re: Anyone else feel like you finally got used to things being more expensive?

quote:

---

Consumers hold all the power. All we have to do is stop the crazy spending, prices would come down quickly

---

How are you going to stop spending on gas and food?

quote:

---

Just paid $50 for 2 hamburgers, fries & onion rings and 2 drinks in Fredericksburg, TX.

---

Get water instead and that bill is probably $38.

Obviously we shouldn’t have to, but I always drink water when I’m out to eat these days.

They destroy you on beverages.

What was our last bastion of hope, local Mexican restaurants, is now too damn high to go to regularly.

Family of 5, 2 of them still eat kids menu, 2 dos Equis, 120 before tip.

Dollar is worth less now.

Certainly less than 2009

You got hit the deals to eat out cheap now.

quote:

---

No, and I'm really unsure of how people are affording to live these days. We make solid money and it always feels like we're just getting by

---

Same, and we are not frivolous spenders. $200 in groceries sometimes looks like barely anything.

I save a lot of money grocery shopping at Aldi for my staples. But it’s just me so not cooking for a family. I supplement at the grocery, but can spend $60 at Aldi and have a bag full (a large Aldi reusable bag) if I’m careful. That same $60 would be 4, maybe 5, items at a grocery depending what it is.

quote:

---

Yeah, but this is like saying Communism can be applied like the theory and that never ever happens. There will never be a concerted ever among millions of people to achieve this.

---

It is happening every day, and it always does under capitalism. The equilibrium prices you see now are the result of the continuous feedback of customer and supplier price discrimination. If gasoline is $4 per gallon it’s not because customers will pay anything, it’s because $4 is where customers drew the line.

quote:

---

Dollar is worth less now.

---

$4.55 is the national avg today, price adjusted that would be $3.99 in 2022 dollars. National avg in May/June 2022 was $5.02 that is $5.59 in today's dollars.

National avg when Biden was inaugurated was $2.38, the avg the rest of his presidency was $3.61 or $4.21 in today's dollars. That average accounts for a couple of months below $3.00 which was constant with Trump's first term, and also the large drop in pricing following the election results in November 2024.

I am all for people who voted for Trump being upset and even having some regret as Iran and the subsequent raise in price is not consistent with his first term or what one would expect from his presidency. The never trumpers pounding the ground and crying about gas prices though...peak Trump prices are $1.00 per gallon cheaper than peak Biden prices, and are ~$0.35 above Biden's avg.