My daughter tells me I have to change with the times and things cost more now and I tell her because her generation( twentysomethings me forty something) pays for it no matter what.

I tell her we got more in packaging and paid less now we get less and pay more and the price rises at a faster pace.

She says yuk if I bring up a old home remedy from my grandmother then complains about where her money went.

expect this is the norm, to be perpetually in debt and to pay ridiculously high prices to fuel the greed inherent in disaster capitalism. The profit margins are out of sight. Penny stuff sold for dollars.

and what I tell her,then she says I'm talking politics which makes me angry and I tell her live and learn..She usually comes around to my way of thinking 3 or 4yrs later.

That was a big problem then. Wages stagnant or down, while inflation went up.

But overall, wages generally tried to keep up with cost of living, which is different thsn today.

Blame the Fed and QE1, QE2, and QE3. More paper dollars chasing fewer and fewer goods.

It's called rigged markets.
When more dollars are chasing fewer goods in a free market, inflation occurs. However, we do not have a free market.
Also, it is kind of ironic to claim there are fewer and fewer goods when this country has been pursuing supply side economics since the 1980s.

Seems to me a lot of store brand versions have been inching their prices up. I used to buy generic pain killers for a lot less than the name brands; now it's only a 15 or 20% off the name brand price.

Im with you. It's not inflation in the traditional sense. Still sucks though.

The banksters bought up commodities, transportation and storage with our loans.

Now they hoard to create artificial shortages and force prices up.

I recently lost an elderly bird that I've had for 11+ years. I felt a little relief. Her canary seed when I got her was $2.50 for a 2 pound bag. The last couple bags I got were $10.00.


The price increase in my parrot seed has been slower, but I've also noticed they been changing the proportions of various seeds and grains in the mix. I'm guessing more of the cheaper seeds and grains, less of the more expensive. I'm glad, since none of my birds eat the dried corn.

hit, the Wall Street guy/gals started buying up rental property all over. They created the housing bubble and got bailed out, then bought up the housing that was foreclosed upon due to their robo-signing, now they can victimize the former home owners on their rents!
It really is the 1%'s world and we just live in it!

It's the new capitalist Lady come to call
It's the new feudalism taking over
They own it all
They own it all.

Too many businesses want to squeeze to much put of consumers, without accepting the responsibility of paying people better.

I know profit fuels capitalism, and i'm okay with that. But the greedy side of the equation has become a cancer in all of society.

...all costs onto the consumer/worker. Transporting the goods here is more expensive because fuel costs have gone up---and we pay for that twice--by subsidizing oil and by paying the increased price when we shop. Profits for the billionaire owners stay the same and the salaries of the workers buy less and less because salaries are stagnant. This model plays itself out in instance after instance.

What's obscene is income inequality and that it's a planned inflation. They want to drive us into the ground and take their products to ever new markets.

Rent goes up here in the Denver Metro about 8% every year. Raises are typically 1-2%. Rent is taking more of my money every year.

drug store, but also the grocery store. The prices are getting outrageous. I also went to the local hardware store recently because I didn't want to drive to Home Depot or Lowe's. I got four mending brackets and some screws.

It came to nearly $10 at ACE. These are items that back a few years ago would have been a few dollars, nothing special about them, product cost is well under a penny each. ... not that Home Depot or Lowe's are that cheap either, their prices keep going up and up.

A study recently found about half of Americans do not have enough assets to go more than about two weeks without a paycheck.

I have absolutely no idea where the US is headed with these pricing structures. The greed is overwhelming!

I know what you mean. I cited one product, but its pretty much hapoening across the board....Dont get me started on milk

food is discretionary. You pay your other bills first and if you have any money left over, then maybe you can go to the grocery store.

Sure, for the few amongst us who can afford to get in it might be beneficial. but at the same time it is so rigged that only the manipulators(Inside Traders) are fairly safe. One never knows when investments in the markets are gonna plunge.

In other words the greed of Corporations and those who are sitting on the Boards are only interested in one thing... the price of the stock.. In order to achieve the numbers which will keep them sitting pretty is to focus on productivity numbers and bottom line revenue numbers.. In other words Cutting Payroll numbers and increasing prices of goods produced..

all a rigged game where the majority of Americans are played for suckers.

People use that in meth labs. A new tamper resistant version has been developed to make it difficult to use for that purpose and I'm wondering if this new medicine will cost more.

Exact same product, Much higher price.

it would be far, far higher than the one for wants.

Lower income people in our society are getting walloped by price increases.

The Fed keeps going on about inflation, but household incomes for most haven't kept up with inflation for most over the last decade, so we don't have inflation. Without significant wage increases, the average person's living standard will keep dropping, and the Fed is making it worse if anything.

who will the corporations sell their products to?

to pay. It's just a computerized game to them.

Also, there are as you probably already know smart pricing tactics in the works, maybe they have already been rolled out in some markets.

Shelf prices can be changed instantaneously with an electronic readout for each product.

Also, some can detect who you are, smart phones, etc., and prices will change depending upon the customer. Then others can simply be charged as roaming/buying around the store. The pricing will be invisible.

We're going through a metamorphosis wherein most Americans will be even more severely disadvantaged in the future. Too many Americans don't pay attention to whom they vote for (not really understanding their agendas) and hence over decades now we have had this nightmare in the works.

Also, smart sociopaths and crooks have found seeming reputable positions to be far more profitable than the old traditional crime paths.

...and we're surprised big inflation is a result? Really?

