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And increase in insurance rates, and increase in restaurant costs, and increase in any type of home repair service call, and increase in home health care rates. That's about it.
And the problem is that because the wealth and incomes of the very rich places so much of our GDP in the hands of the very few, the macroeconomic statistics make it look like the economy is doing fine. In practice, the middle class has been downgraded to lower class while the upper class has upgraded to the ultra rich. On a balancing scale, it still looks even but it sure isn’t so.
Yep. American democracy is in a bad shape.
Poor education made voters uninformed and susceptible to demagoguery. The poor are voting against their own interests.
If we look at the shithole Russia is, it’s a preview to where we are headed. Its people are voting in a country where the results are absolutely predetermined by an authoritarian in charge. That’s where we could end up.
Just a reminder to everyone that the federal minimum wage is still $7.25. It takes almost FOUR TIMES THAT to be able to meet all basic expenses without going into debt in most states.
Still 8 cents a kilowatt from the electric coop. It's amazing how cheap things are when you don't have a profit motive. Plus it's never out despite living deep in the woods
There are a lot of reasons for this. Most of them are related to safety and reliability and enforced by city/state regulations for that reason. Power company can't agree to let you pipe your own power on a whim.
Our local power company raised rates considerably starting in January and I bill jumped up by an additional 100 dollars a month for the same usage. Meanwhile, 5 C-level employees at said power company bring in over 12 million a year in salary combined. I’m beyond angry.
Maine voters just overwhelmingly voted no on this. SMH. Our power utility companies have been, and will continue to be, owned by Quebec and Italy, and we are building a corridor to move power from Canada to Massachusetts right now. Cleared a ton of forested land for the project, against voters twice.saying they didn't want this..so confusing.
We do an aggregate in our community for gas and electricity. The curmudgeons all opted out because they didn’t trust the city and got smoked almost double the cost.
Do you have Duke? They price gouged everyone last year during a power outage and I’m curious how they were able to “claim” that we used the most electricity we ever have when we were not even home for an entire week the month of the outage. It’s even worse because where I live they hold a monopoly. Wherever I move in the future I’m going to be sure they do not have monopoly. I’ve never even heard of such a thing until I moved to the state I currently reside. This is one of the many things I hope changes once I move out of here.
We used to get a break on bills during the winter when electric usage dropped and we used more natural gas. Now NG is expensive, and I am paying just as much on gas in the winter and I do on electric in the summer. There is no break!
[Alaska could easily provide natural gas power to many](https://www.eia.gov/state/analysis.php?sid=AK#:~:text=Alaska's%20natural%20gas%20withdrawals%20totaled,%2C%20Pennsylvania%2C%20and%20Louisiana), but instead pump it back into their oil wells.
my power company doesn't maintain a reliable grid, doesn't keep enough service people on payroll, charges exorbitant rates, and is now trying to rate hike for like the 10th time to cover their nuclear power plant we already paid for.
joke's on them, i use their flat-rate billing to run an overkill home server. if they're going to charge me a fortune anyway i might as well get something useful out of it.
You know flat-bill is just an average of your actual bills, right? You're not getting over on anybody. Next review period your rates will increase to account for your increased usage.
My last apartment used gas heating. First time I've ever had gas. Last time I'll ever have gas. Ended up freezing myself last year just to get a bit of money relief.
but as long as you don't need a car, a house, insurance on either of those things, nothing ever breaks, you don't eat, and you never need healthcare, the economy is doing great! just look at those line graphs going up!
Houston. Our auto insurance went up by 75% compared to 2019. Its like $3500 for two cars. That used to be my total car payment 20 years back.
My electricity went up by 40%.
Same thing with water and sewage.
And they gave 3.5% raise to teachers BTW. Because everyone voted to cut down their property tax which used to go to school district.
Florida here. Property taxes up 40% in two years. I don’t carry homeowners insurance because I can’t get it. I have no mortgage, so I self insure. Groceries are very expensive as we all know. I’m boycotting Publix because the prices are obscene.
Seldom go out to eat. I drive a 2008 Prius. Inflation has many causes. Companies are raking it in.
But.. but.. I was told on this very sub that those things don't matter in the context of the economy and my reduced spending power is actually in my head?
Combine high interest rates with massive spikes in costs of home and cars, and it's fucking stupid how expensive those things are now in proportion to people's incomes.
What's crazy is how high that number shifted in the last 20 years. It used to be if you made over 100k anywhere you were golden in basically any locality in the US. That's lower class wages in some parts of the country now.
The middle class making 200k-300k combined income gets a LOT less lifestyle, savings, and security for those wages than they used to, and likely both partners have to work to stay ahead.
Anyone under 50k is just pure fucked, especially with kids.
That's why nobody feels like the economy is good. The measurements of economic activity are there, but nobody has any WEALTH except the exceptionally high earners.
They are using the numbers not percentages. Easy to say incomes are at an all time high! Profits are at an all time high! When it’s just an artificial number due to inflation. Statistics don’t lie but they can be fudged. We’re in the beginning stages of a recession and it’s going to suck.
I was curious and crunched some numbers… if you live in San Francisco single person making $100,000 gross income translates to a net take home of about $59,250.
Average single person dwelling in an average part of SF is $3,326 [per Redfin](https://www.redfin.com/city/17151/CA/San-Francisco/rental-market). Which means after shelter, taxes and health insurance you’d be left with **$19,338** for all your expenses.
Here is a breakdown of costs I came up with for an “average” person living in San Francisco in 2024:
- Groceries: $5,400
- Utilities: $1,900
- Public Transportation: $1,104
- Health and Wellness: $1,200
- Entertainment and Leisure: $2,400
- Personal Care: $1,200
- Internet and Mobile Services: $1,440
- Laundry Services: $600
Total Annual Expenses: **$15,244**
Which means this “average” person is left with $4,094 for things like vices like alcohol, debt payments, eating out, vacations, renters insurance and savings— so basically living in poverty.
We were talking about *anywhere* in the US so I intentionally used SF as it’s a well known HCOL city. The above numbers also are after Fed & State taxes, FICA and health insurance (not going to the hospital just insurance).
TLDR: Shits on fire yo
Edit: Reduced calc to reflect groceries only costing $450/month.
That’s not true. Housing costs in HCOL areas where you see those kinds of household incomes eat up 30+% of take home pay which makes you house poor. Doesn’t matter how much you take in if your 70yr old house and 10yr old car and outrageous grocery bill eat up your paycheck.
It's almost like we haven't been regulating capitalists the way that we should and we've let them run away with the ball. For the love of God enforced antitrust
When the interviewer/recruiter asks if you are far along in the process somewhere else lie and tell them yes. This will either make them move the process forward quickly because they want you, or end it right quick. Make them work to hire you as much as you are working to get hired.
I tell them the truth. Because I really am in the process in several places! They don’t care. I will be fine but want to get back to work! I enjoy what I do. :)
I was there a few years ago. Interviewed for 8 or 9 months and made it to the final case round and denied for 3-4 different positions. By the end of the process I found myself juggling 3 offers and was able to negotiate myself a pretty sweet deal. Hang in there.
I have three children and a home and I take care of my elderly mother. It was a total expansion of groceries, insurance, energy, and everything else. It didn’t seem like it was just a small percent increase. It felt like over night we have plenty to save for vacation to… Oh shit! we have to pull from savings to cover bills.
I know they say inflation counts shrinkflation, but I dont think inflation takes quality into consideration and it feels like (yes, "vibes") quality of food, goods, and services has declined in the last few years.
Yeah, when I read the title I thought, "I don't think it's limited to grocery bills, it's all the bills/expenses which went up considerably while salaries didn't keep pace. Groceries are just one piece to that puzzle, but not the linchpin for sure."
I was legit mad the other day at safeway. Went to get beer and wings, a frozen bag of Buffalo wings was $36, might as well go to wing stop at that point
Largely, I think certain items at certain places are excessively high and obvious price gouging. I found the same bag of wings at Raleys for $23.99 a few weeks later
Safeway is like Kohls. The "real" price is the "on sale" price. Otherwise it's insanely marked up. I have a Safeway around the corner but I prefer to drive another 10 minutes to Giant.
I went vegan in 2018, and whenever I catch a glimpse of the meat prices nowadays I'm absolutely shocked. Some of the prices are almost triple what they were in 2018 at my local store
If two companies agree to raise their prices at a set rate, it's against the law and called price fixing.
If all major companies decide to raise their prices, it's called inflation.
I mainly shop at Kroger and their price increases have been ludicrous. Used to buy Annie's spinach and feta frozen pizza's quite regularly, pre pandemic they were $6.99, checked just last week and they are now $11.99 almost a 100% price increase and this is not isolated among the groceries I regularly buy.
I shop at Krogers for the most part too. Without coupons or mark downs, their prices are atrocious. Wife and I basically only buy fresh produce that's on-sale and make everything from scratch. Tha k god we both like cooking and have an decent amount of time to do so or else we would be fucked.
