Disguising Price Increases(No Politics Please)

[GoDawgs]

For anyone who would like to see gas price history over the last 30 years: https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/leafh ... us_dpg&f=m

What I find really interesting is that price changes (up or down) were so muted before 2000, nothing like the extreme variations we've seen ever since. The degree of price instability is just crazy, and no wonder we get upset!

There's a huge kerfuffle here in Canada, over the consumer carbon tax, which is actually rebated to you if you pay your taxes. Everyone gets the same rebate, depending on the region you live in, family size, and whether rural or urban. But people are royally confused about how much tax they pay at the pump vs the ever changing unstable price of gas.
Anyway, the rebate is great. The less oil and gas you use, the more of it is bonus money in your pocket.
This rebate actually pays for all of my gas, since I don't commute or drive a lot! And don't home heat with oil. $600 a year is about 10 tanks of gas for the Toyota... even with the vicious ups and downs in price.

@bower , I don't get it. How is the tax assessed to each person? When you buy gas or when you buy whatever source you heat your home with? How do they track it and know how much you've paid? And if it's just money the government is giving away, are those who have electric cars and not paying any gas tax getting a rebate too? Are those driving gas hogs getting back the same money as those who aren't? They use the roads too and should pay something towards the upkeep of them. I can understand why people are confused. Makes no sense to me at all!

[bower]

@GoDawgs pretty wierd, eh?
The tax payable is on gas for your car, when you pump. Or when you fill up your oil furnace tank, or natural gas.
Some providers seem able to keep the tax as a separate line item but our stores here do not. So approx 17.6 cents per liter in carbon tax is part of the nominal price per liter, and a 15% sales tax is also somehow rolled into that price instead of being a line item. Last receipt I have here it was running $1.60 per liter (low! compared to past couple years). So the carbon tax I paid for my 22 L was about $3.87 of the $35 bucks. Last year when gas price was really high, I've paid as much as $60 for the same tank of gas, but assuming 22L was the fill up, the amount of carbon tax paid is still only $3.87. The rest is gas price and sales tax.
They do not track how much you used or how much you paid as an individual. Not at all!
Everyone receives the same rebate, whether you drive an EV or a gas hog. The amount of rebate is based on their reckoning of average fuel consumption in the region. Many people here have oil furnaces too. There's little or no public transportation so gas for your vehicle is an important part for us. Lots of gas hogs on the road. The amount of the rebate for first adult in a household in this region is around $600 per year or $715 if you're considered rural (farther to travel).
So this is how it works: suppose I'm driving a big truck or SUV back and forth to town twice a day for work and for giggles. Suppose I have an oil furnace too and we run it on bust. You will blow through your rebate and end up paying tax in if you consume gas excessively, so it is an incentive to cut back, ride share, get a smaller vehicle, or switch to electric. Park the truck for those trips to the store, and get a small vehicle or even a used EV for that, you'd save a bundle.
This is how the carbon tax actually reduces emissions. They say it's working, too!
As it happens I personally switched to electric furnace more than ten years ago. (I never had oil, it was a wood furnace, so can't tell you what oil cost, but electric has been more expensive in some years than oil afaik.) Not an EV but a vehicle that's really good on gas. And I don't drive a lot. Work from home, combine errands on one trip, etc. We've always tried to save on gas and be sensible.
So with the rebate, because I already have pretty low emissions, this rebate more than pays for my carbon tax costs.
TBH I'm only burning through about six or seven tanks of gas a year in this car. $3.87 times 6, maybe $25 goes to carbon tax! And because of that, rebate is over $500 bucks in my pocket.
I think it's great that people get rewarded for a low emissions lifestyle.
I think if I was commuting to town, I would still break even on the rebate, but could do even better with a ride share and reduce emissions while keeping some of that cash. So I think it is a good incentive for people to change how they're living.
I would hate to see it go.
The opposition parties both have a plan that would get rid of the consumer tax and rebate, but would keep or raise the tax on industry. If that happens, you know how it works. Industry will pass on their cost to consumers. Consumers... uh, don't have a rebate to cushion that blow. It will be nasty.

[JRinPA]

We had home delivery of eggs here, until about 20 years back. Unfortunately he got too old for it and the kids didn't want to do the work, they wanted the money. His prices were just a smidge over the big ag prices for superior product, delivered to door, and fresh. He never had to kill off his chickens from sickness caused by overpopulation density or disease brought in by some new strain of better laying hen from across the country. The prices never jumped around. No one ever accused him of price gouging. Every couple years there was an apologetic nickel price increase. It might have been up to $1.05 for large when he retired. I remember .85 a dozen for many, many years. You left the money out with the empty egg boxes on Saturday morning.

If those are the bad old days when eggs cost $2 each in the city, so be it. I'll take those days.

[worth1]

7 dollars for 24 16 oz bottles of water at the 7-11 store brand.
No way I stopped at the grocery store.

[Tormahto]

We had home delivery of eggs here, until about 20 years back. Unfortunately he got too old for it and the kids didn't want to do the work, they wanted the money. His prices were just a smidge over the big ag prices for superior product, delivered to door, and fresh. He never had to kill off his chickens from sickness caused by overpopulation density or disease brought in by some new strain of better laying hen from across the country. The prices never jumped around. No one ever accused him of price gouging. Every couple years there was an apologetic nickel price increase. It might have been up to $1.05 for large when he retired. I remember .85 a dozen for many, many years. You left the money out with the empty egg boxes on Saturday morning.

