You want to get an economist to shut up? Point out that we're now in a situation that for nearly any physical good, one producer is able to saturate the market, that nearly every factory is operating below capacity, that individual farms are so big they can easily produce what an entire state needs and in fact operates below capacity for financial reasons. Both factories and farms: A LOT below capacity. Because 1% of a modern factory's capacity is able to saturate a very large local market, and the rest depends on international treaties, not on supply, demand, or even price.
Which means increasing supply for just about anything ... doesn't actually change price, and in fact the issue you're pointing out is not just one of the influences on prices, but almost the only one.
The market is saturated and producers have no incentive to lower prices, for nearly every good. Which means increasing supply ... does not lower prices. Increasing demand does not raise prices ... that's just not how it works anymore.
The only influence on price is international relations, or to put it more bluntly: various kinds of taxes are the only influence on prices (going from import/export tax, vat/sales tax, subsidies, raw material availability (effectively mostly meaning a tax in the form of export restrictions), what loan conditions are for good X, ...), and so economics just doesn't really apply anymore to the vast majority of goods.
The price of widgets from water balloons to air fryers is controlled by government subsidies in particular countries.
The price of houses is controlled by mortgage conditions, which are set in law. Meaning they are different between countries in both ways that matter (so, for example, Freehold vs Leasehold, Australia's Negative Gearing, whether 30 year fixed price is available, immigration policy, whether foreign investment is allowed ...) and in weird ways that don't matter. Supply and demand don't control price.
The price of labor and services is around 80% tax in most of Europe. Measured by taking $100 that the employer pays to have labour done, so including for example France's "patronal" tax, compared to what the employer would receive and not have to pay to the government in his bank account if the employee chose to spend all of his pay on whatever his labor produces. Yes there is still some supply/demand here ... but not much.
The problem is that for nearly everything "taxes" (as in taxes and tax-like regulations) determine who produces, and the tax swings are so large (going from -10%, yes minus, to 80% and more) depending on location and good, and their effect swamps any economic concern in nearly all sectors of the economy.
Food in developed nations is incredibly cheap as a direct result of the massive productive capacity of modern agriculture. Factory goods are also very cheap. Increasing supply demonstrably drives prices down.
Housing is an area where supply is heavily restricted, partially because land cannot be manufactured, partly because of government regulations controlling what can be built and where. Surprise, housing is very expensive.
And yet, if you check it out for real, you'll find most food could be a lot cheaper (some countries have regulations for basic foods to be excepted from most regulation and taxes, and there's a large price difference)
Especially meat could be a great deal cheaper if these countries wanted to make that happen.
Food in the west is only cheap in one sense of the word, and even then if you compare how much of the cheapest bread today you can buy for the average monthly pay today versus how much of the cheapest bread in 2000 you could buy for the average monthly pay in 2000 it's almost a factor 2 less.
But yeah, that's still very cheap: nobody's going hungry at the increased prices.
Agricultural productive capacity hasn't changed that much in the past 25 years. Looking at the longer term, food prices have dropped enormously. At the beginning of the 20th century, the average American household budget was 40+% food. Today it's around 10%.
>the average American household budget was 40+% food. Today it's around 10%.
Does that mean food prices have dropped enormously or could it be that families have to spend more money on eg. rent, gas, and health? Adjusting for inflation, the price of milk have only decreased 1.1%[1]
[1] https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/milk-prices-...
Your link only shows back to 1995, whereas the figures you quoted are about 1901. Even using your link and 1995, milk prices dropped 15% over that period, not 1.1%.
If we look at 1901, milk was around 6 cents per quart according to https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/bulletin-united-states-b.... Adjusted for inflation, that's about $2.29/quart today, or $9.16/gallon. That's over twice what I pay and over twice the average according to https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000709112.
Yes of course you can buy cheap and bad quality milk but you should strive to buy good product. Same goes for meat. If you do not invest in yourself then you are wasting money
Are you suggesting that milk was higher quality in 1901? I’ve read enough of The Jungle to doubt that greatly.
Well, people say milk used to taste better and forget that getting bacterial infections from milk was very common. Infections from milk and bread were a significant cause of death.
True, the situation that changing government relations (international relations, tarrifs, boycotts, taxes, ...) are the biggest factor in the economy is nothing new anymore.