"Our standard of living is being destroyed right before our eyes. Many Americans still don’t realize that the damages caused to the U.S. economy won’t be reversed anytime soon. Soaring food prices, lower buying power, and rising living expenses are only a few of the distortions caused by the exceedingly foolish decisions made by our leaders over the past few years. Now, our quality of life is decaying, and our standard of living is steadily being eviscerated. And we’re being told that a lot more financial pain is on the horizon.
Each week it passes by, Americans face some unpleasant new surprises at the pump. In May 2020, we used to pay $1.96 for a gallon of gasoline in most stations across the U.S. In May 2021, that price jumped to $3.08, marking an over 50% increase in just 12 months. But, of course, that wasn’t the end of the story. Last Sunday, Americans were paying on average $4.47 for a gallon of gas. On Monday, gas prices hit another all-time high of $4.48 per gallon. And today, that figure surged to $4.52.
Needless to say, our paychecks aren’t rising at the same rate gas prices are. That means that the price of gasoline has jumped by almost another 50 percent since May 2021. Has your paycheck gone up by 50 percent during each of the last two years? If it did, you’re certainly very lucky, because the vast majority of Americans cannot answer that question affirmatively.
At the same time, food prices in America are going through the roof. Over the past 24 months, they’ve been rising at a pace that is unlike anything most of us have ever seen before. Last week, a new report showed yet another broad-based rise in the cost of food at the wholesale level, with grains up 41.3 percent from a year. On top of that, the price of eggs skyrocketed 161.3 percent, as a result of a bird flu outbreak that led to the depopulation of 10 percent of chickens in the U.S. By the way, chicken prices went up 24.1 percent from a year ago. Fresh vegetables also soared, up 45.7 percent while fresh fruit rose 17.3 percent.
Eating fresh vegetables is essential to maintaining good health. But to do so, now you have to pay 45% more. Has your paycheck gone up by 45 percent over the past year? Meanwhile, homes are becoming significantly less affordable too. The combination of extremely inflated home prices and higher interest rates — driven by the Federal Reserve’s more aggressive efforts to fight inflation — has pushed monthly mortgage payments on the typical U.S. home up by 19.5 percent in the first three months of the year, according to real estate listing service Zillow. Compared to a year ago, payments are 38 percent higher. Has anyone’s paycheck gone up by 38 percent over the past year? We keep asking these questions to highlight the fact that our standard of living is being systematically destroyed.
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