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Post by steev on Oct 24, 2012 21:02:01 GMT -5
Atash is right about it growing along the road; near the farm, it comes up right at the edge of the asphalt, in the hottest, driest time of year. Not sure I'd use that to, well, you know, but it also volunteers in my organic fields, so I'm sure it's "kissing sweet".
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Post by castanea on Nov 1, 2012 8:50:05 GMT -5
"Somebody Should Start The 'Stuff Costs Too Much' Party Stuff costs too much. Seriously. Every time I go to the grocery store these days, I am absolutely horrified by the prices. I try not to buy anything that is not on sale, but the problem is that I am discovering that the new sale prices are the old regular prices. So now paying what used to be "full price" is supposedly a "good deal". The other way that they are trying to hide rising prices is by shrinking package sizes. As if we wouldn't notice that a box of 21 garbage bags is now being sold for the exact same price that a box of 25 garbage bags used to be sold for. It is one of my pet peeves. I feel like I am in the middle of some bizarre movie entitled "The Incredible Shrinking Dollar". Sadly, I am far from alone. There are millions upon millions of American families that are seeing their expenses continue to rise even as their paychecks remain the same. But neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney seems very concerned about inflation. In fact, the Federal Reserve, QE3 and Ben Bernanke were not even mentioned in any of the three presidential debates. So I think that somebody should start the "Stuff Costs Too Much" Party. Inflation is a tax which is destroying the value of each dollar that we hold a little bit more every single day, and the American people deserve to know the truth about what is going on. In this day and age, it simply does not pay to put money into long-term savings. When you finally pull your money out it will have far less purchasing power than it originally did. Way back in 1950, you could buy a first-class stamp for just 3 cents and you could buy a gallon of gasoline for about 27 cents. Wouldn't it be great if you could still get a gallon of gasoline for 27 cents? But we don't have to go all the way back to 1950 to find low prices. All we have to do is go back ten years. A recent article by Benny Johnson detailed how the prices of many of the things that we buy on a regular basis absolutely soared between 2002 and 2012. Just check out these price increases... Eggs: 73% Coffee: 90% Peanut Butter: 40% Milk: 26% A Loaf Of White Bread: 39% Spaghetti And Macaroni: 44% Orange Juice: 46% Red Delicious Apples: 43% Beer: 25% Wine: 60% Electricity: 42% Margarine: 143% Tomatoes: 22% Turkey: 56% Ground Beef: 61% Chocolate Chip Cookies: 39% Gasoline: 158% So what will the next ten years bring? Unfortunately, we are already being told that it looks like inflation is going to start accelerating. A recent CNBC article started this way... Consumers will have to dig deeper into their pockets next year to pay for costlier health care, more expensive grocery bills and higher taxes, an extra drag on the country's already slow-moving economy. That is not what millions of struggling American families need to hear right about now. Their bills just keep going up but their paychecks are not keeping pace. Have you noticed that almost everything that we spend money on just keeps rising year after year? According to USA Today, in some areas of the country water bills have actually tripled over the past 12 years. Has your paycheck tripled? Electricity bills in this country have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row. Winter is a really bad time for power bills. Millions of struggling families will set their thermostats very low this winter and yet will still be slammed with absolutely outrageous bills." theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/somebody-should-start-the-stuff-costs-too-much-party |
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Post by circumspice on Nov 1, 2012 10:02:40 GMT -5
Inflation is one of the reasons why I am trying to produce most of the foods that I consume. But it isn't the only reason. People have got to get it through their heads that the best way to lead is to lead by example. How can you expect anybody to, lets say for example, reduce greenhouse gasses, if you are not willing to give up or reduce your own consumption of fossil fuels? Same goes for just about anything. If we want to advance the cause of small scale farming/gardening, we need to get out there & grub around in the dirt ourselves.
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Post by steev on Nov 1, 2012 11:37:08 GMT -5
That's why I'm going to play hooky. If I stay in town working, I get shrinking dollars. If I go plant on the farm, I get growing legumes.
