PROOF that the ECONOMY is COLLAPSING!
01-23-2013, 01:06 PM
#28
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Not Chopped Liver
by Don Boudreaux on January 21, 2013
Has the pay of ordinary Americans stagnated over the past 30 to 40 years? Many prominent people say yes. Others of us believe that the facts do not support this claim of stagnant pay. Regular patrons of the Cafe have encountered several posts by Russ and by me that challenge, in different ways, this ‘stagnationist’ argument. (Regular readers of Mark Perry’s Carpe Diem are also exposed to many reasons for doubting that middle-class Americans have been, as some say, “treading water” for the past several decades.)
Here’s one piece of evidence that the real pay of ordinary Americans is today higher than in was in the 1970s.
This is a package, from a Whole Foods supermarket in Fairfax, Virginia, of cleaned and pre-cut vegetable for making soup. Packages such as these are common now in supermarkets – not only in Whole Foods, but also in stores such as Giant and Safeway.
Buyers of these packages of pre-cut vegetables buy not only the vegetables but the convenience of simply dumping them into the pot. Buyers here buy time.
Those of us old enough to remember supermarkets in the 1970s recall that no such packages were then available. (Nor, by the way, were electric food processors at all common. Americans in the 1970s bought whole vegetables; peeled and washed them at home; and chopped them up with knives or with other manually operated chopping devices. I remember my mom using a manual chopper that had a curve blade and relied upon the pressure of a coiled spring to chop vegetables.)
So this package of washed and pre-cut vegetables suggests that the value of Americans’ time is higher today than it was in the past, before such packages were common.
The same suggestion is made by the ubiquity today of Jiffy Lube and Pep Boys. Americans have better ways to spend their time than cutting vegetables and changing the oil in their automobiles.
As I say, this is evidence; it’s (of course) not proof. My “demand-side” suggestion for the growing popularity of pre-cut vegetables and drive-in oil-change services might be off-base. And if it is correct, it’s also likely not to be all that’s going on. Supply-side forces are also at work, and these forces might play a larger role than the demand-side forces in driving this market development. Some unheralded innovator – or, really, a series of innovators working together (likely unaware they were doing so!) – made it possible to construct and use chopping, wrapping, and other machines that enable food retailers to profitably offer for sale pre-cut veggies.
But when I look at these vegetables, I think “less time spent cooking!”
by Don Boudreaux on January 21, 2013
Has the pay of ordinary Americans stagnated over the past 30 to 40 years? Many prominent people say yes. Others of us believe that the facts do not support this claim of stagnant pay. Regular patrons of the Cafe have encountered several posts by Russ and by me that challenge, in different ways, this ‘stagnationist’ argument. (Regular readers of Mark Perry’s Carpe Diem are also exposed to many reasons for doubting that middle-class Americans have been, as some say, “treading water” for the past several decades.)
Here’s one piece of evidence that the real pay of ordinary Americans is today higher than in was in the 1970s.
This is a package, from a Whole Foods supermarket in Fairfax, Virginia, of cleaned and pre-cut vegetable for making soup. Packages such as these are common now in supermarkets – not only in Whole Foods, but also in stores such as Giant and Safeway.
Buyers of these packages of pre-cut vegetables buy not only the vegetables but the convenience of simply dumping them into the pot. Buyers here buy time.
Those of us old enough to remember supermarkets in the 1970s recall that no such packages were then available. (Nor, by the way, were electric food processors at all common. Americans in the 1970s bought whole vegetables; peeled and washed them at home; and chopped them up with knives or with other manually operated chopping devices. I remember my mom using a manual chopper that had a curve blade and relied upon the pressure of a coiled spring to chop vegetables.)
So this package of washed and pre-cut vegetables suggests that the value of Americans’ time is higher today than it was in the past, before such packages were common.
The same suggestion is made by the ubiquity today of Jiffy Lube and Pep Boys. Americans have better ways to spend their time than cutting vegetables and changing the oil in their automobiles.
