Prices are rising for many Americans, with 65% of consumers saying the increases are outpacing their income, according to a J.D. Power survey of 4,000 U.S. adults conducted in February 2026.
Recent inflation data adds to that pressure, with the annual rate rising from 2.4% in February to 3.3% in March, according to consumer price index data released Friday. The increase was driven largely by a surge in energy costs as gasoline prices spiked amid the Iran war. Gasoline prices rose 21.2% in March, accounting for nearly three-quarters of the overall increase, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
IMHO America has way more Inflation than the Offical Figures.
Because the Official Inflation is matemathically related to the Official GDP (which is the Real GDP, calculated from the Nominal - in USD - GDP by deflating it using the Inflation rate, so more inflation means less GDP), it’s a Politically Important number, complex to determine, with a lot of room for rigging (just change the composition of the “basket” used to calculate it, plus there’s a big difference between including or not Housing costs), generally considered good if small and gets less focus than GDP (GDP Growth is widelly paraded by ruling politicians as a measure of their success, Inflation much less so), so I suspect the political pressure to make Official Inflation figures small is HUGE.
As far as I can tell that official figure has been heavilly rigged for quite a while (though I expect that in Trump’s America it’s worse), hence why the blue collar worker salary which could pay for a house, a car and all the expenses of family of 5 by itself back in the 60s and which according to Inflation has around the same real value as a blue collar worker salary nowadays, can’t pay for anywhere close to that anymore.
(By the way, this is not just a problem in America - you can see the same in Europe - it’s just that judging by the growth in housing costs, food prices and salaries in certain areas, America seems to have had way more inflation since 2008 than Europe).
All hail to the glory of the shareholder value!
Stop complaining, enjoy being part of something bigger than you. And wealthier. And happier. And…
If it makes you feel better, you made a few pedos really really rich.
I was told that if I voted for Harris there would be inflation and high gas prices, the government would be filled with pedophiles and sexual predators, and there would be war in the Middle East (WWIII even), and it would be the demise of America’s standing in the world.
So, I’m sorry. Because I voted for Harris anyways.
My bad.
I cut out almost everything last year. No streaming, I use Tubi for free. Cut Spotify, using Radio Garden to listen to music for free. Deleted my Amazon account, including Kindle Unlimited. I read a lot so that one was harder to ditch, but now use the library for free. Cut out almost all spending except for groceries, but no junk food, alcohol (I miss beer 😞 but $12 for a six-pack is too much) or soda. I miss that stuff but I’m old enough I grew up without online subscriptions and I can live without all that. No unneeded driving, I save my errands up and do them all in one go. It kinda sucks, not going to lie. But I can’t afford to live and still let myself get nickle-and-dimed to death.
I’m spending my savings on alcohol!
Better spend it on ammo instead the rate that things are going.
Who needs a 401k when you can down a 12 pack a day!
It’s hard to imagine a future where my 401k is worth enough to support me. In the meantime, the horrors of the world are driving me to increase my alcohol intake.
My 401k would only ever be a supplement to Social Security. Fortunately the ruling party would never even dream of abolishing that.
/s of course. They used to say Social Security was the third rail of American politics – soon it will be the third leg.
It’s the least they can do to help Dear Leader build his arch.
Here’s the design plan
Make your own Alcohol now that it’s apparently legal to home distill. Just don’t forget to dispose of the heads and the tails.
I heard you can turn that part into degreaser?
Yeah, I don’t see why not. It’s mostly methanol
The cost of a 2 bedroom apartment has doubled over the last decade. Groceries are up 50% and I have found that the food I buy is spoiling way before the best by date, as if stores are not properly handling their merchandise due to cut regulations.
Despite getting small yearly raises my spending power has not increased at all.
Crap is also friggin shrinking too. A bunch of packages of things I buy are now a little bit smaller than they were like 5-10 years ago.
most noticable were toothpastes, he had massive shrinkflation, and they also go through cheapflation and try to disguise it as a new products. 8.2oz are considered “old” version they have mostly 5.4 for the normal ones. sensitivity toothpaste suffered the same thing some went from 4.6 to 4.3(stannous and potassium nitrate) oz per tube, plus they use cheaper ingredients and overload it with mint oil(they use mint oil to give the taste) to mask the taste no doubt, too much chemically produce oil actual can cause allergic reaction in people.
Triple whammy: prices up, sizes down, quality down
I got a box of ice cream pops a few weeks ago.
It had three in the box.
I could swear I’ve bought the exact same kind before and it had four. Not only did the shrinkflation annoy me, but 3? Something about that rubs me the wrong way, but I can’t quite articulate it. It just seems like a very weird number to pick. Right? Am I alone in thinking this?
And yet for all of eternity we have had different numbers of hot dogs and hot dog buns.
same goes with bars, like gronala, fruit bars,etc. i have seen from 6-5,. the bougie ones like gomarco,etc are too expensive for a fruit bar.
Having a prime number in the box makes fights more likely since it isnt divisible. If you are sharing, somebody is going to miss out.
In a somewhat related prime number incident, we have the term “baker’s dozen”, meaning 13. This is because bakers were found to be reducing the size of loaves of bread, and the government required that they include 13 when they sold 12 to make up for the discrepancy. So shrinkflation has been going on basically forever…
Any prime number is divisible by itself though? So you can split a box of 3 amongst 3 people. Remember that 2 is also prime, and you can’t split a box of 2 or 4 between 3 people.
Anyway, I think the bigger issue is the 25% reduction from 4 in a box to 3 in a box, and we can be plenty annoyed and/or outraged at that. 😆
Shrinkflation
cheapflation as well.
I make about $800 more a month now than I did two years ago and I have way less money on hand today. This administration stole my raise from me and will continue to do so :(
Things also may be spoiling faster due to grocery stores chronically understaffing too save money (read: 🤑 📈).
A lot more spoilage happens when employees don’t have time to properly sort and manage inventory.
I have found that the food I buy is spoiling way before the best by date
I’ve been noticing this too. Bags of potatoes are going soft after only a few days of purchase.
i suspect alot of them could be sitting in storage facilities for a while before actually shipped to the store as new? some of them come rotten or infested with pest(fungi)
I’m lucky that I have supportive parents otherwise I’d be struggling to survive right now
its a thing for asian families, including indians,etc. but not caucasian westerners where the propaganda tells them to be independent without significant finances in thier banks. some people are well off enough they can afford to live on thier own as soon as possible, or dare i say it, in a low cost red state.
Oh wow. I cut back on groceries, ride shares and alcohol during the first Trump presidency too. Suffering does come in cycles.
I once read that not being able to make enough money to buy food is when a revolutionary happens. It’s the final straw that people can no longer ignore. It has to happen on a national level.
The problem is that like 20% of these people blame Biden or Democrats.
I don’t necessarily think that’s a problem. A revolution wouldn’t end up with a new Obama or Clinton. Ideally it would end up destroying capitalism and saving humanity.
And Children, entertainment, travel, housing, Healthcare… We are cutting back on every fucking thing
Except war.
“Why aren’t people reproducing anymore!”
Even when large segments of the population straight-up tell politicians in simple and direct language, they willfully ignore what people are saying.
they know but the narrative needs to be maintained
for now
And they’re cutting back on alcohol because now they can distill their own.
Interesting, I’m spending less on groceries and more on alcohol.
xactly.
Only just now?
The top 10% of the US account for at least half of consumer spending; this just shows that spending is slowing even for the well-off folks.
It’s the next wealth tier up from up to now, I think.
