They keep raising prices, stating that it’s due to inflation, but then they keep having record profits.
Meanwhile, the average American can barely afford rent or food nowadays.
What are we to do? Vote? I have been but that doesn’t seem to do much since I’m just voting for a representative that makes the actual decisions.
No. Purchase ingredients instead of products. Stop buying the highly processed, ready to consume, expensive but easy options. It’s hard. It is, but it works. I could never afford to feed my family on TV dinners and frozen pizza, but we eat well because rice is cheap and veggies are filling and meat can be stretched. Herbs and spices are a bit of an initial investment, but they go a long way. And believe it or not, eating till you feel full every time is not good for you. And the more you do it the more it takes next time. And commercial food is made to make you try, but also formulated to make it harder to reach that feeling.
The cost of ingredients have gone up anywhere from 75%-300% from corporate greed. Flour went from $1/Lb to $5/Lb. It’s actually cheaper in some cases to buy the mass produced version of things like bread.
TL;DR: You can only lower you consumption so much before you starve
What we need are non-profits who engage in agriculture specifically to sell basic goods cheap and to undercut for-profit companies. With automation advancing, it’s possible to slash prices in that way.
That would help shift Americans away from capitalism to a post-scarcity economy where they don’t have to worry about buying food and such.
The idea that an average person in the US is anywhere near starving is ridiculous. Except a tiny, almost vanishingly small minority, americans would be healtier consuming significantly less.