By David Soll
The cost of eggs and bread is soaring – a trend that’s particularly punishing for the poorest Americans.
Average food prices climbed an annualized rate of 10.4% in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on July 13, 2022. The gains were driven primarily by the cost of groceries, which jumped the most since the 1970s, by 12.2%. Overall inflation was up 9.1% from a year earlier.
These sharp increases have startled consumers, in large part because food costs had been rising moderately for decades.
While all Americans have seen their grocery bills swell, many may not fully appreciate the enormous burden that rising food costs pose for low-income households. The reason is simple: Poor families spend a much larger share of their income on food than the median household.
In 2020, the average middle-income American family spent roughly 12% of its earnings on food. In sharp contrast, poor households spent 27% on food that year.
What explains this enormous discrepancy? The answer begins with a dramatic change in spending patterns among American households during the 20th century, which I learned while researching shifts in commuting practices.
In the 1900s, the bare necessities of life, including food, were enormously expensive compared with today, leaving little room for spending on other goods or services for most Americans, according to a 2006 study by the Department of Labor. On average, American families spent over 40% of their income on food in 1901, 23% on housing and 14% on clothing.
But the relative cost of food and clothing decreased steadily over the next 100 years. By 2002, the two categories represented only 17.3% of a middle-class family’s expenditures and by 2020, the figure had fallen to 14.2%.
The sharp drop in the cost of food and clothing led to a massive reshuffling of family budgets over roughly the past century. As people reduced their spending on these items, they spent more on housing, transportation and insurance. As the country became wealthier, discretionary spending increased, too. Most Americans had more room in their budgets for eating out, televisions and entertainment.
This revolution in household spending largely excluded poor Americans, who continue to devote most of their income to feeding their families and other necessities like shelter. As a result, they are particularly vulnerable to spikes in food costs.
Low-income households devote more than twice as large a share of their budgets to food as middle-income households. As a result, food inflation is around twice as burdensome for families of limited means. But this actually understates the burden of high food costs on the poor because, unlike middle-class families, they have little discretionary spending they can pare back to free up funds for food.
American households are responding to soaring food inflation by eating out less frequently, buying generic brands and consuming less meat. For many, it may be the first time they’ve ever had to be so careful about what they spent on food.
Poor families, however, have long been forced to deploy these tactics to keep food expenditures in check.
An estimated 38 million Americans are food insecure, meaning that they have insufficient means to obtain sufficient food. The concern is, with food inflation rising at the rate it is, more families will face the prospect of being unsure where their next meal is coming from.
David Soll is Associate Professor of History and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire
Rick Nieves says
Go ahead and blame Trump for the poor getting financially annihilated. Those that vote Democrat always claimed that Republicans do nothing for the poor. Yet, democrats have never done shit for the low income, those in poverty and destroy what little the middle class were able to get. Go ahead and vote for your broke ass future and then point the finger at someone else like Biden has been doing. You’ve learned from the best and then deny you are in the shit tank. Convince yourself that the economy is in the best shape in history and you will achieve your dreams. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Bob says
Must be Trump’s fault. It always is especially when inflation was under 2 percent when he was President
Jimbo99 says
The poorest have always been the victims of being marginalized. It’s the concept that we saw in the 2020 pandemic of essential vs non-essential. The poorest are only essential when their labor is stolen & their payments serve the Biden-Harris agenda of being government recipients. The pandemic saw Covid relief. What has Biden-Harris, Congress done for inflation relief for the poorest ? That all dried up didn’t it. And relief is only a dog whistle for economic stimulus so that the same wealthiest can gouge the recipients of that relief. This is a world that is all about the payment. What can anyone be paid as cheaply as possible, yet pay out beyond that means as signed up for the next round of gouging as a paying member/customer.
$ 15/hour was about stable prices and paying those most marginalized to be able to have a better quality of life. The wolves moved in on that increased wage, raised prices & gouged beyond what any increase in a minimum wage would ever afford. The Federal Government has a poverty line that rarely, if ever changes. That poverty line is so far below ACA subsidy qualification thresholds. Trust me, if one needs a subsidy for healthcare premiums, what else do they need a subsidy for, in this case food (food stamp programs). The Federal government has neglected to maintain the definition & assessment of poverty even. The Us Government has become exactly what the American Revolution sought to secede from, what the Southeastern USA states seceded from the Union for. There is a;ways going to be a self proclaimed essentials that mismanage the poverty or the poorest & non-essential.
NO MORE says
They just wanted to get a loaf of Bread !
AOC
Brian says
Rick at least we didn’t try to overthrow the election and government.
Timothy Patrick Welch says
Feeding America states…causes of food insecurity include: 1. Poverty, unemployment, or low income 2. Lack of affordable housing 3. Chronic health conditions or lack of access to healthcare 4. Systemic racism and racial discrimination
I believe its a complex issue… do to a lack of quality food sources in some rural areas and some urban neighborhoods, mental illness, drug addiction