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The consumer also can't entirely walk away from the food market. That doesn't make food prices go out of control.
by plock 13y ago
The consumer also can't entirely walk away from the food market. That doesn't make food prices go out of control.
- roc 13y agoWhich would be a great point if not for the oversight, subsidies, reserves and incentives that affect staple foods.
- plock 13y agoThe point is that consumers are still able to bid down prices despite having no choice but to participate in the market. Individual sellers still have to convince individual buyers to buy their products, and to do so they have to price their goods competitively. It doesn't matter that there is no alternative to participating in the food market because there are alternatives within the food market.
- venomsnake 13y agoAccording to USDA in 2011 15% of US households suffered from food insecurity - for them they are already out of control. And there are the other couple of billion people on the planet that cannot afford a dollar per day for a meal.
- bmmayer1 13y ago> 15% of US households suffered from food insecurity ...partly because of healthcare costs, which is the number one cause of bankruptcy in the US. You're making our point.
- plock 13y agoThey're not out of control, those people just happen to be very poor. They haven't been going up like crazy like health care costs have.