I’m glad I read this because it saved me the trouble of writing it. For years now, I have been aware of the decreasing quality and increasing prices of food in the U.S., and I didn’t need to comparison shop in Europe to recognize the problem.

However, you didn’t look deeply enough into the mechanisms that are creating this “food bubble.”

The critical factor is of course inflation, the steady, annual two to three percent in the erosion of the buying power of the dollar. Another causative factor is energy costs. Triple the cost of motor fuel and you triple the shipping costs for food, with a corresponding increase in prices at the checkout counter.

The cheapest car on the American market is currently the Nissan Versa at $12,855 delivered, according to Motor1. com. The cheapest car available in Europe is the Smart ForTwo at $14,650 according to according to Autobytel.com but I don’t know if this includes or excludes delivery charges.

Of course, maybe you caught a sale.