Wednesday, January 14, 2015

COTW: Food Prices Sky High Again

Corporate hacks say the US economy has recovered, but 72% of Americans disagree with that assessment. Two reasons for that disconnect: wages are flat and food prices are at record highs.  Here's the chart from the Economist:
In 2008 when food prices hit a high now surpassed, global food riots broke out. The UN's FAO food index reached 215 last month, breaking June 2008's record high of 213.5. It is now every peon for himself. Two thirds of ordinary Americans live from paycheck to paycheck, most without pension benefits. Many work part-time jobs without health benefits. In the 1950s workers had strength in organization when a third of workers were unionized. Their contracts often set the level for non-unionized workers too. Today, fewer than 7% of private sectors workers are unionized. The result of all this wage slavery: the rich get richer. Talk about out of bounds!:

Before American propagandists point fingers at the kleptocracy that is Putin's Russia (Russia's transparency index fell from 90 to 126 at the beginning of his second term) where the individual median income is lower than India's, we should set our own plutocracy in order.