In addition to salary increases, everything has increased. The price increase in the United States has been astonishing in the past four years

Except for wages, everything has increased. The price increase in the United States has been astonishing in the past four years. World Journal reported on the 28th the "lost decade" of the American middle class. Except for the lack of salary increase...

Mr. Li, who works in Southern California, said that when he first came to the United States four years ago, he was taken to a Chinese supermarket by a friend. He clearly remembered that ordinary pork only cost 1.5 yuan per pound, and top-quality beef only cost about 3 yuan. But now the cheapest meat costs 2 or 3 yuan, and beef at 8 or even 10 yuan per pound is not uncommon. And now when browsing the discount information in supermarkets, meat is rarely discounted. Even if it is, the discounted price is just the normal price a few years ago.

Mr. Li said that when he came to the United States to study in 2008, the financial crisis coincided with the price of oil plummeting to 1.6 yuan per gallon. A full tank of oil in his car cost less than 25 yuan. However, the price of oil has been rising. Now it costs more than 80 yuan to fill a tank of oil. The increase is astonishing. At that time, a 1.5-pound package of hairtail in the supermarket only cost three yuan, with the head and tail removed, and the widest and best part of the fish was packed in the bag. He bought so much that he ended up not wanting to eat it. But now the same hairtail is often missing. Even if it occasionally appears, it only costs eight yuan a bag. He cannot afford to buy it. "I haven't eaten hairtail for a long time. I can only occasionally buy discounted Vietnamese loach to satisfy my craving."

He said that condiments such as vinegar and soy sauce used to be so cheap that they were almost negligible when they were put in the shopping cart, but now they are easily two or three yuan a bottle. Sometimes he has to stock up quickly while on sale.

Mrs. Roland Gang Huang said that the price increase of many items imported from Asia has been very high. Two years ago, I bought Taiwanese peanut oil in the supermarket for only eight yuan a barrel, but now it has risen to 13 yuan, an increase of more than 50%. Foods such as mung beans that used to cost less than one yuan per bag are now more than two yuan for a small bag. If you add the word "organic", the price is incredibly higher. Even ordinary Japanese facial cleansers, which are ordinary in appearance, originally cost only three yuan each, but now they are often out of stock for five yuan.

Not only the price increase is very high, but the price fluctuations are also exaggerated. The prices of some daily necessities are like riding a roller coaster, rising and falling dramatically. Mrs. Huang said that 20 eggs cost only 1.8 yuan a month ago in a supermarket, but now the price has doubled to 3.9 yuan. Although supermarkets may have lowered prices due to discounts and promotions before, such drastic fluctuations still left her a little confused.

Yu Weixiong, an economics professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that seasonal fluctuations in oil and food are large, such as slight political fluctuations in the Middle East, which affect U.S. oil prices. However, overall, prices in California are relatively stable and do not rise as much as people imagine. Except for food and oil, the growth rate of other items is about 1% per year, which is very stable.

As for the rise in prices of imported goods from Asia, he said that the relative depreciation of the U.S. exchange rate has a certain impact, but the greater impact is that the prices of these products have already increased in Asia, so it is natural for prices to rise after importing to the United States, and it is not a problem with the U.S. economy.