I do like going out to find some debates – I think that all Conservatives should bring our philosophies and ideas into the Arena of Ideas to make the case in places we’d normally not be wanted. Like, as always, TreeHugger. I’m sorta like the Bruce Currie over there with the exception that I never denigrate their source material (to do so would only make me look like a fool).
The topic du jour was that “Pricey meat is forcing Americans toward vegetarian meals“. Like a lot of enviromentalists, they want EVERY one to put away their omnivore capes and go veggie. Look, if you want to eat like a ruminant, have at it but these folks would love to force us all, like forcing only solar and wind energy sources upon us, to go meatless. Katherine Martinko makes the claim that animal protein has become SO expensive due to the Wu Flu panic buying (almost as much as the Democrats want all vote-by-mail elections), people are switching:
If you’re part of the 43 percent of young Americans adjusting their diet to be more plant-based, here some easy and delicious recipe ideas.
If you are a meat-eater, there’s a good chance your eating habits have changed somewhat during the coronavirus pandemic. Food prices have been going up over the past few weeks and animal products have seen the biggest increase. Meat, poultry, fish, and eggs went up by 4.3 percent from March to April, which the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says is the biggest increase in food prices in almost 50 years.
This price spike, along with widespread shortages in stores (which are, of course, tied to the price increases), has forced many people to adjust their usual meal plans. When you can’t find ground beef or chicken breasts, you have to make something else, and in many cases that’s resulting in vegetarian and plant-based options.
National Geographic, together with Morning Consult, conducted a poll recently that found 33 percent of Americans are preparing more meatless meals as a result of higher prices and limited options at the store. In National Geographic’s daily newsletter, science editor Victoria Jaggard wrote:
“Younger Americans are more likely to be exploring vegetarian options, with 43 percent of those between 18 and 34 saying they are adjusting their menus. Just a quarter of older Americans — 26 percent of respondents over 65 — say they are going meatless more often.”
Yeah, not so much on the shortages. And I’m not arguing or surprised at younger Americans going veggie – it’s part of the Environmentalism Panic (that’s been going on since the early 1970s) propaganda that EVERYTHING must change because Climate Cooling Warming Change Chaos Carnage (focus group testing, folks focus group testing – but not a lot on real life focus). But to call a 4.3% increase large enough to have 43% of young Americans adjusting their diet to be more plant-based” is a field to0 far.
So, how much are these young fabs paying for their Starbucks (or equivalents)? It’s all a matter of spending priorities and 4.3% of a $3.99/lb of 80% fat hamburg ($0.17) isn’t going to even come close to the price of a Starbuck Espresso Macchiato (what EVERY that is – I hate coffee). Even a 4.3% of a $10/lb ribeye at BJ’s is only $0.43 more. Give me a break and stop the whining. And stop being bad at math for ideological purposes – or were you educated in Common Core?
So, I left this:
This price spike, along with widespread shortages in stores (which are, of course, tied to the price increases), has forced many people to adjust their usual meal plans.
I hope that I am wrong in just reading the sentence but at first glance, I took it that the sentence was implying that Price hikes were creating widespread shortages when it is, in real life, be the other way around (The Law of Supply and Demand from my micro-economics studies so long ago).
- When Demand goes up but Supply remains the same, the Price of an item goes up.
- When Supply goes down but Demand remains the same, the Price of an item still goes up.
- When Supply goes down (in this case, from a few centralized and large meatpacking plant) and Demand is still skyrocketing, Price still goes even further up.
Or what happened is that the sellers, under the rubric of “fairness”, instituted rationing of number of items that could be purchased at a single time. Higher Prices would also have created rationing but a much fairer version of it, IMHO. And I’ll bet I’ll get some replies to this reasoning.
For the record, while there were some shortages of plain hamburg over the last few weeks, the supermarkets I patronize were fine with respect to supplies of meats with prices just a bit higher than normal on SOME kinds of meats – some have even reduced to pre-Panic Buying modes.
This past week, fully stocked. Prices are a bit higher on some things, overall, but not way out of normal when looking at the vast array of SKUs that our capitalistic society has in a typical grocery store. I also note that on things that weren’t caught up in the “panic buying” have some prices that went down.
The only lack that I have found, still, is disinfectant wipes. That item, however, I got at my local Staples (an office supply store).
So where IS this shortage, kimosabe?
I do really wonder which reality they live in or are that THAT so status quo enmeshed that any change in life is something to complain about as if Godzilla was coming in for dinner – through the roof. And because I can’t help myself here:
Price – probably the BEST thing about our capitalist system. With a single data point, we know the perceived value of a thing. From that one point of information, we can tell can know its worth to the person who is trying to sell it. It also hides all of the complicated procedures and processes and logistics and haggling and material and marketing of it and the selling of it through an entire logistics chain. It also hides all of the overhead costs of management, of benefits, taxes, rents, insurances, utilities and the like. It also hides the necessary profit needed at every level of that chain.
So much so that when you buy a $0.15 screw at Lowe’s or a $30K car at the local car dealer or a house from a Realtor or a diamond ring from a jeweler, you don’t have to worry about all that stuff above. All you see is the finished product that tens, hundreds, or thousands of people (or more) cooperated to make without ever knowing that this thing was something you wanted. In fact anywhere up or down that logistics chain, the hands that help to make it probably will never made their particular precursors or those higher in the chain.
And neither will you. And you won’t care because EVERYTHING has been simplified by that one single data element – Price. It’s what makes Markets work and work well.
In this case, signaling that a shortage of a product was surging through the system – Price went up at grocery stores signaling that Demand to the next level down. Price also went back up that chain as producers saw more potential for Profit for the limited Supply they had.
And we see that the Marketplace Invisible Hand worked out the shortages and kinks pretty much on its own (yeah, DPA via Trump who smartly kept a VERY light hand on this one problem) in relatively short order and time.
You think that Sununu and his other central planners can out perform a market’s single Price data element? I won’t say “I doubt it” because I KNOW it.
Or, also in this case, the eco-socialists that have no faith in any capitalism processes at all. Good Lord above, help us all if they or their ideas catch hold in the US.