Food pantries and food banks are a key economic indicator for tracking poverty levels and financial instability in the US, and in the past few months they have been ringing alarm bells.
Stagflationary pressures have all but wiped out the savings of the average American and driven up credit card debt to historic highs. Only in the past month have credit spending and debt levels begun to slide, but this is more a sign that consumers are tapped out rather than a sign of a return to normalcy. High prices are slowly but surely overwhelming lower wage workers in particular. The average living wage across most US states is around $16 an hour; over 30% of American workers make less than $15 an hour.
Democrats and leftists will of course claim that this is because the Federal Minimum Wage is too low and needs to be increased, but the minimum wage has become irrelevant in the post-covid economy. Many retail and service companies now pay around $11-14 an hour, well above minimum wage, in order to retain workers. And STILL prices are too high for many of these people to keep up with expenses.
Can average workers demand more money? Probably not. Low skill and no-skill workers are going to have a hard time rationalizing $16-$20 an hour for flipping burgers, brewing coffee or running cash registers. Such a broad wage increase would also trigger even higher prices on most goods, defeating the purpose of higher pay.
The notion of a low wage worker revolt is a bit of a fantasy, and in some ways it can be dangerous for those that believe in it. The trillions of dollars in covid stimulus unleashed in 2020 may have boosted retail sales and employment for a couple of years, but that’s coming to an end quickly. Workers can only opt out of certain jobs for a short time (as long as their parents will let them freeload), and bargaining for more money is dependent on their ability to get employment elsewhere. It’s a sure bet that by mid-2023 many “wage revolutionaries” will be begging for their old burger jobs back.
Stagflation is not a wage issue so much as a money supply issue. There are too many dollars chasing too few goods. This is coupled with numerous supply chain problems caused by covid hysteria in export nations like China that are holding up a large number of cargo ships for weeks or months at a time. When it comes to food in particular, there are weather issues, war issues and governments sabotaging food production within their own countries using nonsensical climate change restrictions (as we are seeing in places like the Netherlands).
So, if people aren’t going to get higher wages, and prices are going to continue climbing, what are they going to do? They generally turn to charities to help get through the month.
Food pantries usually don’t offer enough supplies to fully feed a family, but they do supplement your existing income by adding a week or two worth of sustenance per month. Many people will visit more than a couple food pantries at a time in order to stock enough for their families. The problem with price inflation is that it tends to directly affect and reduce the amount of donations that pantries receive and the amount of food they can give away.
In the past month there has been a steady stream of reports from pantries across the US stating that they are now hitting record high demand and record low supply. From New York to Wisconsin to Ohio to Missouri to Florida to Arkansas to California and beyond, pantries are running out. On top of that, it’s the middle of summer – The busiest time for food banks and the Salvation Army is during the winter holidays.
The majority of pantries indicate that they are most in need of cash donations and that these have started to fade out. When it comes to necessities, most people will not or cannot reduce the frequency of their purchases. Food, gas, housing, utilities, etc. are fixed income costs, and when these costs rise workers must cut costs elsewhere. Charities are usually the first to see the chopping block.
The avalanche of reports suggests that this winter will be high in food demand and dismal in terms of supply, with little relief from charities. The most advisable option would be to stock dry and canned goods with a long shelf life now while they are still available and prepare for the cold season when demand skyrockets even higher. Even people in financial distress can utilize pantries today and stock supplies for the months ahead if they plan carefully. Those same pantries may not exist when winter rolls around, so now is the time to act.
Still, don’t call it a recession (or depression)…
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The average American doesn’t understand the most basic thing about economics. Watch a Mark Dice video and you will see what we are dealing with. AOC and the other morons in DC will tell the public what they want to hear and blame small businesses. And the public will believe it.
They’ll be the people who spent years screaming and insulting conservatives, that one day find themselves in a ditch or up against a wall confused why their communist masters turned on them.
Having never learned cause and effect they act like children oblivious to the damage they cause others.
They’ll take out many of ‘Us’ on the way. Inevitable.