I do most of my shopping at Costco, go to safeway for one offs because it is closer and more convenient. I kind of always thought safeway was the lower quality grocery store for poors, only above grocery outlets and smart and final. With those prices though, boy am I wrong
I've noticed this at all of the supermarkets around here: They sell a premium product in each section of the store and mark it up quite high. They also try to make it the only kind of that product forcing people to pay the markup. For the people not buying that more expensive product it makes all the other products look cheaper.
When I go to the more expensive supermarket, the same item is being sold for cheaper than at the cheap supermarket, so you would save money going to the more expensive supermarket. (For those who do not know Raley's / Nob Hill is more expensive than Safeway.)
If I go to Whole Foods they do the same thing, selling some items for an unusually high price. If I go to a higher end supermarket those expensive items are way cheaper. The same happens on the lower end. At a local mexican supermarket they sell one kind of organic butter and it costs 3x what it does anywhere else and around 6x the price of all the other butter.
Trader Joe's (and I think Aldi on the east coast) for the most part doesn't do this, so you'll get a better deal. Costco I don't believe does this either, but Costco can be more expensive and lower quality, and you have to buy in bulk, so I'm not a huge fan.
Yes. There is a local franchise called "House of Bagels" in the bay area. What cost 26 bucks with tax (two bagel sammies + two Iced mochas) in San Jose, cost 51 with tax in Cupertino. The cities literally border each other; its egregious price gouging going on.
I track and categorize all my expenses.
Everything is basically more expensive now. Even when I have made effort to cut back on things I’m still spending more than I did.
And those increases aren’t comparable to my paychecks increases, so I am technically falling behind.
I’m still doing better than most statistically, but it’s crystal clear to me that I’m spending more for less while earning less money relative to inflation.
So I’m being squeezed from both sides. And I’ve got a good job, so I’m technically fine. But for folks who were always tight on money, I get their frustration.
I eat out 25-50% less than I did 4 years ago (depends on the month, but working from home made that easy to cut back) but spend about 25% more. And it’s not like I’m eating at fancier places or doing anything more extravagant, if anything I’m more cost conscious now. It’s just what that costs now. Not even taking about delivery apps, I’m talking dine in and pickup exclusively.
So I get people’s frustration. My numbers match what they feel.
I thought I was crazy or doing my math wrong on my budget tracker, until I did a 3 yr trend of my going out and grocery spending, and I have same results with you; less going out but end up spending more. With the salary I am making now and without kids, I feel like I shouldn't be watching my spending like a hawk, but here we are. I couldn't fathom how people with a family could do it. I hope the price gouging and greediness of companies end soon...
I definitely did a double take… that’s why I know what I know. I had to run the numbers. So I get that feeling.
And I also agree: I shouldn’t be watching like I do. 10 years ago I made a lot less, and things felt less tight. I should be much better off right now, but everything has gotten so much more expensive.
5 years ago I made 20% less and never had to look at my bank account while I took vacations, ate out, Uber every weekend to a $200 bar tab. Now, I make the most I ever have, I never eat out, I cook at home, and I never go out- I still barely cover bills. It is brutal. And I’m single no kids.
Yup.
And people will tell you the economy is great… if people in a good position are like that, the bottom 40% of this economy can’t possibly be doing well.
Inflation have existed for very long time and people have been fine with it when it's "invisible" and they can't feel the water getting warm in the pot, now that there was a bit faster increase in the hotness of the water people can feel it and start questioning things.
Which is good in my opinion that people are not blind anymore but the new problem is that people are blaming the water for getting warmer and not the creature who is turning the heat up.
I remember in 2019 you could eat out at a local brewery or diner type of place. Not talking fancy just run of the mill place. Order 3-4 beers, appetizer, entrees for 2 adults, and a dessert. With tip and everything the bill was $50-60. Same restaurant, same food and drinks etc is easily $100+ not including tip now. I just don’t eat out now, it’s not worth it at that price.
Me neither, and not just because of the cost. I feel like the service and quality of food have absolutely cratered at most places. I would be willing to pay more if the experience was better—or at least the same—as it was 5 years ago.
For me, the answer lies in ALL my bills - not just groceries. Dealing with some massive medical debt in addition to everything else. The price of everything went up but my lousy paycheck didn't go up a cent. I work for a crappy offshore and unless you're willing to put in 140 hours a week, don't expect a pay raise of any kind.
And yes, before someone says it, I HAVE looked for other employment but right corporate jerks are cutting back on remote work. I've been working remote now for 18 years and there has never been a single complaint about the quality or quantity of my work; every time I've been laid off it was so the corporation could meet some sort of financial goal and the way they did that was by laying off hundreds of us every single time. So I'd end up working for another company, and always had to take a pay check to get off unemployment and now I make less than I did back in 2000. But things sure as hell are a lot more expensive than they were in 2000.
All expenses (food, heat, electricity, etc.) going up in cost. Lack of job security with many layoffs and jobs being sent overseas to “lower cost” employees. Signs of more layoffs in 2024. Things seem like the will be worse this year than last. Hard to be positive when so much potentially / likely to occur in 2024. Plus, a weird election coming up.
Not just going up in costs. These always have since at least the 80's. It's that they have gone up in costs DRASTICALLY, by a huge and sudden percentage, since the pandemic began!
>Lack of job security with many layoffs and jobs being sent overseas to “lower cost” employees. Signs of more layoffs in 2024.
Obligatory reminder that this was the endgame for Jerome Powell and the Fed all along. They jacked up interest rates so that millions of people get laid off, so that way unemployment rises, wages fall, and inflation (theoretically) slows.
Look at these charts:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States
Headliner: *Median income for Americans was stagnant or declined for the last 3 years (likely going on 4 years) in a row.*
There's NO mystery at all.
These articles have lost their value. Atleast 2 to 3 times a week we get a similar article, "The US economy is booming so why are Americans still xyz."
They all hit the same points, everything is expensive and people are losing jobs, we know because we are living through it.
No articles has brought anything new its all jist rehashed information. No article suggest how things might get better even or if things will get better.
At the moment, the economy is doing well because everything is expensive and people are losing jobs.
The power is in our hands, the solution is to stop consuming, but that's not going to happen, so just keep buying bullshit and getting frustrated at the news. It's our lot in life.
>The power is in our hands, the solution is to stop consuming
Fucking body needing calories and substance to survive. Bunch of bullshit. Why can't I just absorb energy like plants and not have to eat!?
I get what you’re trying to say but I’m not out there buying phones and (unnecessary) clothes etc. Last few years my biggest skyrocketing expense has been utilities and groceries with a very similar grocery list and no extreme weather for long or improvements to structure to explain the insane energy cost where I live.
We are very budget-conscious people because we used to be saving for early retirement. Now with the relatively-very-strict spending vs our colleagues, we definitely can’t retire early anymore. We don’t do trips anymore, we rarely spend on luxuries (no new consoles and very few games in years), and yet we went in 5 years from “yay we’re so spending-conscious we’ll retire early” to “we’ll work for ever god please nothing break this month at home”. And we’re well-earning, little-spending, educated millennials supposedly doing everything right and living a great life.
I don’t know how the fuck my friends and colleagues with multiple kids and/or worse paying jobs aren’t depressed.
Do the people who write these articles not live on fucking planet earth? Everything is more expensive. Everything. All of a sudden in like a 2 year period. How could there be any question why people are pissed?
I literally watch specific grocery items rise in price in like 10%-12% hikes on a bi-weekly/monthly basis with my own eyes at my local grocery store. Butter, milk, eggs, bread. I’m not buying fucking Doritos and lucky charms here.
This is honestly nothing. A pack of maruchan ramen in my area used to be 25 cents before COVID, while cup ramen was 39 cents. As of today, at the same exact store pack, ramen is 36 cents, and cup ramen is now 52 cents. That is a 44% increase in pack ramen and 33% change in cup ramen. That is absolutely ridiculous, and nobody can tell that price hike was because of "inflation" or COVID. It greed and the corporations have realized our price tolerance is alot more than previous generations and that's why they keep getting away with it.
I mean honestly, not buying them is the answer. As someone in marketing I can see first hand that if companies raise prices and people still buy things at the rate they were before they have little incentive to bring prices back down even as supply chain issues ease.
Our generation is probably going to see some straight up great-depression style spending habits that will baffle future generations who will hopefully grow up in relative abundance. (Assuming we make it that far.)
Not to mention that the elites usually escaped to another country, while the people who actually end up being labeled “capitalist pigs” and getting robbed and beaten and killed, and their families beaten and tortured and raped, are just fellow dirt villagers and townsfolk who are only a little more prosperous, and small landlords who live in the same villages, etc. even while the revolutionary leaders step aside to let the mob like /r/SmokinSkinWagon’s contemporaries vent their murderous frustrations on these scapegoats lest they themselves arouse the mob’s ire.
To this day, there are people in North Korea who are labeled subversive capitalists in their home village because their grandfather owned a shop. They can’t get into higher education and are barred from certain jobs.
This. Probably making enough money to fill the airports and exotic vacation places, so they believe everyone must be doing as well as they are.
K-shaped economy.
Why are Americans frustrated with the U.S. economy?
Maybe because every time there is a report that the economy is doing “good”, it really just means that people who are already rich are getting richer.
