BRACK: Exploring everyday costs in South Carolina

By Andy Brack  |  It’s not uncommon for folks to mope that the cost of things has soared so much that they don’t know what they’re going to do with themselves.

But is it true? Apparently the answer is sometimes yes and, in some surprising cases, no.  

The 17th birthday of a daughter this week led musings about the costs of everyday supplies, such as bread and eggs.  

Not surprisingly, coffee, bacon and eggs are more expensive, even when adjusted for inflation:

Back in 2007, they respectively averaged $3.47 a pound, $3.66 a pound and $1.68 a dozen.  Adjusted for inflation, all went up.  

• Coffee averaged $3.47 a pound in 2007 ($4.64 in 2022 dollars), but by 2022 was  $5.89 a pound.  It is, however, easy in the tutti-frutti Starbucks generation to find premium coffee that costs $10 or more a bag.  
• Bacon rose from $3.66 a pound 17 years ago to $5.61 a pound in 2022 dollars. A recent Food Lion special had a brand name for $3.49 a pound.
• Eggs went from $1.68 a dozen in 2007 and remained fairly stable for years at about $2 per dozen, until the pandemic when they approached an average cost of $4.50 per dozen a year ago.  According to NerdWallet, eggs are now around $2.50 a dozen, which is about what they were 17 years ago when adjusted for inflation.
• Similarly, the real price of milk has been fairly steady.  Seventeen years ago, it was $3.50 a gallon, which is $4.34 per gallon when adjusted for inflation.  That’s exactly the national average cost per gallon in December, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

And look at another cost that people constantly lament – gasoline.  It was 2.85 per gallon on average in 2008.  Adjusted for inflation, that would be $3.73 per gallon.  But today’s cost at the pump?  $2.79 per gallon, according to GasBuddy.  That’s lower than it was when George W. Bush was still president.

Regardless of the comparatively good news that real prices haven’t skyrocketed, they are undercut by a couple of things.  

First, real wages for everyday workers haven’t gone up comparatively in the United States.  In South Carolina, the median household income for a family of four was $61,770, according to Federal Reserve figures.  But a living wage for that same family would be about 50% more – $$90,604 per year.  Meanwhile CEO salaries have skyrocketed.

Second, the cost of housing is a mess.  The average cost of a new house in 2007 was about $250,000.  These days, without land, the national cost is $330,000 – and in places like Charleston and other metro areas, that would be low.  The median sales price in S.C. now is $363,700, according to RedFin.

Third, the cost of health care has skyrocketed.  Even with Obamacare for many, costs are high and unaffordable for many more.  U.S. health care spending at $12,555 per person per year is about twice that of other wealthy countries.

So with costs on all but a few staples, like milk and gas, being higher, what can be done at the policy level?

First, it wouldn’t hurt for state lawmakers to pass a $15 per hour minimum wage.  South Carolina, one of five states without a minimum wage, follows the $7.25 per hour federal standard.  Doing more for minimum wage workers would help in a big way and studies have shown it won’t put businesses out of business.  (Look at how many fast food joints now pay $15 an hour because they can’t get the help otherwise.)

Second, state lawmakers should expand Medicaid eligibility, which they stubbornly have refused to open up for more than 300,000 South Carolinians because of the word “Obama” in Obamacare.

Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper.  Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.