Cost of living in the modern USA

originally posted by: Ravenwatcher

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: Ravenwatcher

Times as tough as they are, are compounded by the gadgets we apparently need to own now.

Imagine no internet, cable, phone bills.

The folks during the Great Depression had it much worse than we ever did.

There's no comparison ?
(1929–1939) Ten years of the economy crashing and didn't the president make it illegal to own gold and confiscated everyone's ? That's when it all started ....... Not sure your point

I could live in a community that was self sufficient on a barter system Grow and give and trade but it's hard to find that many willing to do it .

Wow , I didn't know they confiscated gold. Sounds like something the Nazis did during WW2 and when they looted Jewish homes. One is legalized, the other an act during a 'war'. It's all theater, it's all controlled by the few to benefit only themselves.

a reply to: BingoMcGoof

I went with walk in restaurants as did you.
If you got two meals for 5 bucks less than 2 years ago, that's amazing. I do not believe it.
2 years ago, I had a student meet me for breakfast with his eldest and my eldest. It certainly was a decently priced check, but we were still looking at over $60 for four.

That's not at a drive up.
What is your actual point?
We never went into fast food in our discussion?

We stock up on butter when it is on sale. Recently we bought ten pounds of LOL European style butter on sale for 3.49 a pound. We freeze it and rotate it, butter can be frozen for twelve months without a problem. Right now we have around twenty six pounds in our freezer. We bought three cans of Folgers coffee last week at six ninety nine...twenty six ounce on sale. The regular price of coffee has skyrocketed, last time we stocked up we got thirty+ ounces of coffee for 5.49 after buying it on sale plus using the stores five bucks off three cans at checkout...we went twice to the store that week, neither time did we have to go out of our way very much. We are back up to fifteen full cans of coffee plus a can we just opened on the counter. We have to buy wisely, we are both on Social security and do not want to use up our savings, if one of us dies we will need that savings to offset the loss of one income on SS.

We have a well, and our water is better tasting than bottled water, the well is in an underground stream or river, it has no taste at all. We buy sliced American cheese, the real stuff not the cheese food, usually on sale for less than nine bucks for three pounds of sliced cheese. We have a vaccuum packer, so I package the cheese into half pound packs and we freeze it. That vaccuum packer helps us to buy when things are on sale. We buy the bags when they are on sale at Menards, a hundred pints or seventy five quart bags for around six bucks after rebate. The rolls are also bought on good sales, we bought lots on the last sales so our stocks are good till the next good sale. The drawback is we have three full size upright freezers full right now, half a head of beef fills one up. I like when we get down to two freezers, if a longer power outage occurs, I have to run cords to the freezers and run the small generator for an hour a day for each freezer to keep the temp below Zero degrees F.

We are set up to buy supplies when good sales happen, both of us being retired gives us the time to shop wisely. We try to also watch the miles, and combine trips. What good is it to save three bucks if it costs you four bucks to drive there, plus wear and tear on the car and tires.

Most people do not have the time or organization we have, every can is dated and rotated and we rarely go past the best buy date, so getting any bigger is hard for stocking, we do not want to be throwing out food that is old either.

We have a couple of grand in stocked cangoods and dry goods, but we have saved double that buy stocking and restocking at sales prices. We can visually check our stores and have a list of foods and supplies on the table so we can compare restocking to sales prices in the stores. Again, not many working people have time to do that.

But even with that, the regular price of lots of stuff three years ago was cheaper than a good sale price today. We cannot change that, but we do not have to pay the regular high price very often on food the way we do it.

a reply to: randomtangentsrme

My point I guess is not directed at you so much as it was at the whole idea of these price increases being the fault of this current administration. If you might have taken my comments as being directed at you , I must have misspoken as I do not know your own proclivities. But in general, I think that we, all of us , have allowed our citizenship to be converted to consumership and that that is how we are really losing, or have lost our sovereignty.

a reply to: BingoMcGoof

I was told by a confidant back in the 90s that one of the NWO directives was to make everyone into a mindless consumer.

I guess they were right.

We can't afford our groceries anymore. We have had to cut back and live as if we were already retired and on a fixed income. Not the healthiest way to eat and live. We've done everything 'right' ... went to school and worked and saved and raised a family "correctly" ... but I see being homeless as a possibility in our future. That was something I never dreamed could happen because we did it 'right' and we are supposed to be covered until we die. But we won't be. Life got too expensive and our savings won't cover it for long enough.

I believe there are nefarious corporations that read these type internet threads. They find out what is cheap and raise the price a little. Ohh the southerner that’s bragging about cheap gas, can’t have that, raise the price. The butter that’s already high, let’s make a fake butter shortage, have a run on butter. $$$.

Eggs? Cheap source of protein everyone is talking about on that survival forum? Nope can’t have that, raise the price!

Toilet Paper? No need to explain that one.

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

cheaper to eat fast food? LOL no it isn't.

what are you even talking about?

I can make 10 cheeseburgers from scratch for the same price it cost to buy 3 from mcdonalds.

originally posted by: Ravenwatcher
Even bottled water is more expensive then Beer at this point .

