourages borrowing and investing in businesses, but isn’t too high. Obviously the problem now is that inflation remains above 2%, and there has been no relief from past increases. It would be much better if minimum wage was increased to help out people at the bottom deal with them.
Inflation is wildly out of control now
But, inflation has been going down. It’s currently around 3.1%.
I made about $10k more this year than last year, still struggling with food costs.
I got a new job that came with a 25k raise last year and the only reason we can afford to eat 3 good meals a day is we started a garden where a lot of our food comes from and I started making most things from scratch, doughs, jam, oat milk, next is peanut butter.
The cheapest loaf of shitty bread at the closest store is $3. At the next closest store 40 minutes away it’s $2.50. What the fuck happened to $1 store brand bread that was fine enough and not almost rock hard by the time you get it.
Yep, the CEO of our multi-billion dollar company recently sent an email congratulating everyone on a job well done and record profits this quarter, yet our department laid off everyone they newly hired and cut all our hours. My boss said he’s worked here for 30 years and he’s never seen cost cutting like this. It’s disgusting.
As someone working for a small business owner, I sure as fuck wish the economy would boom so my wage could go up as well. We just don’t have any customers with expendable income, and our products are on a “wanted not needed” priority. If I had the capital to start my own, more successful, business, I would.
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.
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.
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
It probably depends on where you live. Our groceries got cheaper this year compared to last, so that’s cool.
My coworker spent $17 on a whopper meal 5 days in a row.
Homie dropped $85 on whoppers this week. Like wtf
$50 would sound whack as fuck.
A nearby hotel currently has a $26 cheeseburger on their menu, and a few $12 drafts. 2 beers and a burger at $50 before tax and tip, looking at like $65.
For $85 here I could make steak for dinner every weeknight. But I was in the same trap as he was for a while.
I want you to understand that if he ever complains about money you have the internet’s permission to slap the ever living fuck out of him.
He makes half of what I make (he’s new/young). He has 3 kids. He has a galaxy s24 ultra. He has a PS5.
Me and fellow coworkers keep trying to get him into PC gaming. “I donno I can’t drop that kinda money.”
🤷♂️
I even gave him a $500 build list and told him I’d build it lol.
Dude, $17 gets me a giant plate of local Mexican food and a Modelo. Who tf is spending that at Burger King
Yeah it’s sad but it makes me happy I was always cheap af and never really enjoyed the “premium” stuff like big Mac or whoppers. With the phone app and its deals paired with the cheapest offering most of those places I can still spend like 5-7 bucks and get more than enough crap food for a meal. I am pretty bad myself, but I also have no idea how anyone can enjoy 5 straight days of any fast food. It’s a once a week thing, maybe twice, depending on time and budget. Again I know it’s bad!
I bought chicken pad thai from an Asian cuisine place from the nearby (somehow not dying) mall Wednesday. It was $9.99 & almost a half-gallon of of some of the best pad thai I’ve ever had. So far it’s been 3 meals & I still have enough for one more.
Fuck fast food, they’ve pretty much lost me forever after this open & obvious price gouging. Hope they all die in a fire.
Groceries is a fuck of a lot more than lunch.
Groceries is lunch, dinner, snacks and breakfast. And toilet paper.
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,”
“Cereal Company CEO, why is a box of cereal now $6?”
“Well, you see, we wanted to stick it everyone. Cheerios don’t cost that much, but what are we gonna do, not screw everyone?”
Haven’t you heard? Cereal is now for dinner too according to Kellogg’s CEO, and I guess that means it can be more expensive! But shhh, don’t tell your nutritionist because they’ll let you know that most modern cereal is actually more of a snack than something suitable for a main meal. You’d think access to affordable, nutritious food would be a pretty basic human right for countries to ensure, but instead we have things like cereal prices rising an average 28% since 2020 (12% in the last year alone).
