There has been inflation like this once before....it was when Jimmy Carter was president. A loaf of bread went from a quarter to a dollar "because of the price of sugar". Actually it was the sugar cartel of Florida rigging prices and the sugar beet producers of sugar going along with it because they were getting richer too. Brazilian sugar was almost banned. Also some lousy wheat harvests in the plains due to drought and a few grain elevators catching fire helped balloon prices too.
Oil prices (especially gasoline) had a 100% price spike almost overnight and then another 100% one as this new cartel decided to almost halt all shipments of oil to the USA. There were lines for gas in CA and you had to alternate which days of the week you could fill your tank.
This also was around the time that new legislation in CA stopped all new home construction in the state and house prices quadrupled in a few years. A once $20k home went for $200K in about 5 years. All the while interest rates for mortgages was around 9%.
Jobs were scarce going into the '80's. Unemployment was high. (Double digits) and a ad in the newspaper for a dishwasher brought long lines of desperate people looking for work. They literally were wrapped around the restaurant wanting to fill out an application for $3.35/hr. (A good career job would pay $10.50/hr or more)
This was mid '70's to mid 80's.....you would have been in grade school to high school during these years. But it was what life was like during the Carter years. Unpleasant to say the least. Minimum wage went up in stages from $2.35 to 3.35 during these years and then were static afterwards for another 20. Median income to median housing ratio was at a 7.5.....it was a 4.3 pre-covid and now post covid it again increasing to 7.2 last time I looked.
Restaurants didn't pay waitors and waitresses...waitstaff paid the restaurant. Usually $5/shift and the bulk of their wages was tax free. People fought long and hard to get these jobs too...it was usually better money than any regular job. And the waitstaff was very professional. Today waitstaff is clumsy dolts who can barely bring you the right food after you, yourself punch it into the table kiosk and pay for it there too. There really is no service in Restaurants anymore and the cooks don't make a living wage either.
Things have not changed for the better in a long time.
Oil prices (especially gasoline) had a 100% price spike almost overnight and then another 100% one as this new cartel decided to almost halt all shipments of oil to the USA. There were lines for gas in CA and you had to alternate which days of the week you could fill your tank.
This also was around the time that new legislation in CA stopped all new home construction in the state and house prices quadrupled in a few years. A once $20k home went for $200K in about 5 years. All the while interest rates for mortgages was around 9%.
Jobs were scarce going into the '80's. Unemployment was high. (Double digits) and a ad in the newspaper for a dishwasher brought long lines of desperate people looking for work. They literally were wrapped around the restaurant wanting to fill out an application for $3.35/hr. (A good career job would pay $10.50/hr or more)
This was mid '70's to mid 80's.....you would have been in grade school to high school during these years. But it was what life was like during the Carter years. Unpleasant to say the least. Minimum wage went up in stages from $2.35 to 3.35 during these years and then were static afterwards for another 20. Median income to median housing ratio was at a 7.5.....it was a 4.3 pre-covid and now post covid it again increasing to 7.2 last time I looked.
Restaurants didn't pay waitors and waitresses...waitstaff paid the restaurant. Usually $5/shift and the bulk of their wages was tax free. People fought long and hard to get these jobs too...it was usually better money than any regular job. And the waitstaff was very professional. Today waitstaff is clumsy dolts who can barely bring you the right food after you, yourself punch it into the table kiosk and pay for it there too. There really is no service in Restaurants anymore and the cooks don't make a living wage either.
Things have not changed for the better in a long time.
We like to think we have it tough, for some reason I have not yet figured out. We like to forget history and how tough times REALLY got back in the day.
Then an elder comes along and talks about how tough it really used to be, and we get a sense of perspective.
Just totally RUINS our nice little complaining session!