{"id":1841575,"date":"2023-02-09T17:49:47","date_gmt":"2023-02-09T22:49:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1841575"},"modified":"2023-02-09T17:53:25","modified_gmt":"2023-02-09T22:53:25","slug":"cheaper-than-you-think-washington-post-writer-pens-bizarre-piece-about-the-soaring-price-of-eggs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cheaper-than-you-think-washington-post-writer-pens-bizarre-piece-about-the-soaring-price-of-eggs\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Cheaper Than You Think\u2019: Washington Post Writer Pens Bizarre Piece About The Soaring Price Of Eggs"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcheaper-than-you-think-washington-post-writer-pens-bizarre-piece-about-the-soaring-price-of-eggs%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1841575&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<p>To explain why, a Washington Post columnist did a surreal exercise of absurdity this week. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/food\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">eggs<\/a> \u2014 which have soared 138% in price \u2014 are \u201ccheaper than you think.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Well, they\u2019re not, really. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, large Grade A eggs cost $4.25 per dozen in December. This is up from $1.79 a year ago. A dozen eggs will cost you just $1.33 in August 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Advanced mathematics shows that eggs cost $2.46 higher in December than they did one year ago.<\/p>\n<p>Megan McArdle (Post columnist and author of \u201cThe Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success,\u201d Her magic math skills were evident. She did not blame President Joe Biden, unlike the other presidents. \u201cPutin\u2019s price hike,\u201d but explained that chickens have gotten sick and that\u2019s leading to the higher price.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe truth is that U.S. egg production is still recovering from a bout of avian flu that has devastated flocks in the United States and Europe,\u201d She <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2023\/02\/07\/egg-prices-history-relative-economics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Submitted<\/a>. \u201cAnd while activists and senators are puzzled by how a 29 percent decline in egg production can lead to a much larger increase in the price of eggs, agricultural economist Jayson Lusk says that\u2019s exactly what you would expect with a product for which demand is relatively insensitive to price changes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Right. Production drops by 29 percent, prices rise by 138% This makes perfect sense. Not. But hey, I\u2019m not an agricultural economist.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, everything\u2019s more expensive due to inflation (McArdle points out a dozen eggs cost 25 cents in 1901). She notes, however, that modern production has helped to reduce costs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlmost all food items have gotten much cheaper, relative to our incomes, than they were a century ago. But some food prices fell faster than others, and chicken and eggs were among those that saw the greatest improvements, thanks to a combination of agricultural innovations,\u201d She wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Higher production can be achieved by moving chickens indoors in order to keep them safe from predators.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, she concludes with this statement: \u201cBut the benefits of this revolution have also been enormous. In 1905, an average male factory worker older than 16 took home $11.16 a week, enough to buy about 41 cartons of eggs. Today, the median man earns $1,176 a week, enough to buy more than 275 cartons of eggs, even at today\u2019s elevated prices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She concludes: \u201cIf you can\u2019t help cringing when you see the cashier ring up eggs that cost twice as much as they did a year ago, it might help to remember that however poor you feel, your ancestors would have taken one look at your grocery cart and declared you rich beyond their dreams,\u201d She wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Now, the Post\u2019s motto is \u201cDemocracy Dies In Darkness,\u201d but it\u2019s hard to see the light in this argument. Yes, my great-grandfather would\u2019ve marveled at the convenience of buying a bag of Doritos Flamin\u2019 Hot Limon chips, but he would in fact cringe at the $5.59 price.<\/p>\n<p>Farm Action, a group that advocates for farmers, has a different theory about the price hike. According to the group, \u201creal culprit\u201d The secret to sky-high prices lies in a \u201ccollusive scheme\u201d The top U.S. egg farmers fix their prices in order to deceive consumers.<\/p>\n<p>You can find out more at <a href=\"https:\/\/farmaction.us\/2023\/01\/19\/farm-action-calls-for-ftc-to-investigate-record-high-egg-prices\/?utm_source=substack&#038;utm_medium=email\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Letter<\/a> Farm Action reported to the Federal Trade Commission last month that the alleged collusion helped egg producers. \u201cextract egregious profits reaching as high as 40%.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The letter stated that avian flu was not to blame.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cExamining publicly-available financial data from the egg industry, the letter determines that the supply disruption caused by the avian flu outbreak had an \u2018apparently mild impact on the industry,\u2019\u201d In a press release, the group said.<\/p>\n<p>The group also stated that egg producers such as Cal-Maine are making a lot of money.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the 26-week period ending on November 26, 2022, Cal-Maine reported a ten-fold year-over-year increase in gross profits \u2014 from $50.392 million to $535.339 million \u2014 and a five-fold increase in its gross margins,\u201d The letter contained the following:<\/p>\n<p>The group also says \u201cthe real culprit behind this 138 percent hike in the price of a carton of eggs appears to be a collusive scheme among industry leaders to turn inflationary conditions and an avian flu outbreak into an opportunity to extract egregious profits reaching as high as 40 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the end, what Cal-Maine Foods and the other large egg producers did last year \u2014 and seem to be intent on doing again this year \u2014 is extort billions of dollars from the pockets of ordinary Americans through what amounts to a tax on a staple we all need: eggs,\u201d The letter contained the following: \u201cThey did so without any legitimate business justification. They did so because there is no \u2018reasonable substitute\u2019 for a carton of eggs. They did so because they had power and weren\u2019t afraid to use it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eggs, that&#8217;s it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Washington Post columnist conducted a surreal exercise in absurdity this week to explain why eggs \u2014 which have soared 138% in price \u2014 are \u201ccheaper than you think.\u201d Well, they\u2019re not, really. Fact: the average price for large Grade A eggs was $4.25 a dozen in December, up from $1.79 exactly a year earlier, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":159,"featured_media":1841578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[18225,13210,14549,18226,4299,4899,7145,8957,5904,4086,4718],"class_list":["post-1841575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire","tag-cheaper","tag-bizarre","tag-eggs","tag-pens","tag-piece","tag-post","tag-price","tag-soaring","tag-think","tag-washington","tag-writer"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1841575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1841575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1841575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1841578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1841575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1841575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1841575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}