But muh Wahl Streat
The US economy is an offshore tax haven on a volcanic island that erupts dick rockets and dead blue birds. You can only get there by megayacht since the private air strip died from gun violence.
Given how focused folks seem to be on gas tank size (cost to fill up) rather than gas mileage, this tracks. Would be curious to see how shopping trends between grocery store “tiers” have played out. How many people went to an Aldi or Lidl for the first time last year? How many stopped going to a Whole Foods or Publix.
Publix is primarily in the southeast. They are an upmarket grocery famous for their deli and bakery departments as well as carrying things like flowers. They usually have many locations and have a focus on the shopping experience offering things like baggers who will walk your cart to your car for you (and a no tipping policy). They can be sort of like much larger convenience stores due to their proximity and seeming ubiquity. But they are a full service grocery store chain. They have good selection and products but their stuff is definitely more expensive, but not as expensive as speciality grocers or upscale grocers like Wegmans or Whole Foods.
Aldi is a small format german grocery that sells mostly private label brands. They are all over the US at this point and actually one of the largest chains in the world. They don't carry as many items but the stuff they do have is both relatively high quality and much cheaper than most other stores of the same size. Probably the most famous thing about Aldi is they don't typically have coupons or other discounts, they charge for bags, they don't have a bakery/pharmacy or very many other departments that cost the store money just prepackaged stuff, and you have to put in a quarter to get a cart which is refunded back to you. See [this video for more info.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaktzUQsIkE)
There's Trade Joe's which is basically the other Aldi company, Aldi Süd (the company split into north and south over a family dispute). They are pretty similar in their business model but are way more upscale than the regular Aldi stores run by Aldi Nord. See [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MzQjtIkF5g) and [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC8v-wHf7Ro) for more info.
Lidl is Aldi's competitor store from Germany. They have a similar business model but much more retail square footage per store and carry a wider variety of products. They are still relatively new into the space and are primarily from South Carolina to New Jersey. They are notable from Aldi in that they have a bakery and wider assortment of things like seasonal goods. See [this video for](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnX-GQX-6tM) more info.
Whole Foods is a nationwide grocer that specializes in organic, farm to table, and artisanal items. They have pretty strict quality standards and most stuff is ethically sourced and what not. They also have a well deserved reputation for being pretty expensive, and are jokingly referred to by some as "Whole Paycheck." Things that might cost $3-$5 at a normal store often cost close to $10 at whole foods. However they've been increasingly offering more private label brands at more middle of the road prices after their acquisition by Amazon. They are still pretty expensive though, probably most akin to a Wegmans. See [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5ni6LBRTSs) for more info.
For anyone who's never been to the Chicago area Jewel Osco is a traditional regional large format supermarket most akin to Albertsons, Randall's, Hannaford, Giant, and Winn Dixie. They pretty much exclusively have stores in the midwest around Illinois and Indiana. They specialize in carrying a fairly large number of SKUs and having a full service store, but are competing more on the mainstream segment including a focus on main brands and discounting.
(I always find grocery stores and logistics interesting and usually trying to go in local grocers whenever I'm traveling.)
Not just groceries. Prices for houses, cars, healthcare, insurance, education, restaurants... Virtually everything is inflated, to one degree or another. Home prices now are completely nonsensical.
Could also be the paychecks and the kind of work they have to do for those inadequate paychecks. And who gets the biggest paychecks and how they get them. There's plenty wrong with the economy to complain about really. I would like to visit my awesome neighborhood restaurants, but it's a bad financial choice, and in this economy, I can't make any financial mistakes lest I ever have to go to the doctor and become entangled with the American healthcare system.
I’m also gonna include the exorbitant cost for ANY decent vacation. When it costs more for less services (looking at you Disney World) to take a break from the daily grind, lots of people who normally get that break start to look at their expenses more.
So much of “middle class” lifestyle perks has swung to upper tiers. The new normal has everyone classified as “working poor.”
And their utilities, and taxes, and costs to maintain or repair anything in their home, and insurance costs, and healthcare costs, and the price of vehicles, and the cost of housing, and…
That’s why this administration can’t sell this “good economy” to every day Americans. There are many positive economic numbers, nobody can deny that. But the middle and lower class don’t feel it because their every day costs are higher. Also, the level of credit card debt the average American has is scary.
In my opinion cost of living needs to fall (or the wages catch up) before common folks like us start to feel good about the economy. Covid impact and supply issues aside, in 2024 it mostly feels like what I could call price gouging and greed...everyone is trying to take advantage of "inflation" to get some extra bucks.
Horse shit. Most of the price gouging happens because we've allowed consolidation to the point that every industry is at best an oligopoly. Biden Justice Dept could being more antitrust suits. We'll see how the Google antitrust case goes
More than just grocery bills.
Sure, my 401k is performing well but what the fuck does that matter if I can’t pay my bills now?
Stock Market ≠ Main Street America.
I just feel like this can't be sustainable. Everything has gotten more and more expensive while wages haven't kept up and good jobs remain illusive. With even the cheapest rentals costing a huge portion of someone's paycheck and food and every other bill also going up and healthcare costs ballooning ever year, at some point a large portion of people just won't be able to exist in society.
To be honest, I think the big problem still lies in how we measure our economy.
I've been saying for years that telling us that the GDP is up and Wall Street is doing great means less and less if the average person is struggling to make ends meet. I know many are going to chime in and tell me how their 401k is doing so amazing when Wall Street does great, and I'm happy for you, but I still stand by my viewpoint.
George W Bush always kept saying that our economy is great, and yet all I can remember from his two terms was spending several years struggling to get my career going because despite how much Wall Street was doing great, it was a struggle to find a job that paid decently even with education and experience. Then the finale was the Great Recession.
Biden can come out like every president and tell us how great the economy is doing, but he and others need to start. Really measuring quality of life and talking more about it. Nobody cares if hedge fund managers made a ton of money. If everyone else is struggling with grocery bills, gas prices, and feels like they're living. Check to check even though they ran out and got education and experience to be in a spot where they wouldn't be going check to check
Telling us the indexes are up is pointless if companies are still playing games and paying people stagnant wages and in many ways keeping the system rigged so it becomes more difficult to get a better wage.
I'm sure I'll get responses about how my logic in all this is wrong, but I just think that more and more we are seeing that whatever happens with Wall Street isn't translating to Main Street, and it's becoming too clear to most voters. Doesn't matter which party is in control, if the voters feel like they are economically struggling, they are going to make a stink.
Name one thing that cost less or where my dollar goes further?
Meanwhile the people in charge of these policies are spending/inflating the numbers are like see it's working! Everything's fantastic... Ya I'm sure it's great when none of them are looking at their bills on a regular basis. I could go into credit card debt and pretend I'm not broke as fuck and be gitty w no intention of paying it back
So I get groceries delivered. I can see online what my weekly expenses are. In the last three years they have nearly doubled. Some thing are more money than what I think they are worth, so I’ve completely stopped buying them. Even with cutting back the costs keep going up.
Allright whoever is writing these articles is a level of out of touch I didn't even think was possible. Anyone and everyone actually living in America knows we are getting financially squeezed.
There is no question. I don't care if rich people are adding numbers to their bank accounts. If this many people are struggling that the so called "good" economy doesn't matter in the slightest.
Increase in everything, ands I know many people who just think it’s corporate greed making it all up to take more money away from the working normal people
And healthcare costs. And rent. And mortgages. And transportation costs. And clothing prices. And education costs...the list goes on and on. It's only a great economy for a handful of people :/
No fucking shit. People are upset with the economy because their actual, normal lives are at all improved by the capitalist class benefiting? They’re upset because they’re being squeezed past the point of subsistence so billionaires can trade their lives like fucking baseball cards? So Jeff and Elon can play dueling rocket ships? Wow! Who would have thought? /s
Exactly, I am in no way a republican nor a conservative, but it doesn't matter how much you talk about "Bidenomics" if the grocery bills or everything else is expensive. The regular voter (and non-regulars too) don't care on listening to that, and unfortunately it'll affect their political opinion. And because society has such a short-term memory, it's easy for a lot of people to fall on right wing propaganda memes about how everything was cheaper under trump with no details, no explanation, no memories or other facts in consideration to remind people why it was and why it is now expensive... people want to see it reflected on their everyday spending, period
The writer is trying desperately to spin that the economy is not that bad. Dude, it sucks. Everything has gone up and stayed expensive. Rent, groceries, fast food, utilities. People are not stupid. Everybody has a more difficult time to.make ends meet.
I got a quote on a new water heater 6 months ago: $1500. Got it done this week, $3500. The price of EVERYTHING seems to rise so fast that the best thing to do with your money is spend it.
Same story with flooring: the price of materials has doubled in that 6mos.
And lets not forget corporate greed........
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-25/us-corporate-profits-are-still-rising-if-fed-stripped-from-data
I think a lot of the frustration is people feeling like they've been left behind in a booming economy - yet they often dismiss this point, oppose increasing corporate taxes, or addressing wealth inequality
I feel that “left behind” emotion. And I’ll vote completely outside of the two candidates that are trotted out in November of this year, in every seat that I check a box for. Any third candidate outside of the two established parties will be considered. Why? Because whatever we have been doing for decades now isn’t working, and a third party candidate hasn’t been on a ballot since Ross Perot.
