Hacker News Reader

Comment by spiderfarmer | Hacker News Reader

Historically, the price of food was much higher than it is now. Thank our farmers for operating more efficient year after year.

https://mjperry.blogspot.nl/2010/07/as-share-of-income-ameri...

View on HN

You are right that modern technology has figured out how to turn energy into soil (way oversimplified!), and that probably 80% of the nitrogen in the bodies of any of us reading this came from the Haber process.

However, it still sounds bizarre that about 90% of their expenses was food.

"Annual" and "a month" are mutually exclusive, so (at least) one in that sentence must be in error.

Might be like the modern SaaS - advertised as a monthly price but you need to pay for the entire year to get that price.

It isn't totally off-base. Even today, the poorest consumers in middle-income countries spend 70-80% of their income on food.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/interactives/how-do-people-in-...

In the UK I'd be suprised if like us most of the income of other poorer people didn't go to landlords/banks through rent/mortgage payment?

It may appear for those in state housing that food is their greatest outlay but that would only be if accommodation provided by welfare wasn't classed as "income".

In Twain's position, and time, would food have certainly been the greatest outlay?

However, it still sounds bizarre that about 90% of their expenses was food.

For two adults and five children? If you're working class, it'll cost a good chunk even today (barring state subsidies).

$1.50 per day is about $45 per month, $80 per month would be 175% of income, so I'd hope that there was a second income earner in the family.

I think the error is the 'per month' part. $80 per year matches pretty well with a daily wage of $1.50, and a monthly housing cost of $6. It would work out to over 20% of their annual budget being allocated to food, which while higher than today, historically seems to match.

> However, it still sounds bizarre that about 90% of their expenses was food.

What do you think being poor is?

As someone who grew up incredibly impoverished it's not bizarre to me. Sounds a bit high, but not terribly so. Rent and food together frequently were more than 100% of my mom's income. We relied heavily on food charity.

Efficiently collecting subsidy.

Nonsense. Here in NL our farmers could operate much more efficiently if it wasn’t for subsidies and the regulations that come with it. It’s not free money, it’s mostly a bandaid for wounds inflicted by the government. How would you feel if the government decided you can’t use your computer anymore and have to back to programming with punchcards? Farmers have to live with rules like this every day.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com