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Woland Special user 680 Posts |
You get diminishing returns in all aspects of (economic) life. It's called "Pareto's Principle." (The 80 for 20 rule.)
I realized after posting the second of my appeals to the USDA that I was missing what you were saying about the difference between percentage of total income and the number of hours it takes to earn the money for food purchases. However, since even minimum wages have increased dramatically over the past 50 years, it stands to reason that the number of hours you have to work, even at minimum wage, to buy food has diminished. Inflation muddies the waters, however. Here's one analysis of hours worked and......to find. It's not one of the articles I read in the past on which my thinking was based, but it will do in order to stimulate your next comment: Quote:
We tend to look back at Depression era prices and think how cheap everything was. But in 1938, when the minimum wage law was first enacted, the rate was 25 cents an hour. The worker who made that had to work 9 ¼ hours to pay for my shopping list. At the bottom of the ladder, people literally worked for food. The diversion of the corn crop to biofuel may be what sparked the revolts in Libya and Egypt, too. |
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landmark Inner circle within a triangle 5194 Posts |
So if I read your excerpt correctly, you're basically confirming my original contention: it did not take more labor to buy food 40 years ago. I understand that you want to get the dig in against Obama, but it kind of undermines your argument about the historical trend in general.
Click here to get Gerald Deutsch's Perverse Magic: The First Sixteen Years
All proceeds to Open Heart Magic charity. |
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Woland Special user 680 Posts |
I don't think so. In general, the working man spends less working time earning the money it takes to feed his family, than he did 50 or 75 years ago. And the food is generally of better quality, too. Fresher, with more variety, and more choices. The fact that food prices have escalated in the past few years because carbonophobic hucksters have succeeded in diverting as much as 40% of the American corn crop into biofuels is just a fact, as reported by TIME Magazine, for example, that's all.
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landmark Inner circle within a triangle 5194 Posts |
Again, from your excerpt above:
"In 1961, the minimum wage was up to $1.15, and the market basket took only 3 ¾ hours." and then this: "by 1991, when the minimum, wage rose to $4.25, my market basket was right back to 4 hours of minimum wage time." and this: "That is, until now. The market basket now takes 5 ½ hours to earn." Your contention from before was that workers spend less than ever on food with the exception of the Obama years. Your excerpt from above seems to contradict this except for the Obama part. As for food freshness and quality, yes and no. While I appreciate being able to buy plums in the middle of the New York City winter, I feel sad for most people who have no idea what a tomato can taste like. Same for milk in glass bottles, freshly laid eggs, and the perfect vanilla egg cream.
Click here to get Gerald Deutsch's Perverse Magic: The First Sixteen Years
All proceeds to Open Heart Magic charity. |
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Dannydoyle Eternal Order 21219 Posts |
It takes a villiage.
Danny Doyle
<BR>Semper Occultus <BR>In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act....George Orwell |
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balducci Loyal user Canada 227 Posts |
Quote:
On 2011-09-25 16:24, Woland wrote: Did you read the article? "No one is arguing that biofuels are solely responsible for driving up food prices." It is A factor, but may or may not be the most significant. There are many other factors, even beyond the ones the article mentioned. The 40% bit IS (more or less) true. But it is ALSO true that corn production has risen by a VERY significant amount over the same period. (And the production figure is INCREDIBLY volatile from year to year.) Note that US corn production was about 228 million tons in 2002, and was about 316 million tons last year (record US corn production levels in several of the most recent years). A lot of other (non-US) nations have also started to export corn to world markets for the first time in the last year or two.
Make America Great Again! - Trump in 2020 ... "We're a capitalistic society. I go into business, I don't make it, I go bankrupt. They're not going to bail me out. I've been on welfare and food stamps. Did anyone help me? No." - Craig T. Nelson, actor.
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