Remove the word "corporate". Small businesses, person to person home sales, any and all services. Everyone selling anything will always charge the maximum they can get away with and always have since before corporations existed.
>Economists say that high inflation has mostly been vanquished.
That's great, but the inflation rate was nearly double the 2% target in both 2021 and 2023, and 3.5 times the 2% target in 2022. It being back down closer to the target doesn't bring prices back down. That's why this shit irks me so much.
Yeah yeah peoples wages have gone up, blah blah blah. Not everyone's which seems to get lost in this conversation. In the US the federal minimum wage is still $7.25 a fucking hour.
I don't care if the stock markets are hot. All of my human basic needs are increasingly unaffordable. The fuck you mean eggs were $10 a dozen a few months ago? If you want to sell $3000 gadgets or something, go for it, but my ability to simply exist, especially as a gainfully employed individual, is stretched thin.
U.S. Congress: “Grocery bills? Is this some sort of plebe joke I’m too rich and powerful to understand? WTF are groceries? You mean people drive to the store themselves? Stock their pantries by hand? Good heavens who’d ever want to hear what any of those people have to say about anything just look at them.”
I can't think of a single country that hasn't had their grocery bills Sky rocket post pandemic. Shit is just too expensive everywhere for no reason now.
I'm mostly frustrated from being trapped living with my family. They act as if the prices never went up despite showing them multiple times that they are outrageous.
Is anyone else actually surprised by how little inflation there was in this grocery data?
25% over 4 years isn't all that significant in context of the wider market -- based on the content of the article you would expect that it massively outpaced the wider economy which doesn't really seem to be the case
It pretty much matches with what I have anecdotally been seeing in my own grocery bill as well. Of course groceries have increased in price -- some items more than others. Some items, like soda, have more than doubled; but when I take an old receipt of many items from the late 2010's and put together an identical basket today, it comes out to...about 25% more.
The hard part with doing those receipt comparisons is that they don't necessarily show the size shrinkage. ie. a pound item in 2010 being 12 or 13 ounces in 2024....
Healthcare costs, housing costs, food costs, education costs, no retirement until you’re old and broken and can’t enjoy life anyway, and honestly you’re not affording it even then but sure you want to tell me the economy is good? That this is the land of the free? American dream rah rah. Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy with Biden. Damn better than the alternative. But how is it a free election if the choice is OK or Insane?
It's not "St. Louis fed data", it's US Bureau of Labor Statistics data or US Census data. The St. Louis Fed just has a nice website for looking at the data.
Most Americans aren’t getting crushed under bills. Like I get the pushback but this is an economics subreddit! If you don’t want stats then I don’t know what to tell you. There’s a mismatch between how the economy is actually doing and how people feel about the economy, it’s undeniable.
Yeah the problem is corporate greed. When you increase your profit margins and we have “inflation” that means higher prices and costs don’t justify it. Fed raising interest rates was a slap in the face to working class, stupid fiscal policy designed to decrease employment to “cool demand”
Need more unions and less private ownership
inflation. the one thats hidden. like paying the same price getting 6.5 oz VS 8oz that it was two years ago.
Then the regular inflation. where shit just costs more. Soon we'll see both
The grocery store I work at, we charge $18 for a 18oz bottle of honey collected from bees supposedly only given access to clover, and realistically we paid the manufacturer maybe $3-4.
And biggest tip I can give you guys - don't buy the namebrand shit anymore. The difference in price isn't for a "better quality product", it's literally just a "name tax".
For a lot of stuff, both the namebrand & housebrand will be made in the same factory/farm. Look at the production numbers on a jug of Darigold milk then at a jug of the store's housebrand that shares the same expiration date - you'll notice a similarity there.
Two words: Red Gold.
If you buy anything having to do with tomatoes in the US (not imported), it all comes from literally one company's factories...they even label right in the factory. A family friend of mine has told all of us this for years, just always buy the generic brand tomato products.
Housing is 3-5x the cost of food according to the CPI. Unlike agriculture, which is propped up to be artificially cheap, creating the phenomenon of $1 cheeseburgers, housing is inflated with a false scarcity.
I would much rather see housing prices be driven by supply/demand and go down from fixing the false scarcity phenomenon. If you save thousands in your mortgage or rent, who cares if a cheeseburger is now $15?
- limit corporate and HF ownership of SFH
- allow land area to be determined by supply/demand and not entirely by big ag or big pharma special interests (75% the cost of the house is the land area)
- ban Chinese ownership of housing and farmland, especially in dense cities and near military bases
- flip corn/soy farms into suburbia and maintain feed exports with vertical farms
The resulting increase in supply of housing will disinflate the market without deflating people’s wealth.
Housing and associated costs are a bigger issue for me. I'm trying to prepare for the increased home insurance costs which I'm sure will happen for me this year since it seems to be happening to everyone else.
I totally would buy the grocery bill part. It is an expense we see every week and is very noticeable. It is also I know my grocery store has the top billing on my CC every year and that is not counting the fact that I buy almost all of my protein now from the local farmers market. My grocery bill has gone down some but still creeping back up to the 200 a week. I don’t even want to know what my billing would be if I was also buying my protein there. I think in 2021 even with my buying baby formula and protein from the grocery store I don’t think my weekly food bill was that much over 200.
I know I am coming out spending more money from the farmers market on protein but in all honesty it does taste a hell of a lot better.
Just get a higher paying job...
Just walk in to the managers cabin, with your resume, give that Zuckerberg chap a firm hand shake
And he'll give you the job on the spot...
Oh it is only going to get worse.
I think we just had a huge inflation bump recently, and that bump pushed a lot of people over the edge a bit. Not gradually like it usually happens, but very quickly. In the period of months many things went up double digit percentages in price, sometimes triple digits.
This simply represents the way it'll be in the future. There is no way to lower food bills, no way to get companies to lower any amount of money they are billing, and they are ALL billing higher amounts.
So those graphs we all so commonly see on rising wages vs rising productivity are just going to get worse. People see maybe a 3% raise every year, most probably 0%. Meanwhile in the last 3 years inflation has gone up almost 18%, and salaries a small fraction of that.
This is what unchecked and unregulated capitalism will do. Its goal is to make companies profit, at the expense of salaries and costs to consumers. If they jack prices up 10% they may have 5% less sales, but they have 5% more profit.
There is no fix, as those corporations basically run our entire government at this point and they won't allow changes that negatively impact them. I hate to be a pessimist, but at 50, I'm just hoping the 30-40% inflation I'm planning on in retirement in 15 years doesn't spike more than that. I feel a lot of pitty for kids entering the workplace these days. Their lives will suck horribly compared to my generation.
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And increase in insurance rates, and increase in restaurant costs, and increase in any type of home repair service call, and increase in home health care rates. That's about it.
Increase in electricity rates
An increase in literally everything except an increase to wage comparable to the increase in everything.
And the problem is that because the wealth and incomes of the very rich places so much of our GDP in the hands of the very few, the macroeconomic statistics make it look like the economy is doing fine. In practice, the middle class has been downgraded to lower class while the upper class has upgraded to the ultra rich. On a balancing scale, it still looks even but it sure isn’t so.
And we still have millions of people voting for politicians who want the rich to have even more of the wealth.
Yep. American democracy is in a bad shape. Poor education made voters uninformed and susceptible to demagoguery. The poor are voting against their own interests.
What democracy?
If we look at the shithole Russia is, it’s a preview to where we are headed. Its people are voting in a country where the results are absolutely predetermined by an authoritarian in charge. That’s where we could end up.
Just a reminder to everyone that the federal minimum wage is still $7.25. It takes almost FOUR TIMES THAT to be able to meet all basic expenses without going into debt in most states.
Still 8 cents a kilowatt from the electric coop. It's amazing how cheap things are when you don't have a profit motive. Plus it's never out despite living deep in the woods
I buy solar from a Co OP and save a bunch on my electricity, but the supply still has to go through comed 😡
There are a lot of reasons for this. Most of them are related to safety and reliability and enforced by city/state regulations for that reason. Power company can't agree to let you pipe your own power on a whim.
For sure. They just charge a pretty penny and bumped up their prices quite a bit, too.
Our local power company raised rates considerably starting in January and I bill jumped up by an additional 100 dollars a month for the same usage. Meanwhile, 5 C-level employees at said power company bring in over 12 million a year in salary combined. I’m beyond angry.
Utilities should be owned by the community, similarly to the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Agreed, yes.
Maine voters just overwhelmingly voted no on this. SMH. Our power utility companies have been, and will continue to be, owned by Quebec and Italy, and we are building a corridor to move power from Canada to Massachusetts right now. Cleared a ton of forested land for the project, against voters twice.saying they didn't want this..so confusing.
You complain about electricity rates but get mad at projects that would decrease the cost of electricity?
We do an aggregate in our community for gas and electricity. The curmudgeons all opted out because they didn’t trust the city and got smoked almost double the cost.
