I agree.


So Sith, quit your effing complaining and blaming of Obama and work harder and STFU already.

 

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American food prices are dirt cheap compared to world-wide, and we waste so much. When you don't fight against globalization, but embrace it, it is inevitable that our quality of life will begin to equalize.

If you want to make big bucks you improvise. Admittedly this is getting harder to do for any domestic-centric business, as on average people simply have less purchasing power and more spending choices.

 

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Yes

I have a buddy who quit his cushy government job. He started his own company and is doing well. We talked this weekend and you know what he said (not exact words)

We don't try to compete with the Chinese. They can produce low to medium quality stuff cheaper. That's a losing game. We design and produce high quality merchandise. Our team even thought about a slogan based upon we cater to the 1% but we figured while true and amusing it was also suicide.

The US needs to go back to doing what we do well - innovate.

 

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Sith, costs always go up. For you and your employer. You're wages have to keep going up too. So do the prices where you work. It's just how things work. but trust me, if your boss thinks you'll accept not making more money he'll be more than happy not to give you more. Ask for a raise. When he says his costs went up just tell him that's the cost of doing business, but you still want a raise because your costs are also going up all the time. Your expenses do not take a break because his food costs went up.

 

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your chart doesn't mean much, if other places people are paying less for other things like housing, heating, cooling, it would raise the percentage that food makes of their budget.

 

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I too blame others for my shortfalls. I don't believe in personal responsibility.

/sarcasm

 

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I guess you could hypothesis that Korea's other expenses are lower so they are not hampered by spending 15% of their money on food, but I'm skeptical. Overall I'd guess people in all countries try to budget food and splurge on food pretty similarly. If anything the US food budget is more discretionary costs, like eating out.

Of course a Pakistani living in a mud hut probably has very cheap housing costs, doesn't mean it is less of a burden to spend nearly half of your money on food though.

 

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There are a bunch of reasons why food prices are going up.


A lot of them are because of natural and not so natural disasters, such as the BP oil spill.

Some of them are because of domestic and international economic stagnation.

Some are even our own policies on immigration.

A lot are because of subsidies on food.

Even more are a result of unstable fuel prices.

Monopolistic practices of agricultural industries that are supported by paid of legislators couldn't be without blame.


Once again, people will continue to point to a single problem like inflation and say that it's the cause for all of it when it's not.

They'll continue to support politicians that vote in favor of farm subsidies, immigration and minimum wage laws that make agriculture cost prohibitive, environmental policies that destroy farm and ocean resources, food patents, restrictions on fuel exploration...

Everyone wants a magical solution, and whenever you want a magical solution the best thing to do is point to something that you don't understand like inflation. Then you get to bitch about the problem without ever actually having to make real decisions on how to solve it...

 

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Wait, so people in abject poverty spend a larger portion of their budget on food?

You've gotta be profanity me.

 

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I didn't know Canada, Austria and South Korean were in abject poverty, news to me.

 

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