Human Progress provides an apples-to-apples look at the cost of items in their “food basket” and, using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, uses food prices at a Walmart in Cincinnati to show the cost of purchasing those 42 food items.
A very useful graph shows the number of hours needed to work since 2019 until 2024 to purchase those items.
“[b]ecause of inflation between 2019 and 2024, U.S. blue-collar workers need to work an extra 36 minutes (3 hours 51 minutes versus 4 hours 27 minutes) to buy the same kind and quantity of foods they bought in 2019.
This 16 percent increase in the price of our basket of 42 food items is a sad reflection on the US government’s fiscal and monetary incontinence and the draconian policies implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As ever, inflation has raised prices for those Americans who could least afford it.”
You can read their full assessment and see the prices of the 42 food items HERE.