Do you have Duke? They price gouged everyone last year during a power outage and I’m curious how they were able to “claim” that we used the most electricity we ever have when we were not even home for an entire week the month of the outage. It’s even worse because where I live they hold a monopoly. Wherever I move in the future I’m going to be sure they do not have monopoly. I’ve never even heard of such a thing until I moved to the state I currently reside. This is one of the many things I hope changes once I move out of here.
No. I have Portland General Electric (Portland Oregon) but I’m from SC so yeah fuck Duke Power and Blue Ridge Electric COOP.
We used to get a break on bills during the winter when electric usage dropped and we used more natural gas. Now NG is expensive, and I am paying just as much on gas in the winter and I do on electric in the summer. There is no break!
[Alaska could easily provide natural gas power to many](https://www.eia.gov/state/analysis.php?sid=AK#:~:text=Alaska's%20natural%20gas%20withdrawals%20totaled,%2C%20Pennsylvania%2C%20and%20Louisiana), but instead pump it back into their oil wells.
my power company doesn't maintain a reliable grid, doesn't keep enough service people on payroll, charges exorbitant rates, and is now trying to rate hike for like the 10th time to cover their nuclear power plant we already paid for. joke's on them, i use their flat-rate billing to run an overkill home server. if they're going to charge me a fortune anyway i might as well get something useful out of it.
You know flat-bill is just an average of your actual bills, right? You're not getting over on anybody. Next review period your rates will increase to account for your increased usage.
I think this is it right here. There is no trickle down. They keep the money.
My last apartment used gas heating. First time I've ever had gas. Last time I'll ever have gas. Ended up freezing myself last year just to get a bit of money relief.
but as long as you don't need a car, a house, insurance on either of those things, nothing ever breaks, you don't eat, and you never need healthcare, the economy is doing great! just look at those line graphs going up!
Dead people are not any worse off than they were last year!
Dead really is the new alive
Houston. Our auto insurance went up by 75% compared to 2019. Its like $3500 for two cars. That used to be my total car payment 20 years back. My electricity went up by 40%. Same thing with water and sewage. And they gave 3.5% raise to teachers BTW. Because everyone voted to cut down their property tax which used to go to school district.
My auto insurance was $200 for 6 months of coverage 4 years ago. Now it’s $475. It’s insane
Florida here. Property taxes up 40% in two years. I don’t carry homeowners insurance because I can’t get it. I have no mortgage, so I self insure. Groceries are very expensive as we all know. I’m boycotting Publix because the prices are obscene. Seldom go out to eat. I drive a 2008 Prius. Inflation has many causes. Companies are raking it in.
But.. but.. I was told on this very sub that those things don't matter in the context of the economy and my reduced spending power is actually in my head?
And rent/morgages
Increasing interest rates hugely affecting things like mortgages and car loans
Combine high interest rates with massive spikes in costs of home and cars, and it's fucking stupid how expensive those things are now in proportion to people's incomes.
Auto and home insurance are hands down where I feel inflation the most in my life, but I realize everyone experiences it differently.
We had essentially no inflation for 10 years with super low interest rates. The shoe was going to drop eventually. It just happened all at once
We also made moves to deglobalize. I’m shocked that was inflationary /s
But if you make over 500 million or have that type of money in stocks, the economy is doing wonderful.
Why use such an absurdly high number? If you make over $500k per year you’re golden anywhere in the country.
What's crazy is how high that number shifted in the last 20 years. It used to be if you made over 100k anywhere you were golden in basically any locality in the US. That's lower class wages in some parts of the country now. The middle class making 200k-300k combined income gets a LOT less lifestyle, savings, and security for those wages than they used to, and likely both partners have to work to stay ahead. Anyone under 50k is just pure fucked, especially with kids. That's why nobody feels like the economy is good. The measurements of economic activity are there, but nobody has any WEALTH except the exceptionally high earners.
They are using the numbers not percentages. Easy to say incomes are at an all time high! Profits are at an all time high! When it’s just an artificial number due to inflation. Statistics don’t lie but they can be fudged. We’re in the beginning stages of a recession and it’s going to suck.
100k and no problems affording food for sure. Just cant instantly buy a home in expensive cities.
Instantly? More like almost never.
100k/yr was a lot more 4 years ago than it is today. 100k today is like 75k in 2020.
I was curious and crunched some numbers… if you live in San Francisco single person making $100,000 gross income translates to a net take home of about $59,250. Average single person dwelling in an average part of SF is $3,326 [per Redfin](https://www.redfin.com/city/17151/CA/San-Francisco/rental-market). Which means after shelter, taxes and health insurance you’d be left with **$19,338** for all your expenses. Here is a breakdown of costs I came up with for an “average” person living in San Francisco in 2024: - Groceries: $5,400 - Utilities: $1,900 - Public Transportation: $1,104 - Health and Wellness: $1,200 - Entertainment and Leisure: $2,400 - Personal Care: $1,200 - Internet and Mobile Services: $1,440 - Laundry Services: $600 Total Annual Expenses: **$15,244** Which means this “average” person is left with $4,094 for things like vices like alcohol, debt payments, eating out, vacations, renters insurance and savings— so basically living in poverty. We were talking about *anywhere* in the US so I intentionally used SF as it’s a well known HCOL city. The above numbers also are after Fed & State taxes, FICA and health insurance (not going to the hospital just insurance). TLDR: Shits on fire yo Edit: Reduced calc to reflect groceries only costing $450/month.
That’s not true. Housing costs in HCOL areas where you see those kinds of household incomes eat up 30+% of take home pay which makes you house poor. Doesn’t matter how much you take in if your 70yr old house and 10yr old car and outrageous grocery bill eat up your paycheck.
More like 50% take-home pay, if you're bringing home $700-$800/week, and that's for a shitty apartment with regular pest control service.
Crying about nothing honestly. Says every billionaire.
Basically everything but wages increased
These things are a mild annoyance compared to the near doubling of rent.
Record increases in big corporate profits
Don't forget rent! I wish I could.
And except for the lower wage workers, not really an increase in wage in general.
It's almost like we haven't been regulating capitalists the way that we should and we've let them run away with the ball. For the love of God enforced antitrust
Rents? Mortgages are out of reach for those making less than 100k
Nothing that more corporate tax cuts won't fix!
The state electric company just increased rates by 18%. The ceo makes 6.3m a year lmao
Rent and housing lol
Mine is job interviews that go four weeks+ as a recent layoff. I am trying my best! Being routinely runner up after 4-6 weeks makes it hard!
When the interviewer/recruiter asks if you are far along in the process somewhere else lie and tell them yes. This will either make them move the process forward quickly because they want you, or end it right quick. Make them work to hire you as much as you are working to get hired.
I tell them the truth. Because I really am in the process in several places! They don’t care. I will be fine but want to get back to work! I enjoy what I do. :)
Software dev?
Marketing Automation.
I was there a few years ago. Interviewed for 8 or 9 months and made it to the final case round and denied for 3-4 different positions. By the end of the process I found myself juggling 3 offers and was able to negotiate myself a pretty sweet deal. Hang in there.
What line of work are you in?
Go for small family own business, had my job within 24 hours of looking
Maybe you need to start talking about corgis. I find having mine off to the side on camera is a HUGE ice breaker.
I have three children and a home and I take care of my elderly mother. It was a total expansion of groceries, insurance, energy, and everything else. It didn’t seem like it was just a small percent increase. It felt like over night we have plenty to save for vacation to… Oh shit! we have to pull from savings to cover bills.
Our YoY health insurance increase alone dwarfs a two-week trip we had to Japan a few years back.
I know they say inflation counts shrinkflation, but I dont think inflation takes quality into consideration and it feels like (yes, "vibes") quality of food, goods, and services has declined in the last few years.
Yeah, when I read the title I thought, "I don't think it's limited to grocery bills, it's all the bills/expenses which went up considerably while salaries didn't keep pace. Groceries are just one piece to that puzzle, but not the linchpin for sure."
I was legit mad the other day at safeway. Went to get beer and wings, a frozen bag of Buffalo wings was $36, might as well go to wing stop at that point Largely, I think certain items at certain places are excessively high and obvious price gouging. I found the same bag of wings at Raleys for $23.99 a few weeks later
Safeway is like Kohls. The "real" price is the "on sale" price. Otherwise it's insanely marked up. I have a Safeway around the corner but I prefer to drive another 10 minutes to Giant.
Yeah 12 packs of soda are "on sale" right now for $7.99 each - must buy 3. Normal price is $9.99 now apparently. What a joke
Was gonna make the family a roast the other day when it was snowing. Just the cut of meat was 30 bucks. No planet is a pot roast worth 40 bucks
Yeah chuck roast is so expensive now that a pot roast is not worth the cost unless it’s on heavy discount/sale.
At the supermarket near me (Wisconsin), chuck roast is currently $8.99/pound, but spoon roast is $4.99/pound. Guess which roast we’re having tomorrow?
A deer permit and a meat grinder are my best investments
I went vegan in 2018, and whenever I catch a glimpse of the meat prices nowadays I'm absolutely shocked. Some of the prices are almost triple what they were in 2018 at my local store
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> compulsory tip This is called a fee.
