The economic picture in the United States has caused great concern for the past several years. The persistent trend has been toward higher and higher prices. Nothing the government has done has been able to stop the march of inflation.

Commenting on this situation, U.S. News & World Report says:

“A look at the record since World War II is not very encouraging to anybody who uses American dollars to determine his way of his life​—and that means all of us. In the 28 years since the end of World War II the ‘consumer price index’​—a measure of the cost of living compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor​—has risen 144 per cent.

“That means, on the average, an item that cost a dollar in 1945 costs $2.44 in 1973. The dollar you had then is now worth 41 cents.

“Prices went up in 26 of those 28 years. When they went down, the declines were quite small.”

During the entire period of twenty-eight years since 1945, the average price increase each year was about 3 percent. But during the twelve-month period ending in mid-1973, the rise was double​—about 6 percent.

Yet in the last half of 1973, since the above news item was published, prices of many things increased even faster. Late in 1973 prices were released from the “freeze” the government had earlier clamped on them. The result was that prices of many things soared, especially food products.

In New York food prices skyrocketed 4 ¹⁄₂ percent in one week during August. In that week the price of frying-size chickens rose 24 percent, bread and cereals jumped over 10 percent and fish about 7 ¹⁄₂ percent.

During 1973 the price of many basic commodities such as wheat, corn, lard, wool and rubber more than doubled. That meant, of course, that there would eventually be further increases in the end product when those basic commodities were processed into consumer goods.

The change in the food situation of the United States has been startling. For years the government paid farmers not to plant all their land because of huge food surpluses. But now the demand for food is so great, by both Americans and people of other nations, that the government is telling farmers to plant all they can. And still, food prices go up!

This situation prompted a high official of the Cost of Living Council to say: “What we have to do is educate people​—educate them that the days of cheap food are over.”

Thus, the average American finds that it keeps taking more and more dollars to buy the same amount of things. That, of course, means that his money is worth less and less.

As is the case in the United States, one of the largest price increases in other nations has come in food products. Regarding meat, Business Week reports:

“It may not be much consolation to the American housewife, but her lament over ever-increasing meat prices is being echoed even more loudly overseas. And with good reason. In Britain, retail meat prices rose more than 15% last year, . . . in France, where meat prices have soared as much as 40% in the past 18 months, . . . Japanese beef prices [are] up 25% over the past year.”

The Seattle Times notes that in Japan, for example, a half-pint of milk that cost 9 cents in 1968 cost 16 cents in mid-1973.