As I say, this is evidence; it’s (of course) not proof. My “demand-side” suggestion for the growing popularity of pre-cut vegetables and drive-in oil-change services might be off-base. And if it is correct, it’s also likely not to be all that’s going on. Supply-side forces are also at work, and these forces might play a larger role than the demand-side forces in driving this market development. Some unheralded innovator – or, really, a series of innovators working together (likely unaware they were doing so!) – made it possible to construct and use chopping, wrapping, and other machines that enable food retailers to profitably offer for sale pre-cut veggies.
But when I look at these vegetables, I think “less time spent cooking!”
It's funny because the last two times I made chicken noodle soup (both within the month), I bought those packages.
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01-23-2013, 01:16 PM
#29
Not Chopped Liver
It's funny because the last two times I made chicken noodle soup (both within the month), I bought those packages.
It's funny because the last two times I made chicken noodle soup (both within the month), I bought those packages.
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01-23-2013, 02:23 PM
#33
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It is interesting how the retail nature of food has changed even since I was a kid.
Take the butcher at the local supermarket, for instance. It used to be that they'd grind beef right there in the store, cut meat to spec, etc. Nowaadays, I'm not even sure that most supermarkets even employ a butcher anymore- I mostly see people stocking the refrigerated shelves with meat products that have been packaged and vacuum-sealed in a factory somewhere. At best, they take enormous boxes of pre-ground beef and sub-divide it into smaller portions which go onto foam trays.
But the potato is the one I love best.
Now, as then, potatoes are principally sold in sacks weighing 5 or 10 lbs. The bags are plastic now instead or burlap, but the underlying premise is the same.
But that's old-fashioned.
These days, beautiful people by their potatoes individually. I was floored the first time I saw one of these:
Seriously? A "microwave-ready potato"? All potatoes are microwave-ready; it's in their nature. But for some reason, someone came up with the idea that you can take a single potato, wrap it in heat-shrink, slap a label on it, and mark it up by 300%. And so far as I can tell, people are actually buying them.
Now, I can almost cotton to the idea of a tray of pre-sliced vegetables. Or the bagged "skillet meals" that sit in the freezer section, where you just dump the whole contents of the bag into a pan, and ten minutes later you have Skirt Steak Stir-Fry with Vegetables and Brown Rice or Seared Salmon with Sliced Sweet Potatoes and Asparagus. It's quite convenient.
But single-serve potatoes? What the hell am I gaining with this product?
Anyway...
Two-Buck Chuck. The King is Dead. Long Live the King. Feels like the end of an era, really. Like when Gene Cernan stepped off of the moon for the last time and rocketed back into space, or when Shaka witnessed the collapse of the great walls around the capitol city of Shantil. What do we call it now? The new signage at my local TJ's has been muted thoroughly uninspiring. It's as though they are grieving in their own way, and don't wish to dishonor Chuck's memory.
Ah, well. Target still has their little 1.5l wine cubes. The Cabernet / Shiraz blend is surprisingly un-horrible.
Take the butcher at the local supermarket, for instance. It used to be that they'd grind beef right there in the store, cut meat to spec, etc. Nowaadays, I'm not even sure that most supermarkets even employ a butcher anymore- I mostly see people stocking the refrigerated shelves with meat products that have been packaged and vacuum-sealed in a factory somewhere. At best, they take enormous boxes of pre-ground beef and sub-divide it into smaller portions which go onto foam trays.
But the potato is the one I love best.
Now, as then, potatoes are principally sold in sacks weighing 5 or 10 lbs. The bags are plastic now instead or burlap, but the underlying premise is the same.
But that's old-fashioned.
These days, beautiful people by their potatoes individually. I was floored the first time I saw one of these:
Seriously? A "microwave-ready potato"? All potatoes are microwave-ready; it's in their nature. But for some reason, someone came up with the idea that you can take a single potato, wrap it in heat-shrink, slap a label on it, and mark it up by 300%. And so far as I can tell, people are actually buying them.
