With respect to both the arc of history and compared to other countries, food in the US is abnormally cheap due to a combination of subsidies and environmentally destructive overproduction. But the current price hikes are not reflective of an economy rebalancing itself with nature and directing more resources to the agricultural workforce, and they’re putting pressure on people because the economy is designed to extract wealth from people in so many other ways.
I get that a lot of people have it worse than me as a highly privileged European. However I also “couldn’t” pay 50% of my income for food because that amount of money is already going to my landlord… I wonder how that quota should look like in a fair society.
With respect to both the arc of history and compared to other countries, food in the US is abnormally cheap due to a combination of subsidies and environmentally destructive overproduction. But the current price hikes are not reflective of an economy rebalancing itself with nature and directing more resources to the agricultural workforce, and they’re putting pressure on people because the economy is designed to extract wealth from people in so many other ways.
What countries because my eyes regularly fall out of my head when I see US grocery prices from across the pond
As a proportion of income, overall food expenditures are lower:
Standard caveats apply, this doesn’t minimize the struggles of our food insecure population and the benefits are not evenly distributed.
I get that a lot of people have it worse than me as a highly privileged European. However I also “couldn’t” pay 50% of my income for food because that amount of money is already going to my landlord… I wonder how that quota should look like in a fair society.
If the GDPpc is about $200 per day (it’s higher than that), <7% translates to below $14 per person per day on food spending.
Most people I know work jobs that are anchored close to minimum wage, and among these I’m still unusual for spending less than $10 a day on food.