This is not a vent board or any other kind of therapy. Before you hit the POST button, ask yourself if your contribution will add to the level of discussion going on.

Important notes on articles:

• Please do not copy entire articles into your post; rather, provide links to them.. We are now links-only for ALL Internet publications. If only a small portion of the article pertains to your post, Fair Use allows you to copy those one or two paragraphs, provided you cite the author's name and the publication for which he writes. Otherwise, put a link in the HTTP Link box.
• Even if you're copying a reference to an article, provide a link to the page from which the article came. We're trying to cut down on duplicate topics, and the posting process will check the link to your article to see if it's already being discussed on this board. At the very least, you'll save yourself some grief on the boards.
• If your first reaction after reading the article you're going to share is the author is uninformed / stupid / a jerk / all of the above, it's not worth sharing with anyone. Not every article needs to be discussed. The more the hair-pulling articles are discussed (e.g. ESPN Page 2), the more the authors will write hair-pulling articles.

Post being replied to

The concept you raise is very reasonable... by Kbyrnes

...Certainly higher prices for refined petroleum products usually makes other things more expensive; I'm not sure I've seen that it's in the range of $370 a month for an average household, but that depends on what they buy.

Not to be too glib, but beans, rice, and everyday fruits and vegetables aren't all that expensive. For example, the BLS indicates that the average price of bananas has increased in three years by about 5%. "Other fresh vegetables" are up about 6%. Other items, particularly those that require significant animal husbandry and/or processing like beef, pork, poultry, eggs, and processed canned goods, are up significantly more, part of the price we pay for eating what I call "industrialized food." (Yes, I like a slider or a bag of Doritos every so often too.)

Take eggs, for example. They're up something like 23% in the last three years. But a dozen eggs costs something like $2.50 to $3.00 depending on what part of the country you're in. A family of four that had an average of an egg a day for a 30-day month would spend about $22.50 to $30.00 on eggs, before sales taxes. In 2019 it would've been about $18.30 to $24.40; the difference of about $4 to $5.50 a month shouldn't be too oppressive on any family.

Inflation is a major issue--there's no evading that. But we should probably dig down and ask, what exactly costs more, and what does it say about our patterns of consumption?