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Post by raymondo on Nov 1, 2012 15:08:32 GMT -5
It's not just the US of course. Prices have moved a lot here in Australia too and paychecks have remained stagnant. I think the best one can do is get out and keep out of debt and grow as much of your own food as possible. Mind you, I struggle to keep out of debt. There always seems to be something I have to spend someone else's money on!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 7, 2012 23:59:17 GMT -5
I have what is probably best described as a fat person's build. Tried to work it off for the longest time. Have toned muscles with veins and abdominal definition. I prequalified for some strongman contests, but would not take chemical supplements for weeks or months to get sponsorship. Do not see myself thriving on tight rations. The house is full of produce. I am good at growing and foraging.
At first, I would make one substitution at a time, to a normal recipe.
Then, everything except staples was bought at the store.
Now, I am finding and growing those, too.
I hear, if it was that easy, everyone else would be doing it. But, noone else seems to be learning.
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Post by steev on Nov 18, 2012 1:14:32 GMT -5
It's the learning part that seems to stymie so many people. The brain is the flabbiest part of many, it seems. So many seem to have lost the fact that food comes before money or status. As it is said in Mexico, "La pansa primero!"; first, the stomach!
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Post by atash on Nov 18, 2012 2:23:26 GMT -5
It's not just the US of course. Prices have moved a lot here in Australia too and paychecks have remained stagnant. I think the best one can do is get out and keep out of debt and grow as much of your own food as possible. Mind you, I struggle to keep out of debt. There always seems to be something I have to spend someone else's money on! You're probably being impacted by inflation in Asia and your own booming economy. Same thing happened here during our bubble: paychecks did not keep up, and debt started accumulating. We avoided it but it required several cut-backs to our standard of living. US food prices are probably some of the tamest. We do import most of our produce now but livestock feed and wheat come from here and we grow a lot. I've been working on local production of what we could produce locally. Unfortunately, not much at least of foods we are used to. Potatoes are one exception; they grow splendidly here. Most grains do not; it's too wet for the hardy ones and too cool for the tropical grains such as corn, sorghum, and rice. Barley did OK; it's surprisingly adaptable. I think oats would do well but I'm biased against them because I can't eat them.  Brassicas generally grow well here if we lime the soil. I'm accumulating some of the few native fruits that are palatable, and augmenting them with Chilean natives from similar climates. I have yet to sample a Camassia. Native food-plant. I have a few, and thanks to Wingnut I will soon have a lot more. I'll put them right back on my farm where they are native--and still line the roads right outside the gate--but the cows ate all the ones on the farm itself long before I bought it. Maybe roasted to the point of being slightly carmelized, they might be good. |
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Post by templeton on Nov 18, 2012 5:01:08 GMT -5
While you might be right, I'm always a bit worried that these might be 'good old days' nostalgia. I've just spent 20 fruitless minutes trying to wade through the aust Bureau of statistics site, to no avail. But did find this interesting lnk about housing affordability <http://www.theage.com.au/national/in-1955-7000-bought-a-house-now-its-not-even-a-deposit-on-a-dream-20100417-slj5.html> I'm not convinced everything was cheaper when i was young, relative to disposable income - expectations have changed, not having a flat screen TV is now considered a poverty line measure in Australia. Every one of my students owns a smart phone - its considered a 'necessity of life' (and these aren't rich kids at an elite school - far from it). Every one of them had a TV in their own room, and more than 2 TVs in their homes. Many people now buy highly processed food, with the embedded costs of production and so on - they could eat cheaper, they just don't. I don't disagree that things might be getting worse - I'm just yearning for some good hard data to convince me. Added costs we now bear as a society include stuff like universal health care, disability pensions, compulsory superannuation, no fault accident insurance - all stuff that helps the really needy in society, and that I'm prepared to pay for, but that has to be factored into the rising cost of living somehow, I should imagine. (I understand that these things probably aren't applicable in the US, so I can't speak for there). Personally, I feel like things haven't really been better - this probably just reflects my own circumstances, and those I know, but this does include a lot of marginalised folks, who don't seem to be struggling as we did as kids - Just a thought... No doubt someone will find a bag of stats that will have me sheepishly eating my words...  T |
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Post by atash on Nov 18, 2012 13:19:55 GMT -5
