To read the chart:
Red lines and numbers on the left axis are the number of hours/week people work to purchase a week of groceries.
Black lines and numbers on the right axis and the bars are Food Inflation
Green lines show the President in charge and Pre-Covid vs Post Covid time
periods.
What does all of this mean?
- Covid clearly caused
food prices to go up.
- Food affordability
actually improved since 2015. 4.2 hours/week in 2015—3.6 hours/week
in 2024
- Food inflation started
under Trump during Covid and is now below where he ended, and
affordability is still well below the 2015-19 average.
- YES—food is more
expensive. BUT—we have more money to spend on it and more time to go
to restaurants (my opinion based upon experience lately.)
What I hear on the news most days is not what these charts
are saying. Back in the 80’s when I took Dale Carnegie training, he
taught a 3-step process for solving problems. His main point was that
identifying the PROBLEM is harder than you think.
- Identify the problem.
- Possible solutions.
- Best possible solution.
Well, FOOD INFLATION, according to these charts, is NOT the
problem. In my opinion, National Debt and Deficits, getting Wall Street influence out of
Washington, fixing our immigration system which is essential to our success and
has been a problem for 40+ years—these are the issues, that if addressed
correctly, will improve our chances of continuing the America we know and love,
which currently is one of the best economies in the world—and at least part of
why we have an illegal immigration problem. Have you ever heard of anyone
immigrating to Russia, Hungary, China, or North Korea? Nor have I.
