[WildRose]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrairieMule', 'W')R-Sorry not being critical, I can relate to your plight.

[WildRose]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('strider3700', 'p')rice increases on the things that I buy(I don't do the weekly shopping just the quarterly costco run usually) are somewhere in the 10-20% year over year increases. Meats being the worst.

[strider3700]

boxed chicken breasts where the thing that tipped me off. $28, $28, $28, $35...



if you want to see real inflation look at fast food. The meal I reguarly would buy from wendies went from 6.07 in 1998 to 8.11 last fall. It's now dropped to 7.59 but they've adjusted the sizing. I've since stopped buying.

same goes for 1L bottles of coke from the local corner store. $2.04 2.5 years ago, 2.30 now with stops at 2.14, and 2.20 in between.

I also noticed that subway no longer lists the prices for footlong subs on their new menu's. Probably because a footlong turkey sub was $8 yesterday. Add a drink and some cookies and you're looking at $11 for a frigging sandwich.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrairieMule', ' ')

My dad just broke down and butchered a calf once a year.

[Jack]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gg3', 'C')haparral, very interesting observation about old coins in circulation. That could provide a statistically trackable indicator. Hmm! I can see how to turn this into a research protocol. Get two rolls of pennies each week (total of 100 pennies), count up the number in each year, track the changes over time, correlate with the Dow and the NASDAQ.

[I_Like_Plants]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrairieMule', 'W')R-Sorry not being critical, I can relate to your plight.

In the summer of 1985 my growth spurt hit full steam right after I turned 15. I grew from 5'10 to 6'2 in like 5 months. From the time I was 8 until 18 I drank a gallon of WHOLE milk a day. Nothing was safe in the fridge or cuboard. Running the half mile on the track team kept me lean but requred more inputs. Drove my parents nuts, No kidding.

My dad just broke down and butchered a calf once a year. Saved a heck of a lot of money and I ate beef 3-4 times a week. Roasts, hamburgers, flank steaks.

[basil_hayden]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gnm', ' ')Definitely seeing food prices increasing here. No more lunches out, I bag it everyday. -G

[Pretorian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('WildRose', 'O')ne thing that has been raising the hairs on my neck lately is price inflation with groceries. I live in Alberta, and of course with our boom economy currently the rents and house prices are much higher, but I have really noticed inflation in my grocery bills. With a family of five we are struggling to spend less than $1200 a month on groceries. Last week I spent $350 and honestly, where did it go. I am having to plan meals very carefully, we all take bag lunches to work and school and these do not contain convenience foods. I wonder if people in other cities are noticing their grocery bills steadily climbing.

Also, the cost of utilities is steadily increasing. I had a call from our local natural gas company asking if I wanted to go on one of their prepayment plans, supposedly to save our family money now that the gas is deregulated. The thing is, everyone I know who is on one of these plans pays more per year for their natural gas than I do. Of course, the representative from the gas company pushed the idea that being on a plan would protect us from rising natural gas prices. I just told her, no thanks, when the gas gets really expensive we will just use much less of it. I wonder what the utility companies plan to do when the costs of gas and electricity become really expensive and people cannot pay their bills or have to delay paying a bill for a couple weeks. To me, it seems ridiculous that these utility trucks would be stepping up their trips all around the city, disconnecting and reconnecting people to their utility supplies all the time.

A lot of people I know have had to scale back spending, especially for entertainment and driving. However, the malls and big box stores here still are crowded on the weekends. I only go shopping when I really need something.

[I_Like_Plants]

Pretorian, you were a wealthy kid - that amount was what we had to feed 6 people on, although it was generally not that much or of as high quality.

Yeah, "eat the rich", it's sounding pretty good and I'm not even a starving kid any more.

Revolution, bring it on.

[Pretorian]

Where are u from ILP? Please dont tell me stories about hard poor people's lifes in the States-- food is dirt cheap here. My wife told me stories about how poor they were when they were kids-- but knowing my M in L I am not surprised at all. Sometimes I think that having money actually do hurt her somehow, I cant think of any other reason to justify all that waste.
I think an average American family waste between 20 to 60% of their income. So, $4-$4.5 gas will just reduce this waste to a meager 10 to 40%.

[I_Like_Plants]

Pret I'm from California, grew up in Hawaii where I experienced the poverty, now am back in California. I'm sure the hunger would have been worse if I'd grown up in California, at least in Hawaii I could forage or fish.

