"The price of eggs has nothing on the price of computer memory right now.". A dozen eggs went to ~$5. They are eggs and most people use what, max 12 eggs a month? Get out of here with that trite garbage. Everyone knew that the egg shortage was due to the extreme step the US does of culling herds infected with avian flu and that they were transitory.

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542458 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Surprisingly, apparently Americans average 279 eggs per year per person or 24 per month.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/02/28/why-ameri...

(This is not a comment making any judgements about cost or the state of the economy, I was just surprised to find it that high)

	▲	red-iron-pine 5 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		cuz eggs are in breakfast sandwiches, are ingredients in pastries, act as binders in things like meatloaf or fried chicken, etc. etc.
	▲	silisili 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		That sounded high to me as well(probably because I rarely eat eggs), but then I remembered my parents who each eat two per day which isn't that uncommon I guess.
	▲	baud147258 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Maybe if you include all the eggs in processed food like cookies or cakes and in restaurants or other catering operations you reach that number? And eggs consumed at home could still be around 12 per person?

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xboxnolifes 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The average person buys, what, 0 ram per month? Which cares.

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khannn 2 hours ago | parent [-]

The average person buys a phone amortized at 36 months minus trade-in value. So they do indeed buy ram every month but it's a line item on a phone bill.

	▲	xboxnolifes 6 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Assuming an 8GB phone on average and 2x16GB DDR5 desktop sticks being ~$400, the average person then buys 0.25GB RAM per month at $3.125. If you want, you can add in a 16GB laptop every 36 months, tripling the total to 0.75GB and ~$10 a month. Still, that's multiple times less than the increase in egg price compared to the average consumption.

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n8cpdx 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Eggs have traditionally been an extremely cheap protein staple.

A typical pattern might be to have two eggs for breakfast (a whopping 120 calories), boiled eggs for lunch/snack (another 60-120 calories), and of course baking, but I will pretend that people don’t bake.

A more typical serving for an adult breakfast might be 3 eggs if not supplemented.

For mom and dad and the little one, you’re now at 35 (2+2+1+2)x5 eggs per week. When your cost goes from $6 (2x18 @3) to $16 (2x18@8) per week, you notice.

Obviously the political discourse around this was not healthy. But eggs suddenly becoming a cost you have to notice is a big deal, and a symbol for all of the other grocery prices that went up simultaneously.

If you’re a typical HN user in the US you might be out of touch with the reality that costs going up $10/week can be a real hardship when you’re raising a family on limited income.

The peak was actually closer to $8/dozen, my math has been conservative at every step, the situation is worse than I describe.

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khannn 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Parents in the US don't feed their kids eggs for breakfast, it's majority cereal or breakfast bars. Maybe some yogurt but that's almost always upper middle class or above.

"If you’re a typical HN user in the US you might be out of touch with the reality that costs going up $10/week can be a real hardship when you’re raising a family on limited income.".

Skill issue. Oatmeal is very cheap and filling. The aforementioned yogurt. Nothing, yeah nothing, because the average person is obese here and nothing is exactly what they need for breakfast. A piece of fruit like the perennial classic banana for breakfast. Complaining about egg prices comes from the camp of "I tried nothing and nothing worked".

	▲	bobsmooth 8 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The quintessential out of touch HN comment.
	▲	hombre_fatal 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I agree, but for some reason there's huge mental inertia to the foods we eat day to day. Paying more for staples that you've eaten your whole life (especially in a boiled frog way) is much more time/energy/mentally cheaper than experimenting with how you and your kids might like a bowl of oatmeal prepared. That said, if you're having trouble making ends meet and you have kids, you don't have much of a choice.

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th0ma5 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

There was also a lot of profiteering going on? This was talked about quite a bit? And it's still going on in other markets with other things like cars??

	▲	khannn 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		"Profiteering"? Truth is... the game was rigged from the start
	▲	venturecruelty 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Sorry, we have to starve so the two dairy distributors can have another good quarter. I hear gruel is cheap, for now.