If You Don’t Read This You Might Die

Posted by Matt Cipriano | No Comments

Well that seems to be the headline in most tabloid newspapers and on the news every other day so I figured I’d see how it works here.

Have you ever noticed that Newspapers and News program tend to over exaggerate a problem to turn it into what they consider to be real and important news?

They even work to find people who are outraged by such problems, and really how hard is that? People are outraged by the idea of universal health care and that there should be gun laws against the sales of assault rifles (because without your automatic rifle that can empty a clip in under a minute Bambi might get away).

Today’s inflammatory story comes to us from the NY Post and it’s about the rising cost of breakfast foods. Apparently the cost to buy a pound of coffee, a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread, a dozen eggs, a pound of bacon, OJ concentrate and a box of cereal has risen from $16.03 to $17.96, a 12.1% increase.

The article cites various reasons for the increase (hurricanes and freezes in Florida for the OJ, increased use of corn for fuel in the cereal, increased fuel costs for shipping everything) but fails to consider the effects of inflation as well (which, in fairness only accounts for 3.4% or $0.55).

Also, in trying to make the article a bit more sensational, the Post makes it seem as if this is an increase in your daily breakfast price, and while it does increase what you pay on a daily basis for breakfast, the shopping list provides enough food to feed two people for 6 days (if they are eating one egg, bacon, toast, a glass of milk, two cups of coffee, a glass of orange juice, and cereal with milk every morning). We are no longer living in the 1950’s: who still eats this way? Did anyone ever really eat this way?

If that list describes your daily breakfast then the increase in what you are paying isn’t going to effect you too badly as you are going to drop dead from a heart attack in a few years anyway.

I also like how the Post uses a picture of individual servings of the breakfast to exemplify their point: to make you feel as if those 2 eggs on your plate have actually increased in price by $.29 or that the white toast is now $0.10 more expensive.

The New York Times also had an article about a month ago on the rising cost of beef. Instead of speculating and getting shocked quotes from consumers, they actually looked at the reasons for these increases and explained them. Unfortunately, that story is now only available as a “Times Select” article, meaning they want you to pay to read it. Apparently, there is inflation in the cost of our news, too.

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