As a quick addendum to yesterday’s post regarding my own mother’s experience living through the Great Depression (and then post-WWII Levittown), I found this statistic from the USDA’s Economic Research Service quite interesting.
Apparently, Americans are spending less and less of their disposable income on food – and more and more on more “disposable” items. Although, we probably didn’t need a survey to tell us that. For instance, in 1929, families spent a total of 23.4% of their incomes on food, but in 2007, families spent just 9.8%. I’d imagine, however, that this figure will inch back upwards again as we all begin to re-prioritize and put more money towards what really matters. Like feeding our loved ones.
Interesting post. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!