The Cost To Maintain The Same Standard Of Living Keeps Skyrocketing
By Michael Snyder/Economic Collapse Blog March 14, 2024
Share this article:
I used to really enjoy going to the grocery store. I would relentlessly hunt for deals, and I would show off what I was able to find when I got home. But now all of the bargains are gone.
Instead, there are ridiculous prices and there are even more ridiculous prices.
The prices for some of the things that I normally buy have doubled. Of course the soaring cost of living is the direct result of decisions that our leaders have made. They just kept borrowing, spending and flooding the system with money, and now the cost of living is wildly out of control.
According to CBS News, on average U.S. households must now spend an extra $11,434 per year just to maintain the same standard of living that they were enjoying when Joe Biden first entered the White House...
The typical American household must spend an additional $11,434 annually just to maintain the same standard of living they enjoyed in January of 2021, right before inflation soared to 40-year highs, according to a recent analysis of government data.
This is insane.
But the government continues to insist that inflation is low. On Tuesday, the Bureau of Lying Statistics told us that prices have only risen 3.2 percent over the past 12 months...
Data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Tuesday showed prices rose 3.2 percent over last year, slightly outpacing forecasts of 3.1 percent. Prices also rose 0.4 percent in February over the previous month -- in line with expectations, but still hotter than economists would like to see.
If you believe that, there is a bridge in California that I would like to sell you.
Virtually everything that Americans spend money on regularly has skyrocketed during the Biden administration.
Just look at the price of gasoline. It is now 60 percent higher than it was during the last presidential election in November 2020...
The average gasoline price at the pump in the US is now 60% higher than at the start of November 2020 -- a potentially significant factor for American voters when comparing how well-off they feel now versus when President Joe Biden was first elected. And while pump prices are rising relatively slowly for this time of year, US fuel stockpiles well below seasonal norms will keep refining margins elevated, according to the the US Energy Information Administration.
As a result, the agency on Tuesday raised its second-quarter retail gasoline price forecast by 20 cents a gallon.
Of course housing costs have been going up even faster.
Recently, I was stunned to learn that a 54 square foot "apartment" in New York City that doesn't even have a bathroom is renting for $1,200 a month...
A tiny studio apartment in New York City that consists of just one room and has no bathroom, kitchen or running water has been furiously slated online - after it was revealed the asking price for the cell-like property is a staggering $1,200 a month.
A now-viral video of the 'tiny' rental, which is just 54 square feet and is located in Midtown West, has sparked outrage after it was shared on TikTok by listing agent Alexander Bruni.
The nine-by-six apartment has just enough space for a bed and doesn't have any running water, meaning that if residents needed to use the restroom they would have to exit their studio and go down the hallway to the communal bathroom.
Is this what they mean when they tell us that we will own nothing and be happy?
Of course most Americans are not happy about the current state of affairs at all.
They are quite aware that the cost of living has been rising much faster than their paychecks have, and that is definitely not good news for Joe Biden.
As Kevin O'Leary has very astutely observed, inflation "is always the enemy of the incumbent"...
He said: 'Inflation is always the enemy of the incumbent. It doesn't matter who you are in the White House when there's inflation. People go to the voting booth remembering what it cost them for their cornflakes and milk in the morning, and what it cost to fill up the car to drive there.
'And they vote against that.'
But if you think that inflation is bad now, just wait until the coming war with China erupts.
Once trade across the Pacific comes to a standstill, there will be a whole lot of money chasing a rapidly dwindling level of goods in our stores.
The employment market will be another major issue in November.
The massive tsunami of layoffs that we have been witnessing just continues to roll along. For example, on Monday we learned that John Deere will be laying off 150 workers at a facility in Iowa...
Around 150 John Deere workers in Ankeny will be losing their jobs over the next couple of months.
John Deere Des Moines Works confirmed to Iowa's News Now that employees were told about the layoffs by factory leadership in meetings at the factory on Friday.
The company said about 150 production employees will be placed on "indefinite layoff effective over the months of April and May."
Sticking with Iowa, Tyson just announced that it will be giving the axe to over a thousand workers at one of their plants in the state...
More than 1,000 workers at another Tyson Food plant are out of work after the company announced it is permanently closing one of its Iowa facilities.
The move comes after the Arkansas-based company closed two chicken plants and announced job cuts last year and said four other plants were expected to cease operations within the first half of fiscal 2024, with related charges − at the time, expected to cost the company $300 million to $400 million.
On Monday Tyson announced it would shutter the doors to its Perry, Iowa pork-packing plant.
But at least they are doing better than Rite Aid is.
We just learned that another 77 Rite Aid stores will be permanently shutting down...
Another 77 Rite Aid stores will close as part of the retailer's voluntary bankruptcy.
The closures, announced in seven court filings so far this year, will affect stores across 21 states, including California, Pennsylvania, New York and Texas.
The total number of closures announced since filing for bankruptcy in October is now 431.
Even more thrift conscious stores are having great difficulty making it as Family Dollar, the discount chain that caters to low-income customers predominantly in cities, said Wednesday it will close nearly 1,000 stores.
Overall, nearly 107 million Americans do not have a job right now.
That number will inevitably go even higher during the months ahead.
Needless to say, the cost of living is going to continue to steadily increase as well.
Prices are already absurdly high, but they are only going to escalate from here, and that is really bad news for all of us.
Originally published at The Economic Collapse Blog