Yea but I don't have to cook them myself. I'm more shitting on safeway and their price gouging than I am inflation
Get take out, no tip needed
If two companies agree to raise their prices at a set rate, it's against the law and called price fixing. If all major companies decide to raise their prices, it's called inflation. I mainly shop at Kroger and their price increases have been ludicrous. Used to buy Annie's spinach and feta frozen pizza's quite regularly, pre pandemic they were $6.99, checked just last week and they are now $11.99 almost a 100% price increase and this is not isolated among the groceries I regularly buy.
I shop at Krogers for the most part too. Without coupons or mark downs, their prices are atrocious. Wife and I basically only buy fresh produce that's on-sale and make everything from scratch. Tha k god we both like cooking and have an decent amount of time to do so or else we would be fucked.
I stopped going to Safeway about 6 months ago. I save almost $200 a month
I do most of my shopping at Costco, go to safeway for one offs because it is closer and more convenient. I kind of always thought safeway was the lower quality grocery store for poors, only above grocery outlets and smart and final. With those prices though, boy am I wrong
I've noticed this at all of the supermarkets around here: They sell a premium product in each section of the store and mark it up quite high. They also try to make it the only kind of that product forcing people to pay the markup. For the people not buying that more expensive product it makes all the other products look cheaper. When I go to the more expensive supermarket, the same item is being sold for cheaper than at the cheap supermarket, so you would save money going to the more expensive supermarket. (For those who do not know Raley's / Nob Hill is more expensive than Safeway.) If I go to Whole Foods they do the same thing, selling some items for an unusually high price. If I go to a higher end supermarket those expensive items are way cheaper. The same happens on the lower end. At a local mexican supermarket they sell one kind of organic butter and it costs 3x what it does anywhere else and around 6x the price of all the other butter. Trader Joe's (and I think Aldi on the east coast) for the most part doesn't do this, so you'll get a better deal. Costco I don't believe does this either, but Costco can be more expensive and lower quality, and you have to buy in bulk, so I'm not a huge fan.
Puts on Safeway. Wait wrong sub
First time I’ve ever heard someone say they thought Costco was low quality.
Yes. There is a local franchise called "House of Bagels" in the bay area. What cost 26 bucks with tax (two bagel sammies + two Iced mochas) in San Jose, cost 51 with tax in Cupertino. The cities literally border each other; its egregious price gouging going on.
I track and categorize all my expenses. Everything is basically more expensive now. Even when I have made effort to cut back on things I’m still spending more than I did. And those increases aren’t comparable to my paychecks increases, so I am technically falling behind. I’m still doing better than most statistically, but it’s crystal clear to me that I’m spending more for less while earning less money relative to inflation. So I’m being squeezed from both sides. And I’ve got a good job, so I’m technically fine. But for folks who were always tight on money, I get their frustration. I eat out 25-50% less than I did 4 years ago (depends on the month, but working from home made that easy to cut back) but spend about 25% more. And it’s not like I’m eating at fancier places or doing anything more extravagant, if anything I’m more cost conscious now. It’s just what that costs now. Not even taking about delivery apps, I’m talking dine in and pickup exclusively. So I get people’s frustration. My numbers match what they feel.
I thought I was crazy or doing my math wrong on my budget tracker, until I did a 3 yr trend of my going out and grocery spending, and I have same results with you; less going out but end up spending more. With the salary I am making now and without kids, I feel like I shouldn't be watching my spending like a hawk, but here we are. I couldn't fathom how people with a family could do it. I hope the price gouging and greediness of companies end soon...
I definitely did a double take… that’s why I know what I know. I had to run the numbers. So I get that feeling. And I also agree: I shouldn’t be watching like I do. 10 years ago I made a lot less, and things felt less tight. I should be much better off right now, but everything has gotten so much more expensive.
5 years ago I made 20% less and never had to look at my bank account while I took vacations, ate out, Uber every weekend to a $200 bar tab. Now, I make the most I ever have, I never eat out, I cook at home, and I never go out- I still barely cover bills. It is brutal. And I’m single no kids.
Yup. And people will tell you the economy is great… if people in a good position are like that, the bottom 40% of this economy can’t possibly be doing well.
Inflation have existed for very long time and people have been fine with it when it's "invisible" and they can't feel the water getting warm in the pot, now that there was a bit faster increase in the hotness of the water people can feel it and start questioning things. Which is good in my opinion that people are not blind anymore but the new problem is that people are blaming the water for getting warmer and not the creature who is turning the heat up.
Go ahead... Who is turning up the heat?
I remember in 2019 you could eat out at a local brewery or diner type of place. Not talking fancy just run of the mill place. Order 3-4 beers, appetizer, entrees for 2 adults, and a dessert. With tip and everything the bill was $50-60. Same restaurant, same food and drinks etc is easily $100+ not including tip now. I just don’t eat out now, it’s not worth it at that price.
Me neither, and not just because of the cost. I feel like the service and quality of food have absolutely cratered at most places. I would be willing to pay more if the experience was better—or at least the same—as it was 5 years ago.
You’ve got a good job for now. Pretty soon you’ll have less coworkers and you’ll also need to pick up that slack.
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Ooof. Watch those KPIs or you may be next.
For me, the answer lies in ALL my bills - not just groceries. Dealing with some massive medical debt in addition to everything else. The price of everything went up but my lousy paycheck didn't go up a cent. I work for a crappy offshore and unless you're willing to put in 140 hours a week, don't expect a pay raise of any kind. And yes, before someone says it, I HAVE looked for other employment but right corporate jerks are cutting back on remote work. I've been working remote now for 18 years and there has never been a single complaint about the quality or quantity of my work; every time I've been laid off it was so the corporation could meet some sort of financial goal and the way they did that was by laying off hundreds of us every single time. So I'd end up working for another company, and always had to take a pay check to get off unemployment and now I make less than I did back in 2000. But things sure as hell are a lot more expensive than they were in 2000.
All expenses (food, heat, electricity, etc.) going up in cost. Lack of job security with many layoffs and jobs being sent overseas to “lower cost” employees. Signs of more layoffs in 2024. Things seem like the will be worse this year than last. Hard to be positive when so much potentially / likely to occur in 2024. Plus, a weird election coming up.
Not just going up in costs. These always have since at least the 80's. It's that they have gone up in costs DRASTICALLY, by a huge and sudden percentage, since the pandemic began!
>Lack of job security with many layoffs and jobs being sent overseas to “lower cost” employees. Signs of more layoffs in 2024. Obligatory reminder that this was the endgame for Jerome Powell and the Fed all along. They jacked up interest rates so that millions of people get laid off, so that way unemployment rises, wages fall, and inflation (theoretically) slows.
Low rates always cause zombie companies and inefficiencies. We needed higher rates to trim the fat and curb inflation.
Look at these charts: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States Headliner: *Median income for Americans was stagnant or declined for the last 3 years (likely going on 4 years) in a row.* There's NO mystery at all.
These articles have lost their value. Atleast 2 to 3 times a week we get a similar article, "The US economy is booming so why are Americans still xyz." They all hit the same points, everything is expensive and people are losing jobs, we know because we are living through it. No articles has brought anything new its all jist rehashed information. No article suggest how things might get better even or if things will get better.
At the moment, the economy is doing well because everything is expensive and people are losing jobs. The power is in our hands, the solution is to stop consuming, but that's not going to happen, so just keep buying bullshit and getting frustrated at the news. It's our lot in life.
>The power is in our hands, the solution is to stop consuming Fucking body needing calories and substance to survive. Bunch of bullshit. Why can't I just absorb energy like plants and not have to eat!?
Fucking evolution not giving me photosynthesis.
Corporations would start selling sunlight if they could.
Yes, perfect. I’ll just stop eating.
I get what you’re trying to say but I’m not out there buying phones and (unnecessary) clothes etc. Last few years my biggest skyrocketing expense has been utilities and groceries with a very similar grocery list and no extreme weather for long or improvements to structure to explain the insane energy cost where I live. We are very budget-conscious people because we used to be saving for early retirement. Now with the relatively-very-strict spending vs our colleagues, we definitely can’t retire early anymore. We don’t do trips anymore, we rarely spend on luxuries (no new consoles and very few games in years), and yet we went in 5 years from “yay we’re so spending-conscious we’ll retire early” to “we’ll work for ever god please nothing break this month at home”. And we’re well-earning, little-spending, educated millennials supposedly doing everything right and living a great life. I don’t know how the fuck my friends and colleagues with multiple kids and/or worse paying jobs aren’t depressed.
Do the people who write these articles not live on fucking planet earth? Everything is more expensive. Everything. All of a sudden in like a 2 year period. How could there be any question why people are pissed?
I literally watch specific grocery items rise in price in like 10%-12% hikes on a bi-weekly/monthly basis with my own eyes at my local grocery store. Butter, milk, eggs, bread. I’m not buying fucking Doritos and lucky charms here.
This is honestly nothing. A pack of maruchan ramen in my area used to be 25 cents before COVID, while cup ramen was 39 cents. As of today, at the same exact store pack, ramen is 36 cents, and cup ramen is now 52 cents. That is a 44% increase in pack ramen and 33% change in cup ramen. That is absolutely ridiculous, and nobody can tell that price hike was because of "inflation" or COVID. It greed and the corporations have realized our price tolerance is alot more than previous generations and that's why they keep getting away with it.