56% of the US federal budget is earmarked for direct social welfare spending. That's not quite accurate, because it does not account for how much of the "defense" budget is earmarked for veteran's benefits. In addition to spending at the federal level, we also have social welfare spending at the state level, which is rarely counted in national comparisons. We have by far the largest government and the largest social welfare system on the planet, and by some measures it is very high on a per-capita basis. I think there is a lot of confusion on this issue because we have two major levels of government whereas most countries only have 1, our socialists don't call themselves "socialists"; they call themselves "liberals" (which is a misnomer) or "progressives", the social welfare programs are managed differently for purely historical reasons, our "eligibility" requirements are different, our system is funded largely through deficit spending which means that it comes out of inflation instead of taxes, our GDP is probably more overestimated than that of many other countries, and we did not have a fully socialized healthcare system until recently, but now we have that too. As for cost of living: Standards of living remain high overall, especially in Australia (enjoy it while you can), but that is in part due to the willingness of average people to maintain their high standards of living on debt, and it is also due to two-wage families having mostly replaced single-wage families. Prices are relative, and over time technology becomes cheaper. But that applies only to a small fraction of your life. I think it is ridiculous to buy big-screen televisions (for what purpose? Becoming addicted to television-watching, instead of getting out and living life?), but even to the extent that they are affordable, ask yourself how much this contributes to your quality of life, and whether you would rather have affordable food when push comes to shove. Just sayin'.  |
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Post by MikeH on Dec 5, 2012 13:17:14 GMT -5
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Post by rowan on Dec 5, 2012 16:17:17 GMT -5
We eat cheaply and gow most of our own food but it doesn't makea difference. We still struggle because of the things we can't control - water, rates, power costs. Many huge bills that we have to pay whether we use them or not, and they get bigger each time they are sent - that is my biggest complaint.
I could stop using any reticulated water and only rely on our tanks but that does not stop us getting water fees, same with many other bills. I don't think it is fair but we can't fight it - you don't pay, they take your house.
It doesn't seem to matter how much you try to cut costs it doesn't make a difference. End of rant.
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Post by steev on Dec 5, 2012 16:27:42 GMT -5
The price I charge for labor today is exactly twice what it was when I went into business 33 years ago. Gasoline is 7 times what it was. Many people think I'm expensive; their incomes haven't risen all that much, either.
I can barely give away large, organic winter squash; people don't know what to do with it, haven't the time to deal with it, whatever. They can't even cut some off and pass the rest on. I think we're becoming so disconnected, most people could be fine living in a closed environment, with just prepared inputs and vanishing outputs. I wonder how short a conversion loop they'd really need from toilet to buffet spigot.
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Post by atash on Dec 5, 2012 16:30:26 GMT -5
Mike, thank you for posting the drought news. I had a bad feeling that might be the case. When we have cold, wet La Niña conditions such as we hare having now (hitting record rainfall lately...not just our usual soft misty rain but it's coming down in buckets most days...), then the interior tends to be having a drought.
I have been wanting to buy some land in the southern cone of South America, but they have the same phenomenon down there mirror imaged over the equator: too much or too little, depending on where you are.
And I want to grow corn next year...hmmm...well I will put a polytunnel over the ground and plant as soon as the soil temp is high enough. It'll be nip-and-tuck getting it ripe. The potatoes are more forgiving. Just not as high in protein.
Those in drought-impacted areas, consider something like barley or farro/Emmer as an alternative to wheat, and sorghum as an alternative to corn.
Good luck to all next year.
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Post by atash on Dec 5, 2012 16:50:19 GMT -5
Rowan and steev, I understand your frustration.
Unfortunately there are no easy solutions. You'll have to think outside the box and prioritize your activities for efficiency and return-on-investment. I'm having to do the same, with no payoff, just to tread water.
Most of us live in countries that are hopelessly bankrupt. The so-called "austerity measures" will make the situation worse by taxing the rest of us to pay off financial interests on unpayable, unsustainable amounts of accumulated public and private debt. Taxation is bleeding capital from the real economy, while credit creation is favoring government and finance. This is a recipe for disaster as can be seen by the results in Greece and Spain.
Think like a peasant as regards expenses. Double up. Share expenses. Think like a financial wizard as regards wealth protection. Move your assets to safety, having a balance of ready cash in as safe a place as you can, income-producing real assets, and, ah, "hard assets".
Prosperity to you and yours.
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