> It is an observable fact that, for any particular basket of food, we pay less than our parents did.
Is that true? I looked up prices of food for 1981[1] and compared it with similar data from 2011[2]. These appear to be grocery prices based on newspaper fliers recorded by some library in new jersey (only one data point but it was what google showed me). I wonder if there is any readily available restaurant pricing data over time.
I found this calculator for inflation[3] which is based on this data[4]. The result seems to show that most grocery food was cheaper in 1981 than 2011 in Morris County, NJ at least. Unknown food quality, and I did not look at data regarding purchase power, salaries, etc, etc. I imagine most things are cheaper now, but has food actually gotten much cheaper since our parents? I would readily agree that we have more variety, availability, and options though.
[1]: http://www.gti.net/mocolib1/prices/1981.html
[2]: http://www.gti.net/mocolib1/prices/2011.html
[3]: http://inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Calculators/Cum...
[4]: http://inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/Historical...
Is that true? I looked up prices of food for 1981[1] and compared it with similar data from 2011[2]. These appear to be grocery prices based on newspaper fliers recorded by some library in new jersey (only one data point but it was what google showed me). I wonder if there is any readily available restaurant pricing data over time.
I found this calculator for inflation[3] which is based on this data[4]. The result seems to show that most grocery food was cheaper in 1981 than 2011 in Morris County, NJ at least. Unknown food quality, and I did not look at data regarding purchase power, salaries, etc, etc. I imagine most things are cheaper now, but has food actually gotten much cheaper since our parents? I would readily agree that we have more variety, availability, and options though.
[1]: http://www.gti.net/mocolib1/prices/1981.html
[2]: http://www.gti.net/mocolib1/prices/2011.html
[3]: http://inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Calculators/Cum...
[4]: http://inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/Historical...