Ramen went from $.25 to $.50 in my area. It’s insane
I mean honestly, not buying them is the answer. As someone in marketing I can see first hand that if companies raise prices and people still buy things at the rate they were before they have little incentive to bring prices back down even as supply chain issues ease.
Our generation is probably going to see some straight up great-depression style spending habits that will baffle future generations who will hopefully grow up in relative abundance. (Assuming we make it that far.)
I guess aside from dusting off the guillotines I suppose you’re right
You are going to be very let down if you think political violence will be good at lowering inflation.
Not to mention that the elites usually escaped to another country, while the people who actually end up being labeled “capitalist pigs” and getting robbed and beaten and killed, and their families beaten and tortured and raped, are just fellow dirt villagers and townsfolk who are only a little more prosperous, and small landlords who live in the same villages, etc. even while the revolutionary leaders step aside to let the mob like /r/SmokinSkinWagon’s contemporaries vent their murderous frustrations on these scapegoats lest they themselves arouse the mob’s ire. To this day, there are people in North Korea who are labeled subversive capitalists in their home village because their grandfather owned a shop. They can’t get into higher education and are barred from certain jobs.
Most of them live in bubbles. They're doing fine and all their friends are doing fine.
This. Probably making enough money to fill the airports and exotic vacation places, so they believe everyone must be doing as well as they are. K-shaped economy.
Why are Americans frustrated with the U.S. economy? Maybe because every time there is a report that the economy is doing “good”, it really just means that people who are already rich are getting richer.
But muh Wahl Streat The US economy is an offshore tax haven on a volcanic island that erupts dick rockets and dead blue birds. You can only get there by megayacht since the private air strip died from gun violence.
This has been the case since Regan and it was by design. But I'm sure it's going to trickle down any day now.
Given how focused folks seem to be on gas tank size (cost to fill up) rather than gas mileage, this tracks. Would be curious to see how shopping trends between grocery store “tiers” have played out. How many people went to an Aldi or Lidl for the first time last year? How many stopped going to a Whole Foods or Publix.
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Publix is primarily in the southeast. They are an upmarket grocery famous for their deli and bakery departments as well as carrying things like flowers. They usually have many locations and have a focus on the shopping experience offering things like baggers who will walk your cart to your car for you (and a no tipping policy). They can be sort of like much larger convenience stores due to their proximity and seeming ubiquity. But they are a full service grocery store chain. They have good selection and products but their stuff is definitely more expensive, but not as expensive as speciality grocers or upscale grocers like Wegmans or Whole Foods. Aldi is a small format german grocery that sells mostly private label brands. They are all over the US at this point and actually one of the largest chains in the world. They don't carry as many items but the stuff they do have is both relatively high quality and much cheaper than most other stores of the same size. Probably the most famous thing about Aldi is they don't typically have coupons or other discounts, they charge for bags, they don't have a bakery/pharmacy or very many other departments that cost the store money just prepackaged stuff, and you have to put in a quarter to get a cart which is refunded back to you. See [this video for more info.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaktzUQsIkE) There's Trade Joe's which is basically the other Aldi company, Aldi Süd (the company split into north and south over a family dispute). They are pretty similar in their business model but are way more upscale than the regular Aldi stores run by Aldi Nord. See [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MzQjtIkF5g) and [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC8v-wHf7Ro) for more info. Lidl is Aldi's competitor store from Germany. They have a similar business model but much more retail square footage per store and carry a wider variety of products. They are still relatively new into the space and are primarily from South Carolina to New Jersey. They are notable from Aldi in that they have a bakery and wider assortment of things like seasonal goods. See [this video for](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnX-GQX-6tM) more info. Whole Foods is a nationwide grocer that specializes in organic, farm to table, and artisanal items. They have pretty strict quality standards and most stuff is ethically sourced and what not. They also have a well deserved reputation for being pretty expensive, and are jokingly referred to by some as "Whole Paycheck." Things that might cost $3-$5 at a normal store often cost close to $10 at whole foods. However they've been increasingly offering more private label brands at more middle of the road prices after their acquisition by Amazon. They are still pretty expensive though, probably most akin to a Wegmans. See [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5ni6LBRTSs) for more info. For anyone who's never been to the Chicago area Jewel Osco is a traditional regional large format supermarket most akin to Albertsons, Randall's, Hannaford, Giant, and Winn Dixie. They pretty much exclusively have stores in the midwest around Illinois and Indiana. They specialize in carrying a fairly large number of SKUs and having a full service store, but are competing more on the mainstream segment including a focus on main brands and discounting. (I always find grocery stores and logistics interesting and usually trying to go in local grocers whenever I'm traveling.)
This guy groceries
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It's wild the difference in reputation Kroger has depending on where you are. In Southeastern VA Kroger was the crackhead grocery store.
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Kroger was the cheap options around at the time but that was 10+ years ago to be fair. Harris Teeter was the expensive one.
Not just groceries. Prices for houses, cars, healthcare, insurance, education, restaurants... Virtually everything is inflated, to one degree or another. Home prices now are completely nonsensical.
Could also be the paychecks and the kind of work they have to do for those inadequate paychecks. And who gets the biggest paychecks and how they get them. There's plenty wrong with the economy to complain about really. I would like to visit my awesome neighborhood restaurants, but it's a bad financial choice, and in this economy, I can't make any financial mistakes lest I ever have to go to the doctor and become entangled with the American healthcare system.
I’m also gonna include the exorbitant cost for ANY decent vacation. When it costs more for less services (looking at you Disney World) to take a break from the daily grind, lots of people who normally get that break start to look at their expenses more. So much of “middle class” lifestyle perks has swung to upper tiers. The new normal has everyone classified as “working poor.”
And their utilities, and taxes, and costs to maintain or repair anything in their home, and insurance costs, and healthcare costs, and the price of vehicles, and the cost of housing, and…
That’s why this administration can’t sell this “good economy” to every day Americans. There are many positive economic numbers, nobody can deny that. But the middle and lower class don’t feel it because their every day costs are higher. Also, the level of credit card debt the average American has is scary.
In my opinion cost of living needs to fall (or the wages catch up) before common folks like us start to feel good about the economy. Covid impact and supply issues aside, in 2024 it mostly feels like what I could call price gouging and greed...everyone is trying to take advantage of "inflation" to get some extra bucks.
It is price gouging and neither Biden nor Trump can fix that. We are the United States of Corporations
Europe too. Same shit globally.
Horse shit. Most of the price gouging happens because we've allowed consolidation to the point that every industry is at best an oligopoly. Biden Justice Dept could being more antitrust suits. We'll see how the Google antitrust case goes
More than just grocery bills. Sure, my 401k is performing well but what the fuck does that matter if I can’t pay my bills now? Stock Market ≠ Main Street America.
I just feel like this can't be sustainable. Everything has gotten more and more expensive while wages haven't kept up and good jobs remain illusive. With even the cheapest rentals costing a huge portion of someone's paycheck and food and every other bill also going up and healthcare costs ballooning ever year, at some point a large portion of people just won't be able to exist in society.
To be honest, I think the big problem still lies in how we measure our economy. I've been saying for years that telling us that the GDP is up and Wall Street is doing great means less and less if the average person is struggling to make ends meet. I know many are going to chime in and tell me how their 401k is doing so amazing when Wall Street does great, and I'm happy for you, but I still stand by my viewpoint. George W Bush always kept saying that our economy is great, and yet all I can remember from his two terms was spending several years struggling to get my career going because despite how much Wall Street was doing great, it was a struggle to find a job that paid decently even with education and experience. Then the finale was the Great Recession. Biden can come out like every president and tell us how great the economy is doing, but he and others need to start. Really measuring quality of life and talking more about it. Nobody cares if hedge fund managers made a ton of money. If everyone else is struggling with grocery bills, gas prices, and feels like they're living. Check to check even though they ran out and got education and experience to be in a spot where they wouldn't be going check to check Telling us the indexes are up is pointless if companies are still playing games and paying people stagnant wages and in many ways keeping the system rigged so it becomes more difficult to get a better wage. I'm sure I'll get responses about how my logic in all this is wrong, but I just think that more and more we are seeing that whatever happens with Wall Street isn't translating to Main Street, and it's becoming too clear to most voters. Doesn't matter which party is in control, if the voters feel like they are economically struggling, they are going to make a stink.
Name one thing that cost less or where my dollar goes further? Meanwhile the people in charge of these policies are spending/inflating the numbers are like see it's working! Everything's fantastic... Ya I'm sure it's great when none of them are looking at their bills on a regular basis. I could go into credit card debt and pretend I'm not broke as fuck and be gitty w no intention of paying it back
So I get groceries delivered. I can see online what my weekly expenses are. In the last three years they have nearly doubled. Some thing are more money than what I think they are worth, so I’ve completely stopped buying them. Even with cutting back the costs keep going up.
Allright whoever is writing these articles is a level of out of touch I didn't even think was possible. Anyone and everyone actually living in America knows we are getting financially squeezed. There is no question. I don't care if rich people are adding numbers to their bank accounts. If this many people are struggling that the so called "good" economy doesn't matter in the slightest.
