Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

Strategic egg reserve

In this current battle royale climate for eggs, the trick is to get to Costco (or your grocer of choice) soon as it opens in the morning. You will then be among the lucky few to snag from the limited stock for the day. At least Costco now limits three items of eggs per customer. Hoarders and re-sellers can go die a furiously fiery death.

I honestly don’t think there is a need to hoard an egg supply. I eat two eggs a day for the protein gains (some would say that’s not nearly enough per day), and I’ve yet to run out of my supply. That’s with resupplying only every few weeks (when I go to Costco). These pictures of customers filling up entire carts with eggs: how big of a fridge have they got? Unless there comes an avian flu strain that kills off chickens into extinction, I think we’ll be alright.

It reminds me of the toilet paper panic back at the beginning of the pandemic. Do people expect to wipe their ass more often when they are stuck indoors? The only thing hoarding toilet paper saves you from is having to make a trip when you run out. And even then, there’s always the shower…

What’s hilarious about the egg shortage is that it is coinciding with a new President that ran on a platform of lowering grocery prices (was never going to happen, obviously). January 2025 inflation numbers are unexpectedly high, too. Maybe what America needs is a strategic egg reserve, like the strategic oil reserve. President Trump can increase the egg supply to level out the price shocks.

Forget breakthrough medical research - the Trump administration certainly has by freezing NIH funding; what we need is to research a new method for storing eggs for years on end whilst preserving initial quality. I personally think that’s a great idea.

Ready for some football

It is Super Bowl Sunday. (I think the NFL will send me a bill just for using that term.) An American tradition unlike any other. Except in other countries during their team’s matches in the World Cup. I’m sure the Argentinian television station responsible for broadcasting the World Cup final sold some significant advertisements in Argentina.

One day last week I forgot to bring my own coffee. It’s been awhile since I’ve purchased from Peet’s, and wow has the pricing gone up yet again. This particular franchise seem so embarrassed about the prices it’s charging that they are only displaying the price for medium size. How much for a large cup of vanilla soy latte? Spin the wheel to find out.

There’s been this age old battle between two camps. One side says buying the daily coffee from Starbucks is keeping you poor. The other side says (what was) $3 per day is but a drop in the ocean in the face of immense housing cost. There’s truth to both sides. In areas such as our San Francisco, you definitely cannot save your way towards buying a house by abolishing store-bought coffee.

On the other hand, many little things can indeed compound into significant sums. What makes the high inflation of the past years so pernicious is that it’s kind of death by a thousand cuts. It’s fine if only the grocery haul is (for example) 10% dearer. But when everything else went up also, it’s really easy to look at your monthly statements and wonder where the money’s gone. Five dollars extra here, five dollars extra there, five dollars extra everywhere.

And so it is with the Peet’s medium drip coffee I bought for nearly $4. The Keurig life is for me. I rather have the $1000 ($4 x 21 workdays in a month x 12 months) extra at the end of the year.

Like winning the lottery

In our current national crisis of severe egg shortage, finding a two-dozen pack at Costco feels like winning the lotto.

It’s as if god himself wants me to continue having a constant egg supply. There I was at my local Costco on Saturday afternoon. It seems I had just missed a resupply of eggs: I saw many a cart with them, but when I got to the fridge section, there were no eggs to be found. That is, until I saw at the corner a fully intact two-dozen carton stacked underneath a few cartons with broken eggs. Pure luck is what that was. My two eggs a day habit shall not be interrupted. For now…

For all the joke about President Trump lowering produce prices - I really don’t care! Just let there be eggs for me to buy! I can absorb high groceries prices because I’m only buying for the singular me. (straight to privilege jail, right away.)

Of course, high grocery prices during the Biden years contributed a lot to Trump’s second ascendancy. You can throw statistics about how wages have kept up (or outpaced) with inflation - it doesn’t matter. Higher produce prices feel like a penalty, while a wage increase feels like something you’ve earned. It’s not a good feeling to get a raise, only for that money to get wiped out by inflation. Typically, a wage increase should mean more disposable income.

President Trump seems determined to curtail illegal immigration and deport illegal immigrants already on U.S. soil. Many of whom work in farming. When you diminish the labor supply, cost of goods go up. When cost of goods go up, so do prices. I’m skeptical that Americans would tolerate another inflationary shock to their grocery bills. Then again, it’s not like Trump can run for office again. For now…

Economic turkey

You know what’s a surprisingly economical meal? Thanksgiving food. Turkey, mash potatoes, ham, and frozen broccoli can all be bought at Costco for about $75. That lot will comfortably feed 10 adults into a food coma. In this inflated economy, I think Thanksgiving food is a very viable option for other times of the year. The price per pound per gram of protein of a turkey is devastatingly superior.

You know what grinds my gears? When people say: “When adjusted for inflation.” It’s annoying because the person saying that line is invariable using it as a defense of the current economy. It’s not so bad once you adjust for inflation! A 2024 Honda Civic is magnitudes better than the 2000 version, at a cheaper price when inflation adjusted.

