Your Economy (No Politics)

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New Poll: Nearly 9-in-10 New Yorkers say rising cost of food is outpacing their incomes

By Olivia Murray

Buddy, it’s not “the economy” disallowing affordable food—it’s the dreadfully wretched hive of sewer scum stinking up that little enclave of Maryland known as Washington D.C.

After Big Ag has had its way with you and your family, Big Pharma gets a turn next—thank a politician.

Sure, you can’t afford to eat truly nutritious food the way God intended, and you’re being poisoned by the depleted garbage sold in grocery stores—antibiotic-laced and chemically “aged” beef, GMO produce saturated in pesticides and herbicides, engine lubricant rebranded as “vegetable” oil—but look on the bright side of things, all that medicine you’re going to need after years on the Standard American Diet (yeah, the synthetic insulin, statins, chemo drugs, and heart meds pushed out by Big Pharma) will be cheaper (in theory), thanks to Joe Biden and the Democrats who negotiated on drug prices; at least that’s what Democrat James Clyburn’s response is to the whole unaffordable food and inflation crises consuming the average American household. Oh, and he also says there are more government jobs and bridges are being fixed, so it all evens out.

According to the poll, commissioned by the No Kid Hungry organization and conducted by Change Research, a “vast majority” of New Yorkers feel that the rising cost of food is outpacing their incomes, creating tremendous financial pressure and insecurity—surveyors found that number to be a whopping 85%. The poll results also revealed these distressing numbers:

Affording groceries has become harder in the last 12 months for more than three-quarters (79%) of New Yorkers, an increase of 6% over the past year. Half (47%) say it is much harder to afford groceries now.

I imagine if this survey were replicated across the country, the results would be similar—is there a single place where things have gotten better and cheaper? That’s rhetorical, because the obvious answer is a resounding no. In fact, here’s a graphic sent to me by my colleague, Monica Showalter:



Map shows the monthly cost of food for one adult across the US. Pretty much an advertisement for Texas, isn't it? Source: https://t.co/CzCDgXAl6R pic.twitter.com/2lhGkaUvPm

— Simon Kuestenmacher (@simongerman600) April 25, 2024



In a number of places, including New York County (Manhattan), the average cost of food per month for one adult topped five hundred dollars during 2023—of course that number can only be higher now.

I’d also like to know what those numbers are like for retirees and disabled people who live off of social security? If food prices are outpacing rising wages among working-aged Americans, I would only assume the people on fixed incomes are drowning, as they only receive a meager increase (Cost-of-Living Adjustment) at the start of each year—for 2024, that number was only 3.2 percent.

Now, even if people were fortunate enough to make enough money during their working years to plan a comfortable retirement, they would have surely planned for inflation…but Bidenflation? This is an entirely different beast.

A local New York outlet reporting on the poll results spoke to a East Harlem resident, Jose Munoz, who said this:

‘I mean, you want to eat healthy, you know, and you want to be able to be healthy. But unfortunately, the economy is not allowing for that[.]’

Buddy, it’s not “the economy” disallowing affordable food—it’s the dreadfully wretched hive of sewer scum stinking up that little enclave of Maryland known as Washington D.C.

As I just noted in an essay last week, “the economy is not a sentient being with a mind of its own, it’s an inanimate byproduct of human activity and influence.” The cost-of-living crises, from food costs to energy costs, from the evaporation of small businesses to the rapidly diminishing prospect of home ownership of the average person, are entirely the fault of the politicians and bureaucrats.

Yet, here’s what Clybrun had to say about it all, via Breitbart:

‘[Y]es, food prices are up, but the price of medicine is way down. My late wife struggled with diabetes for 30 years. I saw her insulin bill, $800 a month sometimes. Now, for everybody on Medicare — and she was on Medicare — that’s going to be capped at $35 a month. So, if you look at the total picture, then you’ve got to look, we’re getting jobs we’ve never had before, black unemployment is at the lowest it’s been in over 40 years.

…

So, food prices may be up on the one hand, the price of medicine, way down on the other. Jobs are being created. We are seeing chips under the CHIPS and Science Act. Everywhere you go in South Carolina today, and Joe Biden didn’t carry South Carolina, but South Carolina has benefited big time from Joe Biden’s policies and they know it. Every highway that I cross these days [has] got work being done. The bridges are being repaired and we are seeing jobs being created.’

Capped? Who’s making up the difference between what the patient pays and what the drug company charges? The taxpayer, AKA, you and me. And again, government “jobs” are not real jobs; this is just taxpayer-subsidized employment. One person has to work doubly hard at a real job, so somebody else can have that “job” doled out by the CHIPS and Scient Act. And repaired bridges? Like the downed Baltimore bridge? Yeah, that debt-spending that Biden promised will only make inflation worse, because it requires printing money we don’t have.

When these people speak, all I hear in my head is Cary Elwes’s voice as he engages in the “Battle of Wits” with Vizzini in The Princess Bride: “Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.”

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/04/new_poll_nearly_9_in_10_new_yorkers_say_rising_cost_of_food_is_outpacing_their_incomes.html