Grocery Prices | SNAP benefits

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As expected, the SCOTUS punt worked (for SCOTUS to avoid the question on the merits).

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Punt Punting GIF by Karl's Bait & Tackle
 
economistwritingeveryday.com

Grocery Price Nostalgia: 1980 Edition

Many people have nostalgia for nominal prices of the past. I’ve written about this topic in various contexts before, but the primary error in doing this is that you must also look at nominal …
economistwritingeveryday.com economistwritingeveryday.com
 
nycfan said:
economistwritingeveryday.com

Grocery Price Nostalgia: 1980 Edition

Many people have nostalgia for nominal prices of the past. I’ve written about this topic in various contexts before, but the primary error in doing this is that you must also look at nominal …
economistwritingeveryday.com economistwritingeveryday.com
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“… How best to compare prices over time? Rather than “adjusting for inflation,” as is common in the popular press and by some economists, a better approach that I and other economists use is called “time prices.” Time prices show the number of hours or minutes it would take to purchase the good in two different years, using some measure of wages or income (I will use both average and median wages in this post). By looking at prices compared with wages for individual items, we can see whether each items as well as the entire basket has become more or less affordable.

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“… The basket I’ve put together (which is obviously different from the woman’s basket, but you work with the data you have) would cost $27 if you bought the package sizes BLS tracks (e.g., one pound for most of the meats and produce). In 2024, that same basket would cost $84. That’s 3 times as much! But since wages are over 4 times higher, the family is better off and groceries are, in a real sense, more affordable….”
 
nycfan said:
“… How best to compare prices over time? Rather than “adjusting for inflation,” as is common in the popular press and by some economists, a better approach that I and other economists use is called “time prices.” Time prices show the number of hours or minutes it would take to purchase the good in two different years, using some measure of wages or income (I will use both average and median wages in this post). By looking at prices compared with wages for individual items, we can see whether each items as well as the entire basket has become more or less affordable.

IMG_1011.jpeg

“… The basket I’ve put together (which is obviously different from the woman’s basket, but you work with the data you have) would cost $27 if you bought the package sizes BLS tracks (e.g., one pound for most of the meats and produce). In 2024, that same basket would cost $84. That’s 3 times as much! But since wages are over 4 times higher, the family is better off and groceries are, in a real sense, more affordable….”
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The bias here is most items in this basket are essentially whole food items. Today people typically buy way more processed food items than included in this cart. A big part of the issue is what people choose/expect to get in terms of groceries.

Purely anecdotally, my own experience was that our family pantry and other family’s pantries were positively spartan compared to all the snacks and extras people expect to have now.

Now that is obviously not true for working poor and poor, people suffering food insecurity. But it creates way more pressure deeper in the middle class.
 
nycfan said:
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Why shouldn't he just shamelessly lie about everything? The great majority of his supporters have proven time and again that they never double-check or doubt anything he says, but just blindly accept it as the gospel truth. If he tells them that Walmart's Thanksgiving dinners are 25% lower then most of them will not only believe it, but will refuse to accept any evidence that indicates otherwise. They heard it on Fox News, so by god it must be true!
 
nycfan said:


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Honestly glad they're going after this kind of fraud. I wish they would put resources into this and instead of going so hard after immigrants. Devote more resources to tax fraud and Medicare fraud while we're at it.
 
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nycfan said:


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Yesterday she claimed 186,000 dead people were getting SNAP benefits. That number has grown exponentially since the weekend, apparently, when she said this:

“… "We have found thousands and thousands of illegal use of the EBT card," Rollins said, referring to the electronic benefit transfer cards used by SNAP recipients. "We have been moving people off of SNAP. We've got almost 700,000 people, I think we've moved off just since the president took office. We've arrested about 118 people."

She added, "We found one guy in six different states getting a benefit. We found about 5,000 people that are dead who are still getting benefits." …”


🤨
 
nycfan said:
Yesterday she claimed 186,000 dead people were getting SNAP benefits. That number has grown exponentially since the weekend, apparently, when she said this:

“… "We have found thousands and thousands of illegal use of the EBT card," Rollins said, referring to the electronic benefit transfer cards used by SNAP recipients. "We have been moving people off of SNAP. We've got almost 700,000 people, I think we've moved off just since the president took office. We've arrested about 118 people."

She added, "We found one guy in six different states getting a benefit. We found about 5,000 people that are dead who are still getting benefits." …”


🤨
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“… "One thing that's really important for people to keep in mind is that 42 million people across the country receive SNAP on a monthly basis. And so these numbers that are being referenced are trivial in the grand scheme of the millions of people across the country who are receiving SNAP," Schneidman said.

Tracy Roof, a political scientist at the University of Richmond, pointed out that Rollins asserted she had removed 700,000 people from the program, but did not specify why.

"If they're only arresting a little over 100 people, then clearly a lot of those 700,000 people are not committing fraud," Roof said. "They are probably people being removed from the rolls because of recent legislative changes."

Deep cuts that Congress approved to SNAPearlier this year mean that some people are no longer eligible for the program, such as certain categories of lawfully present noncitizens.

And while Rollins has suggested there was something suspicious about the fact that SNAP has expanded in recent years, Root said the reason is "because of the high prices for food and the fact that a lot of people just can't stretch their dollars from their incomes enough to be able to feed their families."…”
 
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