Frustrated Crowd To NY Fed Chief: 'I Can't Eat An iPad'

[meegbear]

Source: TalkingPointsMemo.com

New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley on Friday tried to calm people's nerves about rising food prices by reminding them that other products -- like iPads -- are getting cheaper.

"Today you can buy an iPad 2 that costs the same as an iPad 1 that is twice as powerful," Dudley said in Queens, Reuters reports. "You have to look at the price of all things."

But better iPads don't put food on the table, audience members reminded him. "When was the last time, sir, that you went grocery shopping?" one person asked. And, perhaps most succinctly, another told him, "I can't eat an iPad."

Yahoo's The Lookout points out that food prices have been rising since November 2009, and that consumers should expect to pay 4 percent more for food this year.

Read more: http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/frustrated-crowd-to-ny-fed-chief-i-cant-eat-an-ipad.php?ref=fpb

[somone]

1. Amen

[leveymg]

2. Reminds me of G.H.W.'s never having seen a supermarket scanner. Out of touch with the real world.

All the men who make the most important decisions are simply living in bubbles of excess wealth and privilege. That's why the world is so f-cked up.

If we could simply trim out that thin layer of thick-headed deadwood at the very top . . .

[No Elephants]

34. Scanners are widespread. He was at, I believe, JC Penney, buying socks, when a scanner bemused him.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think America mmay have understood a married man of his generation, insulated in Blair House for 8 years, not knowing about scanners if scanners at that time had been only in aupermarkets.

However, he clearly had not done any of his own shopping, outside maybe boutiques, in quite some time, nor was he aware of it.

Luckily, for us, that probably cost him votes. Today's media would probably explain it away and, to boot, shame us for "class warfare" and for resenting America's allegedly job-creating class for having the very wealth that allows them to create all those jobs.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

63. It's rare that you see a Poppy apologia here.

:applause:

[valerief]

43. They are NOT OUT OF TOUCH. They DON'T CARE. There's a difference. nt

[intheflow]

59. I think it's both.

They're out of touch AND they don't care.

[liberalmike27]

81. Guess we

need to all plant victory gardens.

[rfranklin]

3. This stupid fuck gets butler service...

how can he be expected to know anything about the rest of the world?

[No Elephants]

37. I've met many very wealthy people who understand poverty and many who don't.

It's not only about money.

A very important factor is caring about your fellow human, even if your fellow human is in a lower socio-economic class than your own.

[Aerows]

46. Me too - and I agree

There are sociopaths of all economic groups. Some people will go out of their way to help another human being, others wouldn't stop to give a drink of water to a person dying of dehydration on the side of the road if they were carrying a liter of it.

[valerief]

44. HE DOESN'T CARE. HE DOESN'T CARE. HE DOESN'T CARE.

It doesn't matter if he knows or not. HE DOESN'T CARE.

[SpiralHawk]

4. "Let them eat iPads." - Republicon Billionaire Eeeeleeetes

Kiss my grits...

[Retrograde]

19. Hmmmm.....iPads - crunchy!

Methinks someone has a little too much disposable income - or doesn't know enough people who don't.

[Myrina]

35. ... too bad we can't afford peanut butter to put on it ...

Hot sauce, maybe. If it's off-brand.


:shrug:

[FSogol]

5. Would it would be wrong to wish that the crowd had seized Dudley and forced him to eat an ipad?

Probably. :shrug:

[plumbob]

7. No, it would be all right, because they would be showing him what

cheaper goods are really all about.

THEN perhaps he'd want to talk about food.

It would just be educational. Trust me. I've been a teacher for three decades.

[No Elephants]

39. Please accept my apologies for how respect for teachers has declined since you chose your career.

I went to college to be a teacher. I lasted one year and continued having nightmares about it for several years after I resigned. My hat is off to you.

[plumbob]

58. Thank you. The first decade is the toughest - after that, you get lots of

little brothers and sisters, then children of those first students, and then it's all good!

[truedelphi]

70. I watched one of my son's friends attempt to be a teacher.

When he was posted at a decent school in a decent neighborhood, he didn't have a moment's peace because so many of the affluent parents wanted their lil darlings to score "A"'s on everything, without working for any of it. That was a nightmare for him.

Then he moved to an inner neighborhood school, where he was not pursued by parents but was seriously hassled by guys in gangs.

My heart goes out to anyone choosing to teach in this day and age.

[AnneD]

77. My experience as a School Nurse....

Were similar. The parents of the affluent school drove me crazy but at least I could get the nannies to pick up the kids. It is hard to get the parents at my current school to pick up the kids because they are hard at work or they can't afford a cell phone to receive a call. Even with that, I like the poorer school better because parent and students treat me with respect, not as the hired help.

[AnneD]

78. Deleted....

Dble post

[Ilsa]

6. Their statistics are so so flawed when it comes to determining COLAs.

Owning an iPad isn't a cost of living. It has nothing to do with grandpa's ability to put food on his table and keep his heat on in the winter.

[Yo_Mama]

29. Right

Because the really poor don't buy iPads. Their idea of discretionary purchases run more along the lines of clothing and shoes. Often from Goodwill.

Given the situation, it is hard to listen to such talk without losing one's temper. CPI varies for different individuals, and if a person is living the lifestyle of the poor, many of them have seen about a 16% increase in the cost of food over the last 12 months, a 30% increase in gas, an increase in taxes and fees, and, if they are stuck heating with oil and can't get LIHEAP, they're cold, starving and desperate.

Over the last few months, several times I have literally dreamed about taking these Fed governors and making them live just two weeks with one of the poor in this country. The other 50 weeks they can play with their effing iPads. I'd like to see them do it.

[dotymed]

40. Honestly, I know one person who owns

an i-pad. I have raised children and am familiar with i-pods. I am 50 and not that far out of the norm; I thought.

[tblue37]

62. I teach college English, and today was the first time I have ever seen an iPad in person.

The owner was a student of mine--a Nigerian man with a degree in microbiology who is getting an American degree in his subject so he can go to an American med school to become a neurosurgeon. (Oh, and his was one of the newer iPads.)

"Ordinary" people around the US may be buying iPads, but I am not running into those people. The man in my class who has an iPad is someone with a specialized degree, and he is from another country. Even my affluent American students are not running around with iPads.

[timo]

71. thats weird

My wife is a high school librarian and teaches a course on how to integrate the ipad into daily use ....several hundred our in use in our small little rinky dink school system, even the special ed dept has them....and the upgraded model is already on order..several of my customers use them instead of carrying around a laptop and thats in the swimming pool and landscaping business here in deep south Texas along the border.

[wordpix]

73. my teaching colleague showed me some handy dandy things iPads do but

didn't seem anymore handy-dandy than a laptop, and it's a lot slower.

[timo]

74. ???

speed and tech stuff I have no clue, but I do know that they are pretty prevalent in this area, and thats kinda funny because we are usually the last in line for any kind of innovative anything!!

[No Elephants]

42. Yep, Neither does airfare or cost of getting to work, or restaurant meals, or working

wardrobe, etc.

All of that does factor in to a COL calculation that may be very valid for some purpose, just not for determining whether or not cost of living has actually risen for the poorer recipients of disability and old age "insurance."

Those recipients of OASDI who have other income or savings will survive; but the rest won't. Stress, poor nutrition and inability to afford even Medicare co-pays will take care of some of America's little "entitlement" problem.

While Washington D. C. debates whether paying doctors for end of life discussions does or does not amount to killing granny, no one argues if absence of a relevant COL calculation will kill off our poorer disabled and our poorer and less healthy seniors.

[Monk06]

45. They don't use statistics. The make their numbers up from spread sheets the same as job creation

numbers. Job creation numbers are extrapolated from
data about new businesses. This data itself is just
guesswork. The kick is the Fed and other Federal depts
go by the assumption that each new business counts as
14 new employees. Pure fiction !!!!

[JJW]

8. Grey Poupon

Grey Poupon still a bargain?

[Sherman A1]

54. Probably, but

be sure to check the dates. If the uber wealthy are suffering as bad as they might be in these economic times, they may not be buying as much, hence the Grey Poupon might be selling slower.

[Pale Blue Dot]

9. He's right in that this is actually part of what goes into the inflation calcution.

Seriously. If something like the Ipad 2 comes out, and it costs the same as the Ipad 1, but has more features, for inflation purposes this is counted as a price drop. This is one of the reasons why, in my opinion, inflation has been under-calculated for years.

[meegbear]

10. Bon Appetit

[laundry_queen]

13. I agree

They may like to rewrite history and pretend certain things, but most of us have this neat-o thing called a memory. I remember about 15 yrs ago when I first started grocery shopping for myself, my (now ex)bf and I could feed ourselves fairly well for about $100/month. So, $50/person/month. Now, as a single mom of 4 I'm spending about $150/person/month and we're eating crappier. That's triple. I know that salaries have not tripled in that time. Sure, some things have gone down in price. They have dvd players for $17 at Walmart last week. But, as the guy said, you can't eat dvd players. Here, milk has gone up 15% in the last month. Cheese has doubled in the last few years, as has meat. But hey, we all need cheap electronics more than we need food, right? right?

[pinqy]

51. It would be over-calculated if you did.

And look at the converse: if packaging goes from 12oz to 10oz but the price remains the same, for inflation purposes this is counted as a price increase. The index is supposed to measure a constant standard of living, so if the product changes, for better or worse, the index has to take in to account if you're getting more or less for your dollar.

[xchrom]

11. recommend

[Zorra]

12. Wrong.

You have to peel them first.

They taste like chicken.

[EFerrari]

14. LOL. A good thing too, because a chicken just went up to $10.

:)

[closeupready]

18. Maybe wrap in bacon, too?

:rofl:

[ellie]

15. No kidding

I do the grocery shopping in my house and the price of food is rising. It's ridiculous.

[Night Crawler]

16. Just another Goldman Sucks alum

Originally hired by another Goldman Sucks, and current Sec of Treas., Timothy Geithner, and selected to head the NY Fed by whom?

We have no Hope
Keep the Change

[Love Bug]

17. Even Aldi's prices have been going up

[kjackson227]

31. Yep. I noticed that too. The milk at Aldi's used to cost...

.99 cents, now it's up to 1.19. Eggs were .69, now they're .99. But, Aldi is still cheaper than most grocery stores. Their selection isn't as large, but good prices on staple items.

[varkam]

20. Well sure you'll starve, but you'll look so stylish doing it!

Kind of reminds me when Papaw Bush went grocery shopping and marveled at technology that had been in existence for years at the check-out.

[No Elephants]

48. Duchess of Windsor said "You can't be too rich or too thin."

Had the anorexic, serial social climber missed all the photos of concentration camp victims that were made public after WWII?

Made Marie Antoinette seem socially conscious, Wallis did.

[calimary]

75. That's why she was so beloved.

NOT.

[on point]

21. Wages up = inflation. Food up, profits up = no inflation!

[Yavin4]

32. +1

God forbid if labor makes a dollar.

[imemod]

22. Hedonics

Mr Dudley's comments are reiterated Greenspanomics. In the 90's the CPI formula changed from a measurement of a fixed basket of goods, to a weighted system that adjusted for the "value" of the goods to the user -- AKA hedonics -- AKA a convenient way to deny social security recipients their COLA increases.

[No Elephants]

50. Welcome to DU. Agree, but no such thing as a "fixed basket" anymore.

Price of a can or bag of coffee, for example, may remain constant while the size goes down gradually from, say, 16 ounces tp 12 or 13 ounces (and dropping).

ETA: See also, Reply 49 on both size and quality of items. Nnarrower and thinner toilet tissue, with fewer sheets per roll is an excellent example. Only a few years ago, wider rolls had 200 sheets, with each sheet being thicker. Lately I've seen a 200 sheet roll being described as a "giant roll."

[katty]

23. yeah, just the facts-we need FOOD not ipads

[Hugabear]

24. "Let them have iPads"

I'm guessing that Dudley is the type who doesn't even look at the price of most things that he buys.

[annabanana]

25. GREAT meme!.. "YOU CAN'T EAT AN iPAD"

That goes to the very heart of the fucking around with the Consumer Price Index with which they've been screwing everyone whose livelihood is dependent on the Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA).

[Plucketeer]

26. Yet one more

disconnected fruitcake! :dunce:

[No Elephants]

27. Many people who have never experiened involuntary hunger don't "get" poverty. Film at 11.

When I was in school, a young woman from a fairly well off family was incensed about women who claimed to be victims of domestic abuse, yet did not "simply" move out of the abuser's home.


When told many feared being killed and many had no place to go anyway, she replied irately, "They can always check into a hotel."

And, unlike the perhaps apochryphal "Let them eat cake," this was indisputably said. I heard it.

[drm604]

28. I've got an iPad sitting here on my desk.

Would it go good with a Chardonnay?

[soupkitchen]

30. An Apple product a day

Keeps the hungry doctor away

[xxqqqzme]

33. The ipads may be cheaper

but I still can't buy one.

Our community garden is nearly ready to plant. Over the weekend I started pricing patio/deck storage benches/boxes to keep on site for tools 'n stuff. I started on-line, settled on one @ Target because of size & price. It is made in China of recycled plastic. I have to put it together myself & still it cost $50.

I have been noticing things that were $4.99 2 or 3 years ago, are now $9.99. It is all still made in China. Has the bottom been reached? Is it the only cheap labor now is slavery? The only way remaining to post those billions in profit is now to just raise the price?



It ain't gonna be pretty folks but it is coming.

[Moostache]

36. The cheap labor pool is being expanded right now...in the USA!!!

Look at Michigan.
Look at Ohio.
Look at Wisconsin.
Look at Indiana.

There are no more public labor unions or they are under whithering attack daily.
There are no jobs.

There is pressure to cut even the most basic civil services; but no pressure at all to address the budget shortfalls with tax increases on the highest tax brackets and people who believe the iPad is now part of the daily nutrition chart.

