That fact does not apply to many of the intervening decades. Edit: no need to tell a commie about income inequality.
No, just to the endpoint in the data analysis of "never been more affordable". To say "food has never been more affordable for the majority of the population" however, is the problem. You simply can't say that unless you average the super-rich in there. It's a fine line to walk, to be sure. But income inequality due to things like corruption, theft, fraud, etc, which is prevalent in government and the finance industry, is different than income equality of folks like Bill Gates and his workers. HOW they got that income is very important, and I think you would agree that it has only been in the last few decades, with emphasis on the last decade heavily, that this has been going on. A commie would say "we should all share". It is not communist to suggest that theft and fraud be stopped and punished to return the equal playing field for all to work hard and achieve success.
Read... "YOU all (peasants) share, but not us who are the ruling elite". Example.... Odumbocare requires all Americans to participate, one way or another... EXCEPT for the ruling elites who have exempted themselves from this heinous law.
Yes, and the only good thing about that is I believe history will repeat itself. Those in the past with that "let them eat cake" attitude found out after a revolt that they were going to die by either hanging, beheading, or a firing squad.
I don't want to put so fine a point on it, sometimes food is up, sometimes it's down. The century chart shows a very strong trend. Thank goodness for food productivity. And thank Max, he's admitted to living on ramen and KD for years. He's single-handedly brought the average down. : )
I may be incorrect here, but doesn't the CPI include food and fuel. I think it is the "core" inflation rate , which is different from the consumer price index. "CPI" , that does not include food and energy. Nevertheless, the CPI is now computed differently than it was in the past. The method for computing it has been changed several times. The method used currently to compute he CPI gives a lower inflation rate by between 2 and 3% compared to the method used in the mid-nineteen eighties. And of course the CPI includes more than just food and fuel.
Core CPI does not include those those because of price volatility. CPI is adjusted periodically to more accurately reflect what people are buying now vs. what they used to buy. This does raise the possibility that food affordability is "improving" because Americans are eating more junk, such as grain based carbohydrate products. (That would go a long way to explaining the growing obesity rate imo.)
Brother Tao, you hit the nail directly on the head. I been trying to tell people this for the longest. This is why people turn to communists like Barack Obama. If we had a level playing field in this country such that people could reasonably expect that their hard work would amount to a decent life, then they wouldn't feel the need to just give up and give in to a communistic regime such as Obama's. Instead, they take a "can't beat 'em, so might as well join 'em" attitude. Communism sucks. The low information people will figure this out sooner rather than later here in the (formerly) United States Of America.
When I read this part of your post, just for a second I thought you might be referring to the GOP establishment. Upon further consideration (about ten seconds), I realized that that is what I believe about them at this stage in the game.