Wall Street Journal: Food & energy LESS of impact on consumer budget then in 70s

This is absolutely the most surreal, weird, & plain INCORRECT quote, I have ever read. It appears in a pretty good article about how severe this recession (IF it occurs, yeah right :eyes: )....They paint this pretty bleak, they state it is likely to rival the worst recessions in history. Recession is here, we are are heading into a long & brutal supressed economic period which is what constitutes a DEPRESSION.

Read this:


Still, he thinks a recession is probably coming and that the challenges facing consumers, in particular, are more severe than they were in the two previous downturns. In addition to the housing troubles and mortgage-market woes, higher food and energy costs are cutting into household budgets, he says.

"While energy is not as important a part of the consumer budget as it was in the '70s -- nor is food -- nevertheless, the squeeze will push out consumption in everything else," Mr. Gordon says. "Across the board, I think we're going to have significant ongoing pressure in inflation-adjusted retail sales."

Food & energy are NOT as important. Hmmm. Funny. I didn't realize that we no longer needed to eat (or maybe just not as much we did in the 70s. And, who the hell needs to keep warm in the winter? It is the single digits here at night, but hell, I have been walking around naked with the windows open. I didn't even know it was January until I looked at my computer today.



http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120086867005203883.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news

...this may be great news

P.S. I'm 285lbs and 6'3" tall so I'm not sure how to take this

the stats to back up his assertion about food and energy.

Can't spend on what you can't buy. :silly:

and I am going to beat you over the head with the box. When I am done, I will flog you with a bag of surplus dry beans. Then throw cans of that dreadful "vegetarian vegetable" soup at you.

What BS. They do live on another planet.

i make a good 'vegetarian' soup. ok, it has beef boullion. wild rice, last time no carrots, so lots of celery and onion. all in the spices. pepper, marjeram, basil, parsley, bit of garlic, and celery seed. thinking of using cabbage.

The Gleaners sometimes have it in the free food bags. Yes, we qualify for the free food program. Sometimes there is good stuff and sometimes it is spaghetti noodles and canned vegetables.

I have come to the conclusion the only good use of the "vegetarian vegetable" canned soup is target practice.

One of the reasons that the federal poverty line is so ridiculously low is that uses a forumula from a time when food took a higher percentage of income than now and and housing took less. It's a lot more complicated than that, of course, but recognizing the changes in what eats up income now as opposed to 30 or 40 years ago is something that's just begun being talked about.

Food costs in just the last year have gone up dramatically. Everyone here talks about spending more to get less. As the dollar drops and gas costs go up, it's just going to get worse.

There are several things to consider here:
1) prior to around 1971-5 families generally had one wage earner, after that they generally had two.
2) In the 90's the federal government started to cook the books on inflation in order to avoid COLA payouts (SS etc.) so, in my opinion, the numbers from the early 90's on are overstated and the minimal growth from 75-92 is a better reflection of what has actually gone on.

I don't care if the relative proportion of food and housing have changed, what is important is how much is left over after I've paid for everything that is required to keep my family operational. For most of working america the answer to that is either 'nothing' or 'less than nothing'.

where the prices are always kept as "low as possible." That's the only thing I can think of that would justify his ravings. Maybe his family had a wood stove. Lots of my friends bought Vermont Woodburning Stoves in the late 70's to defy the problems with Oil & Gas under Carter with Iran Hostages. Maybe this guy's parents just burned wood or left him "cold" in a room to toughen up...like a friend of mine did with their kids in a suburban neighborhood where they had plenty of money to pay their oil bill...but wanted to teach their kids "thrift." :eyes: :crazy: