Source: Washington Post
by Marian L Tupy and Gale L Pooley
“U.S. consumers spent about 17 percent of disposable personal income on food in 1960; by 2019, that share had fallen to 9.5 percent, driven largely by more affordable food at home. Even after the inflation spike in recent years, Americans last year devoted 10.4 percent of disposable income to food, still roughly half the share common in the mid-20th century and lower than in most other countries. That is a textbook case of Engel’s law: As incomes rise, the share of income spent on food declines.
What produced these gains is not mysterious.” (12/02/25)