Inflation across the U.S
By: Levi Koepp
There's no doubt that inflation has become a rising issue within the U.S economy. A lot of people have undoubtedly already noticed that gas prices are rising through the roof in many states throughout the U.S; but it's not just gas prices that are increasing, everything is starting to go up in price. Things like wood, metal, cars, houses/house utilities, land, even food from your local grocery store have had an increase in costs. Inflation has certainly become a hot topic in our economy, and not a lot of people seem to realize that it's not just gas that is increasing. It’s simple products that we use in our daily lives that have had at least a small increase in price difference.
Materials that were being used in the trades, like metal, wood, sodder, nails, or building equipment, had a dramatic increase in price in the year of 2020. The year well known for the pandemic when Covid started. The pandemic had a huge impact on the market for building materials, from the supply chain, still to this day, is impacted by the effect of transportation networks that are relied on to move the lumber. With an issue to supply the materials, there was fewer products being distributed across the U.S, which has led to an increase in costs for building materials. Less of a product to be shipped to the public, and higher the price goes up. According to Construction Dive, it stated that, “The index price for plastic construction products, for example, climbed 1.3% for the month and 34% over 12 months, according to the release. The index for lumber and plywood rose 12.7% and 17.6%.” This really just shows that prices really did sky rocket when the pandemic of Covid really did take effect. Unfortunately, prices for lumber and other building materials don’t seem to show any signs of lowering in the year of 2022. According to Newsweek, it said, “The most recent producer price index report published by the Labor Department revealed that prices for softwood lumber shot up a whopping 25.4 per cent in the month of January alone.” It really is frustrating to see that prices for lumber and other building materials are still increasing instead of decreasing. Yet, it's not just building materials that are increasing, even car prices and parts are experiencing some kind of inflation.
It’s pretty obvious to a lot of people that car prices have been higher than ever before; car prices have gone up a staggering 40.5% from January 2021 to January 2022. Even used cars today are being sold for the same prices for what it would cost you to buy a brand new car just two years ago. The car market has definitely hit a tough barrier the last couple of years because of the pandemic. The demand for cars was still increasing but the quantity supplied wasn’t meeting the expectations for consumers. According to Fortune it stated, “Supply shortages, specifically semiconductors and microchips, are hurting the production of new cars. That scarcity has created surging demand for used cars, driving up their prices.” So because of a shortage in chips for cars being manufactured, there were shortages in new cars being manufactured. Resulting in a low amount of new cars being brought to the market, which ultimately left us with a car market full of used cars. With a car market full of used cars, their prices had gone up to the prices of what it would cost to buy a new car; and it didn’t leave consumers much of a choice if they wanted to buy a new car. They would have to deal with high prices no matter what because you couldn’t get a new car anywhere else for a low price.
Lots of people aren’t seeming to realize that basic living expenses are starting to increase like the costs of food, utilities and the value of their land. Households are getting more expensive by the day, properties are becoming more valuable which is leading to higher bills and taxes to pay off. The government has started to increase the value of peoples properties, that way they can tax the owners of the property to pay higher amounts of taxes. The increasing costs of utilities like electricity and heat have really been leaving people with some nasty bills inside their mailboxes. According to Gothamist, “PSEG ratepayers on Long Island saw the price of electricity rise about 26% compared to February 2021, Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. says its customers in the Hudson Valley could see electric bills rise as much as 46% this winter, and some New York State Electric & Gas ratepayers have reported bills spiking 121% higher than the month before.” It’s just disappointing to see that the costs for housing increase, it just continues to make life more difficult when we're still trying to put away the past of the pandemic.
Even the most basic necessities we use in out lives, like food has gone up in price. Most people may not even realize that their favorite box of cereal has gone up 50 cents to a dollar. But they're still buying because its just one of those inelastic goods. They keep on buying it because they can’t live without it. For example, according toYahooNews,”The cost of a pound of steak has gone up by $1.25-$2.00 in the last year. The cost of a loaf of bread has gone up by 50-75 cents. Cereals and bakery products had the largest increase of any food category at 1.8%, according to BLS’ January Consumer Price Index report, while dairy was up 1.1%. Produce items experienced similar price hikes, with fruits and vegetables increasing 0.9% while meat, poultry, fish and egg prices went up 0.3%.”It’s unfortunate to see such a basic necessity like food go up in price, yet we still buy it because we all need it. Tho not a lot of us are even realizing that the cost for food has increased.
It’s these little things that had a change in price that we haven’t even known about. It’s not just food, gas, cars, and housing bills; everything is going up in price. If you take a look at almost product out there and compare the price to what it is now to what it was just a year ago, you’ll see the difference. Inflation is seriously become a problem within our economy and many not really see that’s it’s just more than gas, cars, and real estate. Everything around us and has gotten more pricy, and it sure isn’t going down anytime soon.
Works Cited
Shen, M. (2022, February 14). Used cars cost 40.5% more than last year as gas prices rise.
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Danny Lewis, Nsikan Akpan, Jon Campbell, James Ramsay, & Elizabeth Kim. (n.d.). The
electric bill is too damn high: Here's why and what you can do about it. Gothamist.
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Yahoo! (n.d.). Inflation: Food prices are 'high and going higher,' strategist says. Yahoo! News.
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