In the past two years grocery prices have increased vastly. Becoming an ongoing issue that is affecting almost everyone. Dr. Micheal Snipes, an Associate Instructor of Economics at USF, explains in detail how “inflation is high because of the good [groceries], which are the necessity itself.”   

 These prices arise from the idea that we need these goods to survive and that is the cause of this inflation. Generally, the more we need the product the more it costs. Providers know we have to buy it no matter the expense causing the products value to increase. 

 Years before, this hasn’t been much of an issue, which is why the country is having so many problems trying to fix this. In 2022, America saw the spike in inflation, and ever since then it has only increased.  Food prices have been reported to have increased by 12% which was the fastest increase since 1979. Since the pandemic food production has become more expensive creating these issues for goods costs elevating. 

 There have been multiple cases of jobs closing and families not being able to afford rent or groceries. The question of why this is happening was asked to Snipes, and he responded with “What’s happening is it’s not really people entering the market, it’s people taking on multiple jobs.” These people taking multiple jobs are mostly single parents who need to make more money to care for their families. Saving money is really a luxury to some because these single parents are struggling to keep afloat and afford basic needs like food and housing.  

 Though some jobs have been taken, there are numerous amounts of other jobs in demand for people to work on. This can be fixed through future inflation and the depreciation of goods that are necessary for families to strive for.  

 If everyone works together as a group, we are able to depreciate the assets and lower the inflation, so these lower budget families are able to survive on their own.  

 Since there is such high demand for certain resources there is a cap on the prices of these goods. This allows a decrease in demand and a higher ability to have people not working in multiple jobs to stay alive.  

“In the end it is always the poor who suffers the most” says Snipes. Throughout these past two years we have learned that inflation can cause effects on the wealthy and less fortunate. There may not be a solution to this problem, but there will still be a long-lasting effect on society itself.