Where the hell do you live??? Because I'm about to take a trip with a large truck.

Inflation is a form of taxation.

The minimum wage increase that equaled or bettered what an Associates and sometimes Bachelors got as a hire salary/wage before then.

Commodities are naturally going to rise with it.

What it did was create a new middle and all those with student loans? A lot of debt over their heads at the same time... Making worse or the same as minimum wage with no student loan debt.

a reply to: GENERAL EYES

Yeah, it's a conspiracy not often addressed which tells me just how effective it has become. I think it was first called to my attention by my mother who became enraged at a Lays potato chip commercial when they were advertising their new idea of individual bags of chips to send to school in lunch boxes. Until then, chips had all been big bags for families and parties.

The commercial depicted a pretty little girl eating a small bag of chips when her brother approached her and asked for some. She said, ''no'' , ''go get your own bag''. My mother went through the roof at the idea of teaching children selfishness and refused to get those bags for our lunch boxes.

Later I read a lot of Phillip K Dick who peppered all of his writing with the observation on the developing commercialization of society. In the late 70s I found a book called ''The Hidden Persuaders'' by Vance Packard that had been written twenty years earlier exposing the push to commercialize the public and I was stunned. He had hit it on the head while I was still in grade school and it had taken me twenty years more to even hear about that book.

I've found over the years that commercials have become more and more manipulative and a lot of that is through entertainment. They are very entertaining rather than just informative as they had been when the industry had begun way way back. This condition of becoming consumers of entertainment has spilled over into every aspect of our lives. Just look around. This is why I am very leery of any person who runs for public office by being the most entertaining candidate on the stage.

a reply to: Boomer1947

That is very good information. This part stands out to me. I went and looked at when offshoring of manufacturing jobs began and it was in the 60’s. Now not only manufacturing jobs have been offshored but call centers etc. I believe that this is a huge part of the problem. Both R’s and D’s let this happen. What does not escape me is the fact that manufacturing generally means environmental damage- I.e. China.

Currently, I have been pondering that the open border purpose could serve as soldiers for war, and people for manufacturing companies that may be coming back to the US. At the very least the immigrants can be used for cheaper labor than people that are currently employed in those existing manufacturing jobs. There are numerous office buildings not in use currently; I can just see them being used to house employees/laborers where they work (yikes).

But here's the most interesting thing--the disposable income per capita in constant 2023 dollars (adjusted for inflation):
Biden: $46,557
Trump: $48,286
Obama: $48,811
Bush Jr.: $49,141
Clinton: $53,895
Bush Sr.: $54,005
Reagan: $60,887
Carter: $67,143
Ford: $95,602
Nixon: $110,961
LBJ: $130,520
In other words, the real purchasing power of the average working person is today only about 35% of what it was in 1963! Is it any wonder that families need 2 earners working more than one job each, just to get by? And it didn't matter which flavor of President was in office--R or D; disposable income went down every Presidential term for the last 60 years. Meanwhile, the disposable income of the top 1% has grown at greater than the GDP growth rate. Why is that?

a reply to: OnlyYouKnow2

The forex in that can be played by activating call centers based on if the forex is up or down in whatever countries a corporation has at its disposal to do so... To not only mettle the best price but profit at the same time. Like if the forex is up in India but down in Singapore... Calls get routed to Singapore until the exchange rate goes up then cashed in and moved to the next place cheaper in a cycle of exchange rates increasing and decreasing due to longer term trade value.

The conspiracy would be saying it is played that way; When I honestly don't know.

a reply to: crowf00t

That is a fascinating take.

a reply to: OnlyYouKnow2

Such a thing could be firewalled and forced to be in the host country since it is likely internet based calling... However; That would likely be a touchy subject since it would cost both jobs and diplomacy; Also however if it comes at the cost of exploiting people for the best price one can get? That's where human rights and value gets into a grey area... Where slavery and indentured servitude hasn't been outlawed or abolished worldwide... Where people just like things; Are said to have a 'price'.

originally posted by: Ravenwatcher
We are being forced to start growing and hunting , It's becoming cheaper to go out to eat/fast food . I went out and paid $6.00 for 4 sticks of butter my Wife usually orders for delivery but we ran out . $6.00 for a pack of 4 butter sticks ?

Even bottled water is more expensive then Beer at this point . I'm not understanding the justifications for these increases on items that are chaep to make . It cost me and my wife household of 2 $600 to eat for a month nothing crazy Chicken, Milk, Cheese It's getting bad , Food items have tripled in price in the last few years How does a family making a Midwest income afford to feed their kids ?

What is this push to have fast foods or processed foods be cheaper then real food ?

Now thats not even including Utilities My water bill is like $30 but my Waste water bill is like $80 . I'm going to hate to see my gas bill this month .

Cost of living: Too high

a reply to: FlyersFan

I'll keep you and your family in my prayers.

I know it's not much but it's all I can offer right now.

Stay strong don't lose hope.

Tough times don't last but tough people do.

Everything has been built back better. Or so they tell me.