Food Prices, Shortages & Inflation - The Trash Index

[Dunkopf]

Looks like the US has one of the lowest rates of inflation of the countries on the graph.

Yes, but it seems like an awfully large proportion of Americans judge "how things are" according to the standards of a) 1990 yuppie prosperity and b) Hollywood/tv depictions, as compared to their own present lifestyles. As opposed to finding any relevance in how well or poorly off OTHER people are in the world.

She said cynically.


Pat (note, actually a US citizen myself)

I was actually thinking about that today. I live like a rich person compared to the average citizen in say India. A person making minimum wage here lives better than most of the worlds population.

Yes Hollywood does make the life of an average American family seem much higher than is realistic. Look at that all glass commercial that was on this forum. They tried to depict the people as ordinary people. Those people were lower upper class. In todays standards they were probably bringing in a million a year. Upper 2% in other words. How realistic is that to represent as the future?

 

[patandchickens]

A person making minimum wage here lives better than most of the worlds population.

Yup, I wish there was some way to make people "get" that.

Furthermore, an awful lot of the "SHTF" "end of life as we know it" scenarios that get discussed on this forum and elsewhere as some scary horrible "what oh what shall we do, is it really possible to survive, what works and what doesn't work, how can we defend our stuff, etc?"... are normal daily life [or indeed would actually be an IMPROVEMENT in quality of life!] for a pretty large segment of the world's population.

Sigh.

Pat

 

[Marianne]

A person making minimum wage here lives better than most of the worlds population.

Yup, I wish there was some way to make people "get" that.

Furthermore, an awful lot of the "SHTF" "end of life as we know it" scenarios that get discussed on this forum and elsewhere as some scary horrible "what oh what shall we do, is it really possible to survive, what works and what doesn't work, how can we defend our stuff, etc?"... are normal daily life [or indeed would actually be an IMPROVEMENT in quality of life!] for a pretty large segment of the world's population.

Sigh.

Pat

You are absolutely correct. My son brought back gorgeous hand knotted and hand dyed sari's from India. He said the women and children that do all that work are paid 50 cents a DAY - 12 hour work days! And the telemarketers that we all cuss about? That is a big, big deal there. More pay than most jobs to be had, and most work 12-14 hours a day to keep those jobs.
He also has said that in the countries where it's a struggle to just have the basics, those are the people that are the friendliest. No one has anything, so no jealousy and greed. But they focus on family and friends - relationships are what's important. He said he felt bad, as he was given more food from families during his travels, than what they would have put on their own plates. And most of us here would have considered it 'substandard'.

Occasionally I have to remind myself that I have everything that I need. I don't worry too much about inflation, shortages, prices or politics. I try to live simply and know that I can do without a lot of stuff that I currently enjoy.

I stock up primarily because I buy items on sale and want to have a stash in case something happened and we didn't have money coming in. As least it's be one thing I wouldn't have to stew about.

 

[k0xxx]

You're going to feel pretty bad about shooting the old guy with his walker for stealing some food from your garden so someone worth a billion dollars doesn't have to give a few thousand extra to the gov.

Excuse me? Who says that I will feel bad? Did you ever stop to think that I may just appreciate the easy, slow moving target.

 

[AnnaRaven]

FYI:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-25/usda-retail-food-inflation-forecasts-for-2011-text-.html

Beef is up 10% over last year and pork is up 9%.

 

[FarmerChick]

LOL slow moving targe best kind!



you know as much as there are "tons of poor" out there ---there are TONS of people living good also. It is not an entire world of "poverty" out there at all.

France, England, Canada, Ireland, Greece, Italy, Australia (just to pick some of the BIG ones) don't have the .50 per day workers at all.
While alot of coutries do, I also hate the fact that people "don't think" any other part of the world is "doing pretty darn well also"

Also---survivalist mentality is alive and well everywhere, in every country and in every age/group etc. of person out in this big bad world. Many people take "what if" scenarios very high on their priority list. (I am not one of them LOL but just google the survival type sites and wow, the people out there preparing are thru the roof on "what if".
But for me,' what if' is a waste of time, within reason to prepare for my worse ice storm that lasts, say a week in NC. I just don't the menality of a survivalist type but millions sure do



no, it is not all poverty across this big globe.

 

[k0xxx]

I guess that it's just a matter of taking "what if" a few steps farther. Preparing for an ice storm is smart, but a surprising percentage of the population refuses to take the time to do it, even when ice storms can occur every year.

There are those that prepare for a major earth quake. Major earthquakes may happen in a particular area every 10 or 20 years, but it makes sense to prepare as it isn't out of the realm of possibility that one may occur sooner.

Then there are those of us (myself included) that also prepare for something, say a financial collapse, that may only happen once in one hundred years. We just extend the hypothesis.

We all have to look at the what's going on in the world and make an educated decision as to whether there is enough chance of an event occurring to warrant preparing for it. I guess it's akin to buying insurance.

If I, and others like me, are wrong and no great social or economic calamity befalls us, ... great! We'll have a great gift to pass on to the next generation in the form of a food that will have been purchased dirt cheap. If the proverbial Schumer does hit the fan, at least we'll have enough to get us by for a while, and be able to extend some charity.

Being the pessimist that I am, I could choose no other course of action.

 

[k0xxx]

Here's an interesting item on food inflation and the shrinking amounts packaged by producers, including the use of creative packaging.

Food Inflation Kept Hidden in Tinier Bags

 

[FarmerChick]

I used to call those "smaller" packages "cheaters"

heck now they are normal LOL

less bang for your buck is everywhere, buyer beware as usual

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

we stand there and yell insults at the frozen cases when we see how small the ice cream containers have gotten

they might as well run up the Jolly Roger - nothing short of pirating, i'm telling you.