Folks: Burgleries and theft from yard sheds out from town, ( get a lock on them or secure fence) lock yard gate also, cars, and keep loaded guns near both home entrances. Try to avoid taking drugs to help you sleep because crime will increase later. Not a time to start a family, women must stay in the work force to make ends meet, and young people have a iffy future.. Majority of people have no idea who/where is running the “show” from command Hq. in Geneva, Switzerland (W.E.F.), controlling and dictating to world leaders on every continent. Rothchild’s giving orders to Claus schwab and others down the chain of command to world leaders, the WHO and the NATO hq. in Brussels.
It starts with our indoctrination asylums.
Usually called public schools.
Until those are burned to the ground,
we will have a nation of uneducated automatons.
Take an any 8th grade test from the 50’s and see what I mean.
I’ve seen via DFW local news stations, long lines in Dallas. Not sure that those long lines of cars contain truly desperate people, or those seeking out freebies. Just like so many line up for free (Nothing is) school supplies. I’d be embarrassed.
“Not sure that those long lines of cars contain truly desperate people,”
Know 2 Postal Deliverers. Currently called the barry phone. Many deliveries to the more affluent neighborhoods.
Scam Artistry? National Pastime.
Not sure if it supersedes the more time honored tradition….If You Can’t be ‘X’…SUE THEM.
Was in a C-store that emphasizes prepared food yesterday when we bought 13 MegaMillions lottery tix (won $8..lost $18). Had an indoor sandwich board sign advertising cashier starting pay at $16.50/hr. and $19.50 for a semi-skilled food preparer. Asst. Mgr $50K, Mgr. $65K. All positions w/ full benefits upon hire and profit-sharing after 12 months.
Service jobs can’t support an economy. The inflation is going to continue because we don’t produce anything. The Fed can raise rates all it wants but until production returns we’re all screwed. Eventually liquidity on Wall Street will completely dry up because of the rising interest rates and that’ll slow down the money velocity triggering the deflationary death spiral. There’s no fixing what’s coming.
“Service jobs can’t support an economy. ” Stop with the blasphemy . Asia and Mexico do the nasty manufacturing jobs while the higher evolved Americans are doing the clean tech. It’s the natural cycle of muh invisible hand. Do you even do muh free market?
“Stop with the blasphemy”
Clearly, have a clue you do not.
Sincerely, Mike ‘Yoda’ Rowe
We even ran out of chips for new cars, do we really make anything here??? Death spiril indeed! the comment gal is right there is no fixing it, the train has derailed into the abyss.
“Service jobs can’t support an economy.”
By Design. Fully Subsidized. By Design. Think walmart. Some supposition that they were even taking out life Insurance on their employees? Can’t remember if it was supposedly upper/mid Mgmt…or all ‘associates’
I dunno….
If you all will recall what happened back in ’08, there were quite a few people who wound up losing close to everything including their homes, and not directly due to the “Sub-Prime” Mortgage Fiasco. There were a LOT of people who were collateral damage from that Fag Show who lost their jobs, which in turn caused them to lose everything.
I’m not saying that there weren’t a lot of people who deserved what they got, but a lot more DIDN’T. They were in the wrong place financially at the wrong time. They couldn’t sell, as they were suddenly upside down, and even if they could, there were very few who could get financing by then.
Then there were the Corporate Buyers who picked up entire neighborhoods for pennies on the dollar as “Rentals”, and now the same shit’s going on with Blackrock and a bunch of others. They’re gonna make Damned Sure that most of us Will Own Nothing……
We’re going to see a whole lot more of this shit this time around, and NOTHING pisses me off more than seeing Good People who are ripped off by TPTB. Nobody went to jail for it, just as nothing will be done THIS time around. What’s it going to take before the Piano Wire and Lampposts are utilized?
The Church my wife and I attend runs a pretty large Food Bank, and my wife volunteers there. According to her, she’s already seeing an incredible uptick in what we’d call “Middle Class” families who are showing up now. She can tell that there’s a lot of “shame” from these people who haven’t had to rely on this before.
Suffering is the just fate of those who can’t make it in muh free market. Capitalism is real, bruh. Get used to it.
“You vil eat nothing and be (not) heppy.”
– WEPH
Never forget the WEF and Gates types hate you for existing and want you dead.