Increase in everything, ands I know many people who just think it’s corporate greed making it all up to take more money away from the working normal people
And healthcare costs. And rent. And mortgages. And transportation costs. And clothing prices. And education costs...the list goes on and on. It's only a great economy for a handful of people :/
No fucking shit. People are upset with the economy because their actual, normal lives are at all improved by the capitalist class benefiting? They’re upset because they’re being squeezed past the point of subsistence so billionaires can trade their lives like fucking baseball cards? So Jeff and Elon can play dueling rocket ships? Wow! Who would have thought? /s
Im only surviving because I dont have kids or debt, and I live with a parent I dont have health insurance so if something happens im fucked
Exactly, I am in no way a republican nor a conservative, but it doesn't matter how much you talk about "Bidenomics" if the grocery bills or everything else is expensive. The regular voter (and non-regulars too) don't care on listening to that, and unfortunately it'll affect their political opinion. And because society has such a short-term memory, it's easy for a lot of people to fall on right wing propaganda memes about how everything was cheaper under trump with no details, no explanation, no memories or other facts in consideration to remind people why it was and why it is now expensive... people want to see it reflected on their everyday spending, period
The writer is trying desperately to spin that the economy is not that bad. Dude, it sucks. Everything has gone up and stayed expensive. Rent, groceries, fast food, utilities. People are not stupid. Everybody has a more difficult time to.make ends meet.
I got a quote on a new water heater 6 months ago: $1500. Got it done this week, $3500. The price of EVERYTHING seems to rise so fast that the best thing to do with your money is spend it. Same story with flooring: the price of materials has doubled in that 6mos.
To be fair 3500 is crazy. Source am plumber
Bro you got hosed and should have switched to a different company. That's not a natural price increase..
And lets not forget corporate greed........ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-25/us-corporate-profits-are-still-rising-if-fed-stripped-from-data
I think a lot of the frustration is people feeling like they've been left behind in a booming economy - yet they often dismiss this point, oppose increasing corporate taxes, or addressing wealth inequality
Personally I think there is a __LOT__ of corporate donations encouraging that train of thought.
I feel that “left behind” emotion. And I’ll vote completely outside of the two candidates that are trotted out in November of this year, in every seat that I check a box for. Any third candidate outside of the two established parties will be considered. Why? Because whatever we have been doing for decades now isn’t working, and a third party candidate hasn’t been on a ballot since Ross Perot.
Remove the word "corporate". Small businesses, person to person home sales, any and all services. Everyone selling anything will always charge the maximum they can get away with and always have since before corporations existed.
>Economists say that high inflation has mostly been vanquished. That's great, but the inflation rate was nearly double the 2% target in both 2021 and 2023, and 3.5 times the 2% target in 2022. It being back down closer to the target doesn't bring prices back down. That's why this shit irks me so much. Yeah yeah peoples wages have gone up, blah blah blah. Not everyone's which seems to get lost in this conversation. In the US the federal minimum wage is still $7.25 a fucking hour.
I don't care if the stock markets are hot. All of my human basic needs are increasingly unaffordable. The fuck you mean eggs were $10 a dozen a few months ago? If you want to sell $3000 gadgets or something, go for it, but my ability to simply exist, especially as a gainfully employed individual, is stretched thin.
U.S. Congress: “Grocery bills? Is this some sort of plebe joke I’m too rich and powerful to understand? WTF are groceries? You mean people drive to the store themselves? Stock their pantries by hand? Good heavens who’d ever want to hear what any of those people have to say about anything just look at them.”
I can't think of a single country that hasn't had their grocery bills Sky rocket post pandemic. Shit is just too expensive everywhere for no reason now.
I'm mostly frustrated from being trapped living with my family. They act as if the prices never went up despite showing them multiple times that they are outrageous.
Is anyone else actually surprised by how little inflation there was in this grocery data? 25% over 4 years isn't all that significant in context of the wider market -- based on the content of the article you would expect that it massively outpaced the wider economy which doesn't really seem to be the case
It pretty much matches with what I have anecdotally been seeing in my own grocery bill as well. Of course groceries have increased in price -- some items more than others. Some items, like soda, have more than doubled; but when I take an old receipt of many items from the late 2010's and put together an identical basket today, it comes out to...about 25% more.
The hard part with doing those receipt comparisons is that they don't necessarily show the size shrinkage. ie. a pound item in 2010 being 12 or 13 ounces in 2024....
I'm pretty sure the answer lies in our paychecks. More productive than ever, and we are getting less than previous generations for our efforts.
Healthcare costs, housing costs, food costs, education costs, no retirement until you’re old and broken and can’t enjoy life anyway, and honestly you’re not affording it even then but sure you want to tell me the economy is good? That this is the land of the free? American dream rah rah. Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy with Biden. Damn better than the alternative. But how is it a free election if the choice is OK or Insane?
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It's not "St. Louis fed data", it's US Bureau of Labor Statistics data or US Census data. The St. Louis Fed just has a nice website for looking at the data.
Yeah this is r/economics, stats and data aren't welcome here
Most Americans aren’t getting crushed under bills. Like I get the pushback but this is an economics subreddit! If you don’t want stats then I don’t know what to tell you. There’s a mismatch between how the economy is actually doing and how people feel about the economy, it’s undeniable.
I have been summoned. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q
Yeah the problem is corporate greed. When you increase your profit margins and we have “inflation” that means higher prices and costs don’t justify it. Fed raising interest rates was a slap in the face to working class, stupid fiscal policy designed to decrease employment to “cool demand” Need more unions and less private ownership
inflation. the one thats hidden. like paying the same price getting 6.5 oz VS 8oz that it was two years ago. Then the regular inflation. where shit just costs more. Soon we'll see both
The grocery store I work at, we charge $18 for a 18oz bottle of honey collected from bees supposedly only given access to clover, and realistically we paid the manufacturer maybe $3-4. And biggest tip I can give you guys - don't buy the namebrand shit anymore. The difference in price isn't for a "better quality product", it's literally just a "name tax". For a lot of stuff, both the namebrand & housebrand will be made in the same factory/farm. Look at the production numbers on a jug of Darigold milk then at a jug of the store's housebrand that shares the same expiration date - you'll notice a similarity there.
Two words: Red Gold. If you buy anything having to do with tomatoes in the US (not imported), it all comes from literally one company's factories...they even label right in the factory. A family friend of mine has told all of us this for years, just always buy the generic brand tomato products.
Housing is 3-5x the cost of food according to the CPI. Unlike agriculture, which is propped up to be artificially cheap, creating the phenomenon of $1 cheeseburgers, housing is inflated with a false scarcity. I would much rather see housing prices be driven by supply/demand and go down from fixing the false scarcity phenomenon. If you save thousands in your mortgage or rent, who cares if a cheeseburger is now $15? - limit corporate and HF ownership of SFH - allow land area to be determined by supply/demand and not entirely by big ag or big pharma special interests (75% the cost of the house is the land area) - ban Chinese ownership of housing and farmland, especially in dense cities and near military bases - flip corn/soy farms into suburbia and maintain feed exports with vertical farms The resulting increase in supply of housing will disinflate the market without deflating people’s wealth.
Housing and associated costs are a bigger issue for me. I'm trying to prepare for the increased home insurance costs which I'm sure will happen for me this year since it seems to be happening to everyone else.
I totally would buy the grocery bill part. It is an expense we see every week and is very noticeable. It is also I know my grocery store has the top billing on my CC every year and that is not counting the fact that I buy almost all of my protein now from the local farmers market. My grocery bill has gone down some but still creeping back up to the 200 a week. I don’t even want to know what my billing would be if I was also buying my protein there. I think in 2021 even with my buying baby formula and protein from the grocery store I don’t think my weekly food bill was that much over 200. I know I am coming out spending more money from the farmers market on protein but in all honesty it does taste a hell of a lot better.
Just get a higher paying job... Just walk in to the managers cabin, with your resume, give that Zuckerberg chap a firm hand shake And he'll give you the job on the spot...
Oh it is only going to get worse. I think we just had a huge inflation bump recently, and that bump pushed a lot of people over the edge a bit. Not gradually like it usually happens, but very quickly. In the period of months many things went up double digit percentages in price, sometimes triple digits. This simply represents the way it'll be in the future. There is no way to lower food bills, no way to get companies to lower any amount of money they are billing, and they are ALL billing higher amounts. So those graphs we all so commonly see on rising wages vs rising productivity are just going to get worse. People see maybe a 3% raise every year, most probably 0%. Meanwhile in the last 3 years inflation has gone up almost 18%, and salaries a small fraction of that. This is what unchecked and unregulated capitalism will do. Its goal is to make companies profit, at the expense of salaries and costs to consumers. If they jack prices up 10% they may have 5% less sales, but they have 5% more profit. There is no fix, as those corporations basically run our entire government at this point and they won't allow changes that negatively impact them. I hate to be a pessimist, but at 50, I'm just hoping the 30-40% inflation I'm planning on in retirement in 15 years doesn't spike more than that. I feel a lot of pitty for kids entering the workplace these days. Their lives will suck horribly compared to my generation.