Gallup released a poll showing that 20 percent of American's cannot afford enough food for their families and the number that can afford enough food is declining.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The percentage of Americans reporting that they had enough money to buy the food they or their families needed continued to decline in October, nearing the record low seen in November 2008. The percentage who did not lack money for food in 2011 fell to 79.8% from 80.1% in September, continuing a decline that began in April.
could itLess people being able to afford basic needs is yet another sign that something is very wrong. Found it interesting that the article didn't really examine the question of why that is:
This measure -- which asks if one had enough money to buy food in the past 12 months -- has decreased to its lowest level of the calendar year each October since 2009. The reason for this pattern is unclear and does not appear to be related to world food prices. In 2008, fewer Americans reported that they had enough money to buy food in August and November than in October, likely affected by high gas prices in the former case and the onset of the economic crisis in the latter. Still, this October finds fewer Americans saying that they had enough money to buy food over the past year than in each October for the past three years.
I am not sure how people not being able to afford food cannot be related to food prices but I am not an economist, I was an English and Philosophy major that does IT for a living. I do know that the basic items I buy weekly have gotten more expensive over the past several years and my income has not increased to keep pace with the increases. Investopedia defines inflation as "The rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services is rising, and, subsequently, purchasing power is falling."
Food prices at the grocery store are going up and are projected to continue to increase increase.
Federal officials expect grocery prices to rise 3 to 4 percent overall in 2012. That change represents a slight tapering off from the 5 percent jump seen this year. But it's still dramatically higher than 2009 and 2010, when food-price inflation was the lowest since the 1960s.
Eggs have seen a yearly price increase of 23 percent, looks like not many of us will be able to afford those soon.
Why can less of us not afford the food we need, it certainly can't be inflation because core inflation has been holding steady the last several years.
Food prices are part of the federal Consumer Price Index, which determines the month-to-month rate of inflation. Because food and fuel costs can swing wildly, they're factored out of the core inflation rate, which has changed little in recent years.
Core inflation was running 2.1 percent at the end of October. Meanwhile, food inflation was running at 4.7 percent, nearly double the long-term average rate.
Again I am not an economist but food inflation being double the long term average rate could maybe mean less people can afford food. We have had QE 1 and two and QE 3 may be coming
soon but that doesn't mean stuff could get more expensive, or could it ?