There is money for war.
There is money for Wall Street thieves.
There is money for extended Bush-Obama tax cuts.
There is money for "privatizing".

There is no hope.
There is only resolve.

Its time to face the facts, the war has been hitting the middle class with haymakers for 14 1/2 rounds and the only way we are going to pull it out is with a miracle finish to the fight in the last minutes of the 15th round.

[Populist_Prole]

38. I don't see it as about Ipads really, It's part of the larger canard.

Much the way job losses ( and replacing them with lower paying ones ) are NOT offset by lower prices on ( imported ) products, yet the canard persists.

Much the way they whitewash wage stagnation and marginalization by trotting out the "poor people have color TV's and cell phones" crap.

Talk about ivory tower..............

[olegramps]

41. Made in China no doubt. Good with egg roles .

[uberblonde]

47. Anonymous calling for civil disobedience...

To shut down the Fed all over the country, March 28th:

http://ampedstatus.org/network/groups/the-siege-federal-reserve-protests-beginning-march-24-402017764/

[Amonester]

53. Wass up on the 28? Dance in with the starz? 'merican eye doll?

The simple truth is, not enough people starve to death yet to care about taking to the street en masse (enough).

What will it take?

[loudsue]

49. Four percent my lilly white ass!!!

Many, if not most, grocery items have DOUBLED...that is 100% for those fucking assholes at the fed that can't do basic math. I save every single receipt of everything that I buy, and the same items that I bought in 2008 and 2009 are now double, and some have gone up more than that. Corporations are also putting less in the the packages. Hell, even toilet paper is 1/8 to 1/4 inch narrower. Kleenex ... you blow right through them because there is no paper in them. The quality of almost everything we buy is drastically lower than it ever was. Even refrigerators are supposed to be disposable these days. Teevees, disposable. The fabric in the clothes doesn't last through 3 washes without disintegrating, and 90% of that looks like rejects from a yard sale.

The American public is having our money AND tax dollars sucked out of us by insurance companies, food companies, banks, gas companies, pharmaceutical companies (we pay more than any other country in the world for pharmaceuticals made in the USA), and I'm so sick of it I could scream.

[Amonester]

55. Maybe fed prez dudley gets 'secret' "donations" from ceo 'pals'

And nobody can know about it...

That's the only thing I can think of for such another obvious sell-out.

[Oldtimeralso]

57. Not only is the TP roll narrower

But the center core is larger and the length of squares is shorter. I think the rich will soon expect the poor to lick them clean!

[Random Guy]

52. Let them eat iPad!!!

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[Mybrokenchains]

66. this!

+5

[maxsolomon]

56. how in the world was he even near people who are concerned about food costs?

did they leave the back door open at Davos?

[Ezlivin]

60. There's an app for that!

Angry Middle Class™

[SleeplessinSoCal]

61. This pretty much proves what many thought - they are completely out of touch with reality.

[DirkGently]

64. Yes. Food, fuel, education, healthcare. Non-optional expenses rise, gizmos get cheaper. Doesn't work

This is all going to (continue to) collapse on itself. You can't pay people less and less, charge them more and more for the things they cannot do without, and then insist they all run out and buy new smartphones every six weeks.

We can live without cheap toys that go beep. Food, gas, healthcare, education -- not so much.

[Beacool]

65. What a maroon!!!!

And great response from that person:

"I can't eat an iPad."

:D

[1776Forever]

67. This reminded me of the fracking issue - One group against said "We can't drink money!"!

[sarcasmo]

68. Out of touch douche bag.

[ozone_man]

69. That summarizes our present situation.

We have this new economy built on electronic communication, which may follow Moore's Law, but the basics of life, food, commodities, keep going up in price as the dollar is devalued. The FED, like Obama, represents business, but not the common people. So, Obama appointed Bernanke, Gethner, and Summers, etc., to maintain the status quo, to bail out Wall Street. Obama is no FDR, and we need a president like that. Now.

[wordpix]

72. nor can you fill up your car or turn on the lights/heat your home with an iPad

just sayin

[Flora]

76. $1.85 tomato

I stopped by our small locally owned grocery store just yesterday to pick up salad ingredients and while checking out, I saw that the one tomato I was purchasing rang up to be $1.85. I told them I didn't want it!! Couldn't bring myself to pay that much for one tomato, even though I was really wanting one.

After leaving the store, I drove straight to our small locally owned Feed and Seed Store and purchased a couple of tomato plants!! Each were $2.00. (though that was a lot, too)

[lonestarnot]

79. Appropriately named Dudd. Milk Dudds stick to the bottom of one's shoes when stepped on,

and one's pants when one sits on one.

[Overseas]

80. K&R! //nt

[Ter]

82. Put some salt on it

Bingo, instant $500 meal.