On Mon, 14 Oct 2013 16:41:47 -0400, "Percival P. Cassidy"
wrote:

On 10/14/13 01:33 pm, wrote:

Americans are spending less of their disposible income
on food as time goes by. I looked at the U.S. Department
of Agriculture site. It has that type of information but
it is unavailable due to the "shutdown". There is a
chart he http://tinyurl.com/3yqoses Americans spent
about 23% of their disposable income in 1930. We were
spending about 9.5% of it by 2010.


Of course, that is "at home"expenditure, not total.

When I was a kid, eating out was maybe a once or twice a year thing and
there was no such thing as "fast food". Now, restaurants of all kinds have
proliferated and people eat out frequently; they patronize fast food places
even more frequently.

That shows just how much more money people have, after the basics.

About 30 years ago friends in California told me that they had been
asked, "How can you afford to eat at home? Everything is so expensive."

For two, they're probably not that far from reality. I prefer home
cooked meals, though. Restaurants are nice but not every day!