11–20 of 132 posts
Everyone knows they are spending way more on food. The CPI inflation numbers feel like a lie.
Food is just one component of the CPI so it's possible for food prices to increase a lot even while overall inflation remains low.
Everyone knows they are spending way more on food. The CPI inflation numbers feel like a lie.
But that's not what's happening in this article. The Food Away From Home share has hit an all-time high, and FAFH costs more (because it contains more internalized labor than groceries). Americans eat out a lot because they are unbelievably rich.
I think this has a lot to do with the under counting of inflation. If you go back to 80s methodology inflation has been much larger that what they've let on.
As a hardline economist in academia, you can say that those are what matter to poverty or starvation because people will eventually become desperate enough to reject their lived culture and return to an alien world of basic foods, but policy makers need to be realistic and acknowledge that most people have no idea how to eat without branded processed foods, fast food convenience, etc. The cultural traditions that made simple foods practical have been lost from many families and those never-learned recipes and habits don't just restore themselves to people overnight when times get tough.
That inconvenient reality of what people actually eat needs to get folded into these economic models for them to actually report on what they intend to. Otherwise, the measures just speaking to a lost time and the smattering of rustic immigrants who still know how to live satisfyingly on traditional staples.
Shhh, don't look at that. Just focus on "U.S. GDP grew at a 4.9% annual pace in the third quarter, better than expected (cnbc.com)" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38025177 and celebrate. Sure, 90% of Americans under 50 will never be able to buy a house. They are one injury away from bankruptcy. But the GDP!
I won't argue that it's harder and more expensive, it sure is, but millennials seem to prioritize it enough to do whatever it takes to own a home, so home prices keep going up.
I think this has a lot to do with the under counting of inflation. If you go back to 80s methodology inflation has been much larger that what they've let on.
Everyone knows they are spending way more on food. The CPI inflation numbers feel like a lie.
But that's not what's happening in this article. The Food Away From Home share has hit an all-time high, and FAFH costs more (because it contains more internalized labor than groceries). Americans eat out a lot because they are unbelievably rich.
I think this has a lot to do with the under counting of inflation. If you go back to 80s methodology inflation has been much larger that what they've let on.
I am not familiar with the methodology of reporting inflation used in the 80s - did they take a wider basket of goods, or were there other consumer purchases in question that would affect the reporting number? If we were to use the 80s methodology - what would inflation numbers look like?