E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSThere are plenty of signs the economy is slowly getting back on track, but many Americans are still feeling the pain of the last five years of economic troubles.
That’s perhaps one reason why nearly four in 10 voters who took NBC News’s exit polls this week said rising prices was a key economic concern for people like them. That’s despite the fact that inflation has been relatively low in recent years.
A Life Inc. post this week on that topic got readers talking about everything from grocery budgets to pain at the pump.
Nearly all of the almost 6,000 readers who took our poll said they were worried about rising food prices. Some were bothered by the fact that their favorite items now come in smaller sizes – but cost the same - while other said they had been pushed so far that they had to rely on the food bank.
Many complained that it is hard to keep up with rising prices because their paychecks don’t seem to be going up enough to compensate.
“I don't go to the grocery store anymore. My partner does all the shopping. I don't cope well when I see how expensive it all is,” one reader lamented.
The minority of readers who said they weren’t that bothered by food prices noted that for families who are better off an increase in prices shouldn’t be enough to break the bank.
“I can understand why a few percent matters to people at the edge of poverty, but the middle class should be able to deal with it,” one wrote.
Other cost concerns also seemed to be weighing heavily on readers’ minds.
“Health care alone is squeezing most people. Our premiums just went up by nearly 50% for next year. Last year was pretty bad, too. In all, I'll be paying about $3000 more in 2013 than I was in 2011 and getting less coverage,” one reader wrote.
Leave a Comment:
well prices have to go up if we expect to be able to pay all those "amazing corporate leaders" their 7-figure salaries...
too much greed.... this is why I'm focused on self-sufficiency. I grow my own veggies, use solar and wind power, ride a bike when I can... The system is no longer attractive to a growing number of Americans and those with the skills to do so are increasingly disassociating themselves from the rat-race to the greatest extent possible.
The banksters & corporations need to come up with something soon though, or they'll have no client base to exploit.
The soon to be tax increases will push prices further. If anyone thinks they can escape the reality of cost being handed down is a fool. It will be as always, little effect at the top, more in the middle will join those in the lower. Without a plan to increase domestic manufacturing, it all comes down to net. Government believes they need a higher percentage and we can do with less. I federal doesen't take it, they pass a mandate and states raise taxes anyway. But the federal can always say they didn't raise taxes. Wake me up in another four years.
ha! as if 4 years will make a difference. Both wings of the #republicrat party are owned by the same interests... namely the central bankers who charge us to print our money for us then loan it to us and expect us to pay interest on it. We're all property of the Rothschilds.
AnonymousEconomist . . I don't see how you can get off blaming "the banks" and Wall St for higher food prices. This is a response to GOVERNMENT POLICIES such as ETHANOL MANDATE, reduced farm/ag subsidies etc.
Most Americans are Fat anyway. You have to make a choice here Food or Fuel!!
Prices decline in a free market but rise in a government by the other party. It has to due with sun spots and synapses. If you are a union worker, prices get lower. If you are non-union, prices get higher. It's all the fault of unions and their collective bargaining. Never join a union. They cause people to make better wages and make non-union people jealous. Be jealous, no matter how much it costs.
the brain washing about things are getting better is all hype; the new job market is part time, contract work or low wage service industry; prises are going to rise beyond any-ones expectations; we have inflated the money supply by over 100%, it will be felt first in food, then, medical insurance, then fuel ,then utility's, then taxes; no matter who got elected the dye is already cast; it is going to be one hell of a ride.
we saved wall street, the banks, the insurance industry, the auto industry, the Unions, all at the expense of the middle class; they and government caused the collapse, taxpayers bailed them out; now the middle class will have to pay the price.
.....Help!
Healthcare premiums going up 12% next year. Last year they went up 8%. Oh and no raise of course. Probably no raise this year. Oh and the end of our tax breaks in January. This country just gets better and better.
Forward, @!$%#ers! :-(
For those of you who think that "entitlements" are free, I ask why my husband and I pay over $600/month for Medicare, including Bush's "Part D" for drugs that covers nothing except the generics. The other drugs my doctor orders are not on their "formulary." Just one of those (Glumetza) costs $10 PER DAY. Add that up and you have $900/month out of pocket. Our savings make next to nothing, and meager income is eaten up by rises in the cost of medical, gasoline, food, and other essentials, leaving less than nothing. We have no pension other than Social Security, which insists that prices are rising by some almost invisible percentage that does not reflect reality. At 70, my husband is very happy when his old employer calls him in to work for a day or two at the same salary he made five years ago. The so-called "Middle Class" is not in the middle economically anymore. We are the (sometimes) working poor.
I feel you Sherrie . . But you must have some $$$ salted away somewhere or you wouldn't be able to afford all those expensive Meds!!! Just wait til the President starts "means testing" for SS and Medicare . . Then we'll find your stash!!!
This is not a Democrat or Republican issue, it's a Plutocrat issue. Insurance and medical industry greed and manipulation, pure and simple. For-profit medical care at it's best (or worst, depending on if you're rich or not)
The rest is bad decisions in favor of filling the pockets of special interests. Corn ethanol (burning our food supply) did nothing but increase all-around food prices. Subsidizing oil and oil products while ignoring alternative energy just increased our dependency on it, and with it, prices.
Our short term thinking and plutocratic society is costing us dearly now.
How come prices keep going up, despite the fact that our economy is going down? The "cheap stuff" that we get from overseas continually goes up, up, up. This new 'global economy' that is making corporations untold wealth only seems to be driving me to the poor house.