Tons of hunger, it's just hidden. Homeless are now predominately families, people are taking a choice between eating or paying the rent, etc. School lunch programs help, God knows they helped us, but there's tons of poverty in the US it's just not talked about - might disturb the hereditary middle class who believe in this myth that there's social mobility in the Empire.

We threw NOTHING away, margerine (we could not afford butter) wrappers were licked clean before throwing away. Not a scrap of food went out, nothing ever got a chance to rot or even get stale in our fridge!

Yes, I know there's tons of waste too, remember the American Way is extreme social stratification. So you have all these different levels of haves and have-nots.

Also, food started getting cheaper in the 1980s, portions are huge these days, so while I still think there are pockets of malnutrition like I grew up with, I'm not seeing the kind of rail-thin people now that I was, myself, back in the dirty 1970s. People talk about the dirty 30's but it's the dirty 70's I'll remember. But in an Empire built up on social stratification as a basic belief, there will always be the have-nots who went and got themselves born to the wrong parents and go to bed hungry because of it.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', 'P')ret I'm from California, grew up in Hawaii where I experienced the poverty, now am back in California. I'm sure the hunger would have been worse if I'd grown up in California, at least in Hawaii I could forage or fish.

Tons of hunger, it's just hidden. Homeless are now predominately families, people are taking a choice between eating or paying the rent, etc. School lunch programs help, God knows they helped us, but there's tons of poverty in the US it's just not talked about - might disturb the hereditary middle class who believe in this myth that there's social mobility in the Empire.

We threw NOTHING away, margerine (we could not afford butter) wrappers were licked clean before throwing away. Not a scrap of food went out, nothing ever got a chance to rot or even get stale in our fridge!

Yes, I know there's tons of waste too, remember the American Way is extreme social stratification. So you have all these different levels of haves and have-nots.

Also, food started getting cheaper in the 1980s, portions are huge these days, so while I still think there are pockets of malnutrition like I grew up with, I'm not seeing the kind of rail-thin people now that I was, myself, back in the dirty 1970s. People talk about the dirty 30's but it's the dirty 70's I'll remember. But in an Empire built up on social stratification as a basic belief, there will always be the have-nots who went and got themselves born to the wrong parents and go to bed hungry because of it.

[NEOPO]

Should I tell Plants my life story so he/she will feel better and start feeling sorry for me instead?

[I_Like_Plants]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '
')
Does your past make you angry, Plants?

[Revi]

It seems like all the budgets I know about around here are headed for trouble next year. The town has a huge hole to fill, the state is cutting the amount they are going to spend on education, the national budget is in trouble, and we are going to feel the repercussions of all of it soon. It's not pretty. People are already getting into blaming and talking about who or what should be cut. It's going to be hard times from now on I'm afraid. I liked peak oil much more when it was just an academic exercise. Oh well, we knew this would happen, and here it is.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('NEOPO', 'S')hould I tell Plants my life story so he/she will feel better and start feeling sorry for me instead?

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'F')at and sugar are so cheap now that most people who are poor are also overweight, but malnourished nevertheless. When I was a kid there was no such thing as poor and fat.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TWilliam', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'F')at and sugar are so cheap now that most people who are poor are also overweight, but malnourished nevertheless. When I was a kid there was no such thing as poor and fat.

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'M')ost poor working people do not spend that much time watching television.

[I_Like_Plants]

Yes, a lot of poor nowadays are resorting to the "substitute food for sleep" equation the Eskimos used during their migrations. Interestingly, techies here tell me of similar situations, they have to work TONS of hours so they eat more to keep going. But for the poor it's cheap food, tons and tons of carbs, historically pure carbs like high-fructose corn syrup and white flour, sugar, have been expensive. They really throw the human body out of whack.

We had a few poor fatties around when I was growing up, we were poor count-your-ribs.

Welfare used to be a free ride, but my understanding is, it's not any more. They require work if one is able to, which is fair I guess, and there are few in the US who are enlightened enough to be true welfare cheats. Mostly what you have are people just plain worn out by working since they were 14 or so, heavy physical work, long hours, things like that. The fools believe work is good, and I think you'll find 99% of "welfarites" feel great shame in having to depend on it. That's how brainwashed (idiotic "work ethic") we are.