Now, I can almost cotton to the idea of a tray of pre-sliced vegetables. Or the bagged "skillet meals" that sit in the freezer section, where you just dump the whole contents of the bag into a pan, and ten minutes later you have Skirt Steak Stir-Fry with Vegetables and Brown Rice or Seared Salmon with Sliced Sweet Potatoes and Asparagus. It's quite convenient.
But single-serve potatoes? What the hell am I gaining with this product?
Anyway...
Two-Buck Chuck. The King is Dead. Long Live the King. Feels like the end of an era, really. Like when Gene Cernan stepped off of the moon for the last time and rocketed back into space, or when Shaka witnessed the collapse of the great walls around the capitol city of Shantil. What do we call it now? The new signage at my local TJ's has been muted thoroughly uninspiring. It's as though they are grieving in their own way, and don't wish to dishonor Chuck's memory.
Ah, well. Target still has their little 1.5l wine cubes. The Cabernet / Shiraz blend is surprisingly un-horrible.
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01-23-2013, 03:08 PM
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Seriously? A "microwave-ready potato"? All potatoes are microwave-ready; it's in their nature. But for some reason, someone came up with the idea that you can take a single potato, wrap it in heat-shrink, slap a label on it, and mark it up by 300%. And so far as I can tell, people are actually buying them.
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01-23-2013, 03:18 PM
#36
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Hmm.
Does anybody know the name of that website where you can go and commission bored, angsty teenagers to create one-off custom crafts for you? You know- stuffed animals, **** with beads, etc? I'm thinking of a knitted cover for the wine cube.
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01-23-2013, 03:42 PM
#37
According to semi-scientific labs tests performed by people with a similar mindset to my own, the same amount of time as a store-bought one in shrink wrap.
Hmm.
Does anybody know the name of that website where you can go and commission bored, angsty teenagers to create one-off custom crafts for you? You know- stuffed animals, **** with beads, etc? I'm thinking of a knitted cover for the wine cube.
Hmm.
Does anybody know the name of that website where you can go and commission bored, angsty teenagers to create one-off custom crafts for you? You know- stuffed animals, **** with beads, etc? I'm thinking of a knitted cover for the wine cube.
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01-23-2013, 06:50 PM
#39
This whole boxed stuff seems like a reasonable way to fly. I've grown partial to J.Lohr - ~$15@costco.... Which apparently is Big Money to blow on a bottle. But with your average 6 pack of drinkable beer pushing $10 anyway, it's not as crazy as it seems.
Shockingly, I find myself drinking a fair amount of Red Trolley (like, something silly like 90 cents a piece, again at Costco) since... they take food stamps?
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01-23-2013, 07:02 PM
#40
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As much as I did not intend for this thread to become a serious conversation about wine...
I have found that, regardless of its contents, the box format has one significant advantage: shelf life.
Because the box uses a faucet to dispense the product, and the plastic bag inside collapses as product is withdrawn from it, the inside the of the bag remains a "virgin" environment. No air enters it during the dispensing process, so unlike with a bottle, you can dispense a glass or two from the box on Monday, and by Friday the contents are still in their original, unspoiled condition.
With a bottle, you are more or less forced to consume the entire thing over the course of a single evening. The box allows one to space out one's wine consumption over a more reasonable period of time.
I have found that, regardless of its contents, the box format has one significant advantage: shelf life.
Because the box uses a faucet to dispense the product, and the plastic bag inside collapses as product is withdrawn from it, the inside the of the bag remains a "virgin" environment. No air enters it during the dispensing process, so unlike with a bottle, you can dispense a glass or two from the box on Monday, and by Friday the contents are still in their original, unspoiled condition.
With a bottle, you are more or less forced to consume the entire thing over the course of a single evening. The box allows one to space out one's wine consumption over a more reasonable period of time.
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