I used to regularly donate to my local Salvation Army (SA) food bank, believing no one should go hungry in my community. Then the Salvation Army said I need to apologize for being white. I now send my regular SA donation to a local animal shelter. I still believe no one in my community should go hungry, but if I’m going to being admonished for my merely existing, sorry I’m out.
People need to know they hate whites and not to donate to them.
You’re gonna need a bigger trundle.
Many used stimmies to buy the best iPhone. They can sell it for 80 dollars and buy two bags of food. They can cancel cables and only keep one cellphone per family.
If necessary, 2 or 3 families can share one housing unit.
People need privacy, I wouldn’t want to live w/ inlaws or parents as married person. Most would agree. Ditto for siblings and their spouses, kids.
Good thing the Biden regime redefined ‘recession’ as something we aren’t having. Looking forward to them doing the same for ‘depression’ in short order.
Jobs flipping burgers for minimum wage was never meant to be a career. Problem is we have a whole slew of people who screwed around their whole life smoking pot, dropping out of school and or committing crimes who now as an adult have no skills what so ever and curse those of us who were responsible saying we owe them.
at the behest of muh capitalism, flipping burgers replaced real jobs. Real jobs make real men. Pouring overpriced coffee for fags only creates more fags. smh….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTW0y6kazWM
We tried several times over 10 years to donate an entire hog to the local foodbank. They would agree to accept it only if we sent it to an approved USDA slaughterhouse and pay the cost ourselves (roughly $600 currently). The amount of “meetings” and discussions about something that could have supplied hundreds of pounds of clean, healthy sausage and bacon locally raised to people who need it, only to end up with them buying it from a Walmart instead was enough to drive a man insane. They weren’t interested in feeding people as much as they were with the approval of the government.
About 7 or 8 years ago we saw a story about an organization in our state capitol that was trying to help refugees begin a life of farming in the US. I contacted them and offered to provide- at no cost- several acres for them to set up gardens and to offer any assistance we might be able to provide regarding what grows best, use of equipment, etc.
They told us they were looking for money, not land or assistance.
Every experience we have ever had peripheral to food banks or other “feed the downtrodden” narratives demonstrates that they are all about the organization, fundraising, and virtue signaling. They neither care about long term solutions, nor are flexible enough to imagine any other work around other than the give us money so we can buy something to give away so we look good paradigm.
If you are able to help feed people, provide them with firewood to keep warm, etc., keep your eyes open right where you live. identify the people you know could use help and then just show up with something, be gracious about it, and then go back to whatever it was you were doing. You don’t need a middleman to help someone.
“They told us they were looking for money, not land or assistance.” That’s capitalism, bruh . Money is MUH sustenance.
Why due diligence is crucial in all decision making plans.
Group homes in my area incl handicapped adult homes also get donations from churches and individuals. forget food banks.
“Stagflationary pressures have all but wiped out the savings of the average American”
😂 They had Savings? Before?
“ Such a broad wage increase would also trigger even higher prices on most goods, defeating the purpose of higher pay.”
Oh Noooo! Ya mean like the Food Stamp™ Program did for FOOD PRICES since Inception?
“ The majority of pantries indicate that they are most in need of cash donations and that these have started to fade out…”
Surely, they will accept Gold, Silver, bitcoin? EBT? visa, etc?
“ Food, gas, housing, utilities, etc. are fixed income costs, and when these costs rise workers must cut costs elsewhere.”
Fixed Income? Like Social Security?
Ohhhh…i get it! The ORIGINAL Universal Basic Income. The Program where EVERY PENNY ‘contributed’ by You. And Your Employer. Is consumed in 3 – 5 yrs.
“ …this winter will be high in food demand and dismal in terms of supply,…”
According to algore’s invention, July 3rd (2nd is mid-calendar yr.) is when ya KNOW Winter is right around the corner.
By Jiminy Crickets!
Now, do You Understand, Grasshopper?
“The majority of pantries indicate that they are most in need of cash donations…”
People will first top donating to charities (or cut back) and church donations will be less, or some I know quit going because cost of gas and can’t afford giving, medical bills, etc. The gov puppets of the elite are going to kill the economy and cause mass poverty.
Meanwhile, doughnuts are in BIG supply. Come on over and we got coffee too.