If those are the bad old days when eggs cost $2 each in the city, so be it. I'll take those days.

The milkman disappeared, here, about 55 years ago. Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York had all kinds of small dairy farms and small milk producers. Some people collect the old quart bottles of dozens upon dozens of brands. My mom decided that there was to be no fighting, by four boys, over who got the cream at the top of the non-homogenized milk, so she shook up every bottle. That milk disappeared, here, about 60 years ago.

And, I still remember the awful tasting, faint blue skim milk when it first appeared in stores.

I've never heard of egg delivery, as this area is likely too suburban for that. Also, few people are/were into the organic thing, outside of one city about 20 miles north of me. There, if they had egg delivery, it would probably have been by pedal power people in their hemp clothing.

[JRinPA]

The first time I had to buy eggs, and they were in a 2x6 carton, I didn't know what to make of it. The eggman's boxes were 4x3 for the dozen. I assume that was so they could fit in the milk box.

I don't remember having milk delivery, but the dairy is a half mile away and we used to do the deposit gallons. Another dairy was about 1 mile away, and that one may have done deliveries yet in the 80s.

[worth1]

The milk man used to come to the house.
He also had things like cottage cheese.
At around 3 years old I would have a conniption fit for cottage cheese.
Like a 3 year old screaming brat fit for cottage cheese.
Yes I do remember my mom dragging me across the floor with me clung to her ankle begging for cottage cheese.
She made a dessert or whatever you called it with pineapple sugar and a little mayonnaise.
To this day I still make the stuff and have it on hand almost all the time.

[worth1]

I must be paranoid.
I picked up two more dozen eggs because I opened my last one yesterday.
I go to put the eggs in the garage refrigerator and found I had an 18 pack already in there.
They also had cans of beef ravioli on sale for a dollar a can so I got some as well.
I actually eat the stuff if I'm hungry.

[Tormahto]

I must be paranoid.
I picked up two more dozen eggs because I opened my last one yesterday.
I go to put the eggs in the garage refrigerator and found I had an 18 pack already in there.
They also had cans of beef ravioli on sale for a dollar a can so I got some as well.
I actually eat the stuff if I'm hungry.

In an emergency, or being too tired from working in the garden, to cook, I'll have canned ravioli or Beefaroni. Any other canned pasta is nearly inedible, having too much sugar.

[Tormahto]

The latest from the low cost supermarket was chicken gizzards marked down to 16 cents a pound. Most of the roughly 15 pounds will be simmered, cut into thin strips and frozen. making the cats very happy. I just might search for a recipe for humans.

And, the 60-count white boxes of eggs at Walmart are down to about $19, from the $22 of the past several months.

[worth1]

The latest from the low cost supermarket was chicken gizzards marked down to 16 cents a pound. Most of the roughly 15 pounds will be simmered, cut into thin strips and frozen. making the cats very happy. I just might search for a recipe for humans.

And, the 60-count white boxes of eggs at Walmart are down to about $19, from the $22 of the past several months.

Pressure cook gizzards and then fry.

[JRinPA]

16 cents a pound

[Tormahto]

16 cents a pound

I did the maths, 20 cents for a 20 ounce container.

[JRinPA]

I never see such prices..I'm thinking $1.49 may be the price for gizzards here?

16 cents a pound would be some cheap dog food.

[Tormahto]

I never see such prices..I'm thinking $1.49 may be the price for gizzards here?

16 cents a pound would be some cheap dog food.

Cat food, with my maybe trying it, too.

[karstopography]

https://www.foxvalleyfoodie.com/fried-chicken-gizzards/

I adore fried chicken gizzards, but never make them myself. Plenty of places around here that offer fried gizzards. Cream gravy is my favorite side for fried gizzards.

Gots to boil the gizzards first to tenderize them or otherwise the gizzards will be exceptionally chewy. Make sure they are cleaned well and trimmed of the lining and any grit. Birds including chickens eat sand and grit that in turn is used to grind up their food. The gizzard is just a food grinder since chickens lack teeth to grind up their food.

[Tormahto]

https://www.foxvalleyfoodie.com/fried-chicken-gizzards/

I adore fried chicken gizzards, but never make them myself. Plenty of places around here that offer fried gizzards. Cream gravy is my favorite side for fried gizzards.

Gots to boil the gizzards first to tenderize them or otherwise the gizzards will be exceptionally chewy. Make sure they are cleaned well and trimmed of the lining and any grit. Birds including chickens eat sand and grit that in turn is used to grind up their food. The gizzard is just a food grinder since chickens lack teeth to grind up their food.

I boil them for the cats, and either puree them along with rice and some carrots and pea, or slice them very thin. I tried one, the meat being fairly tender, the gristle being the problem. I never noticed any grit.

A cream gravy and serve over rice or noodles was my first thought.

After a couple of decades using the internet, I'm just learning that there is a bookmark button.

[slugworth]

Bookmark button and you can export bookmarks to a usb stick for others to enjoy

[worth1]

A pressure cooker Will make the gristle tender.

[JRinPA]

I used to clean just about every dove gizzard. Pheasant gizzards, no way, too big too tough and not as tasty. My dad would get a cheapskate vibe once in a while and would buy gizzards. Mom wanted nothing to do with them.

At 16 cents yeah I would buy a whole lot. Pressure cook them, absolutely. Hit one lining with grit though and it will be: YACK!