by Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse Blog:
This new economic downturn is starting to bite, and we are starting to see signs of severe pain all over the nation. In fact, unless you are independently wealthy, you are likely feeling pain too. The cost of living has risen to extreme oppressive levels, and this has happened at a time when close to two-thirds of the country was already living paycheck to paycheck. As a result, many Americans are having their finances stretched to the breaking point, and millions of them are reaching out for help. For example, on Saturday morning the line of people waiting for assistance at one of Boston’s largest food pantries “stretched the length of two football fields”…
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The line outside Boston’s American Red Cross Food Pantry on a recent Saturday morning stretched the length of two football fields.
The number of people filing into the red-brick industrial-zone warehouse on some days now exceeds the worst periods of the pandemic economic crisis and in April it had the second highest monthly traffic since it opened in 1982, according to David Andre, the director.
In recent months, food stamp benefits have been reduced to pre-pandemic levels, and that has made things even more challenging for those near the bottom of the economic food chain.
But it isn’t just those that are unemployed or that are on government assistance that are hurting. At one food bank in Colorado, “military families, teachers, nurses and even dual-income couples” are now coming for help…
Nathan Springer, a retired army colonel who is president and chief executive officer of the Colorado Springs-based Care and Share Food Bank, said his organization is seeing more requests for groceries from military families, teachers, nurses and even dual-income couples following the cut in assistance.
“We’ve seen young full-time employees who are for the first time facing hard decisions: Are we going to buy food or pay our utility bills?” Springer said.
We witnessed this kind of suffering in 2008 and 2009, but at that time food prices were at least relatively stable.
Here in 2023, food prices have already surged to absurd levels, and they continue to go higher at a very alarming pace…
In the first quarter alone, global foodmaker Nestlé SA reported raising prices in North America 12.4% compared to last year. Unilever Plc raised prices 13.4% globally in its food division.
No matter what the Federal Reserve does, I believe that food prices are going to keep rising.
And that is not going to be good for any of us.
In a recent tweet, I think that Mike Cernovich summed up what a lot of Americans are feeling right now…
I’ll give you example. I took my kids to a causal eating place. Ordered meals. Saw the amount due. And was PISSED. I can afford it that’s not the issue. It’s like we are being bled everywhere. If you’re struggling, this sentiment is amplified by helplessness, which leads to rage.
Can you identify with that?
I sure can.
I remember the days when you could go out to eat and feed an entire family for just ten bucks.
Needless to say, those days are long gone.
The days are also gone when the average family could afford to purchase a new vehicle every few years.
At this point, millions upon millions of us keep patching up our old vehicles because new vehicles have become just too expensive…
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