That’s great, but we don’t live in the past. Our reality cannot adjusted for inflation. Telling people X isn’t so bad when you consider Y and Z is a recipe for losing an election. The economy under President Biden may look mathematically great: all-time highs in the stock market, and broad wage increases that kept up with the pandemic inflation. But people don’t feel great about the economy. Facts may not care about feelings, but facts don’t vote, feelings do.

I’ve certainly been negatively vocal about the economy on this blog. I’ve had a fortunate 30% increase to my 2019 salary - the keeping up with inflation part - and yet I feel like my purchasing power has gone to shits. What people want is deflation, but without all the other hugely deleterious effects. Of course, that’s not possible, but the Americans sure voted like it is!

Not for thee

This guy on Reddit is complaining about the prices of haircuts nowadays. I wonder what is his opinion on paying people a “living wage”. (Whatever that means numerically.) According to what he is saying, barbers definitely do not deserve one. Haircuts should remain cheap just like the old times.

Why am I getting the sense the people arguing for a living wage are advocating for themselves only, and not others? There’s this talk of Trump deporting illegal immigrants will cause food prices to go up because there would be a shortage of farm workers. The assumption is that with smaller labor supply, farmers will have to pay more to attract workers. Basic supply and demand.

Well, no one likes to pay more for groceries, right? The high inflation of past years is how (ironically) Trump won the election. But then aren’t we tacitly saying that farm workers don’t deserve a living wage? Fast food workers got a $20 minimum here in California, and enough people balked at the increased menu prices that McDonald’s and others had to start offering $6 value deals to entice customers.

There’s definitely a dichotomy between advocating for higher wages in general but not liking the results. Corporations will always protect their margins, therefore passing the wage increases to customers. Sure it’s easy to skip fast food, but groceries are kind of essential. The populace won’t stand for inflation at the supermarket.

Let’s be honest: what we really want is for us to get paid more individually, but for prices of stuff to remain the same. So we can’t all get a raise, because that would cause inflation. Living wage for me, but not for thee: Californians rejected the State proposition to increase the State minimal wage two weeks ago. At least we are honest with ourselves!

Get the fat

This may be stating the obvious, but two percent Greek yogurt tastes so much better than the non-fat version. Much like how whole milk is the only true milk out there. Those of you drinking two percent milk might as well be drinking water, because that’s what you are buying.

It’s a shame the Costco Kirkland brand only sells non-fat Greek yogurt. For the tasty stuff I have to shell out more money for the Fage brand. In an era of everything-cost-way-more-than-it-use-to, I aim to save a buck here and there when I can. Buying in bulk at Costco with its house brand is a great way to execute that strategy. Alas, it can’t fulfill everything. At least I get 5% cash back at Whole Foods (where I buy Fage Greek yogurt).

It’s occurring to me more and more than when I look at (the high) menu prices of restaurants, that perhaps I should make the same food at home instead. For example: I have strong affection for Korean food. When I see my favorite dish - beef short rib soup - is encroaching into the 30 dollars territory, it’s time to learn how to cook it myself. Save a bit of cash, and it’s probably healthier, too (way less sodium).

I’m reminder of my friend who lives over in Switzerland. Eating out prices have always been expensive there, so whatever dish she desires to eat, she learns to make it. Who would have thought that I would come to face the same situation here in America. Or perhaps it’s just me? I guess a lot of people out there are making more money than me to afford restaurant food frequently.

It's going to be alright

So, how are we feeling? If your presidential candidate of choice won the election, congratulations. I hope America does incredible well under his leadership. I believe nobody seeks democratically elected office to do harm. Because otherwise you’d get voted out the next go around. The winner on Tuesday did lose back in 2020.

If your presidential candidate of choice lost on Tuesday, well, there’s a finite end to your perceived suffering. Four more years is just that: four more. It can’t be anymore than that! And then the pages of history will continue to turn. Spend these next fours years focused on yourself and the people around you. Quit social media and go outside to touch grass often (as the kids say these days).

I read that there was a wholesale shift towards the Republican ticket this time compared to 2020. But I think we have to wait for the total vote tally to tell the full story. If Trump got roughly the same amount of votes as his two previous campaigns, and it’s the Democratic ticket that got less votes, then that’s an entirely different conversation. Where did that chunk of blue voters go? It can’t be entirely California…

Is it as simple as it’s the economy, stupid? The stock markets may be at all-time highs, but inflation is indeed pernicious. Even though inflation supposedly normalized this year, it’s not like the inflated prices then went back down, right? The prices merely stopped going up. The grocery budget is still unaffordably high for lots of people. While the President of the United States can’t really do anything about that, it comes down to this: the vibes are bad, so we need something different.

Wasn’t that the case in 2020? Difficult to believe that COVID was that long ago now.