Last edited Sun Feb 16, 2014, 02:56 PM - Edit history (1)

stocks, etc., as well as real estate speculation ¹ and also -this is where it hits everybody down at the General Store - in commodities speculation. Instead of stimulating demand by putting money in the pockets of consumers, the response of our government has been to throw a huge orgy for speculators. So yes, there is inflation for consumers (which our government refuses to measure by deliberately ignoring gas, food, rent in CPI measurement) occurring simultaneously with collapsed demand, high unemployment ² and depressed wages, and it IS fueled by "money printing." Specifically, it is fueled by where the new funny money is being directed to - into the same hands which are already to blame for having hollowed out the economy, having depressed our wages, and then blowing up the banking system with illegal levels of leverage through the "shadow banking" system of unregulated derivatives (which is rampant unchecked and virtually unchartable money creation by banks.) Fed and Treasury policy through the Greenspan era to Bernanke era, and now on to Yellen, from the Bush era to the Obama era, is the same: an unvarying incitement to dangerous criminal behavior in the out of control financial sector. Because Free Markets are Good! They're just held to be GOOD by nature, and don't have to justify themselves in any way. When the banksters' scams blow up in their faces, both Fed and Government simply hand the keys to the getaway car (sometimes driving it themselves when needed) to the surviving members of the heist team, and stuff wads of traveling money in their pockets, letting them know that the game is still on, the little people are none the wiser, and they can return to loot at will whenever they feel up to it again. Nothing has changed.

*1. This is not controversial, in fact asset reinflation is the stated purpose of QE. Reinflated real estate and stock valuations are supposed to make people feel wealthy and start spending again. Trillions have been drawn against future earnings of the American people and thrown down this rat hole to virutally no effect save to make the already rich richer.

*2. Which our government also refuses to honestly measure.

The bursting of the bubble created a huge deflation in commodities. The money printing has allowed speculation to return, but it is no greater than it was before the crash. The price of oil is lower than it was in 2008. If consumer prices are higher than they were before, that isn't because of money printing - it's more likely the result of profit gouging.

by any chance are you a Fox News fan?

I have found air in toothpaste and other tubes items..about 1/3 of the way of using, then you squeeze and can hear an air pocket, the contents "jump" further up the tube.
but price is higher.

have mini-cans of soda, for example. The squeeze on Americans is unbelievable.

is now 4 lbs......same if not higher in price

She opened up a package of raisins the other day - the package is the same size as always but the product is now only 2/3 of what used to be in there. We checked the "old" package we were about to throw out and there was 1/3 less ounces of raisins in the "new" package.

Very deceptive.

You think you're getting the same size as before but in reality its less product.

We've had conversations about shopping now based on a "per ounce" price versus the overall cost. I'm lucky in that my grocery stores lists that so its easy to comparison shop. Sometimes the lowest price isn't actually the best bargain.

Its like the design of plastic bottles for drinks....They now have an indentation in the center, so less fluid

Isn't it collusion when ALL the different brands suddenly made toilet paper 1/2" less in width?

Brownie mixes seem to make less brownies now. Instead of a 13x9 pan, I use a 9" round one.

I wish they'd just charge more rather than downsize the product...as if we are too stupid to notice.

yesterday and from a 1991 one noticed a blurb about "gas pricing soaring to $1.60 a gallon" during the first gulf war.

And I remember back in 2001 on DU someone posted a thread about gas station owners having to order extra 3s and them being told to lay off the tin foil.

Oh vey, indeed.

Gasoline has an interesting track record with price vs inflation. Tracked as a a measure of inflation it is often touted as one of the shinning stars. If you use an inflation calculator you will find that it maintains a relatively flat line through time.

http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

Yet we always use it as a fall back snivel because we all know it produces record profits for the global energy companies. How can we reconcile our feelings from the math? We have to understand that oil is a commodity that is stolen, and its external costs are born by subsidies to the corporation by both direct payments and the best fighting force the world can deploy, backed by the best propaganda media machine ever.

We need to face reality and learn to, well unlearn. The world and US is not like most think. We have to accept reality, the FED does not care about OUR inflation, they only care about wage inflation. That inflation has been kept in check quite well.

not only have the prices gone up, but those 16 oz cans have become 14 oz.

than they were 2 years ago unless they are on sale.

tho I'm sure the price of that has gone up too

A minimum wage increase will cause prices to rise so the minimum wage must not be raised! Uh, no! Prices have risen so the minimum wage should be raised, thereby allowing those at the bottom to offset a portion of the already inflated prices! And we shouldn't stop with the minimum wage, considering how all but the very top wages have not risen, but have lost purchasing power over the past 25 years!

The same is happening with food. I've seen a lot of things go up by 50-200 percent. It used to be 75c for a candy bar. Now it's almost two dollars. For pity's sake.

Zero, Three Musketeers, Hershey's, Butterfinger, Almond Joy, Snickers. And for a while, I was even buying imported Finnish fruity chocolates at the local dime store for, well, 10 cents. And now dime stores are called dollar stores.

because I simply can't afford them.

But that's just an example of what's happened with many products

but, I still think that was doublespeak and that truly this is what is happening.

when I compare what I paid for things then and now.

You name it, gas, food, rent , entertainment...etc.

When I was a kid gas was $1. This was about 1981-ish.

400% greater now - ish

The sad thing is I'm not yet 40!


The only word that comes to mind is criminal.

Lets just it was in coins rather than bills