Inflation is still at all time lows (despite the consistent panic that has gripped certain elements of our society), and I don't believe it's going anywhere. Yes, for somethings prices have gone up, but MOSTLY it feels like the range is the same. A low end car in 2000 was AROUND the same price it is today. A medium quality pair of skis was roughly the same. In tech, the prices have actually fallen!
But one that I find really interesting is food prices - they're virtually unchanged at the low end. There was a dollar menu at Wendy's I used to eat atdaily in NYC with about 5 items on it in 1999. Exactly the same as today.
Answer: No.The simple fact is that the quality of food is just either gotten worse, or creation of the food is radically more efficient. Take for example Pink Slime. They've just closed all their plants but in a lot of ways, this was a great product. It was super cheap to make (saving people money), it used every part of the cow (less environmental waste) and it was healthy (no carbs). People could not get past the image or branding, but there's nothing obviously wrong with it (and if people knew what really went on with meat production, I'm sure no one would be running to their local Chik-Fil-A either).
More examples? "Tuna Scrape" and "Meat Glue". Look people, these are PERFECTLY good things to eat. In countries != the US, sucking on the bones to get every little pieces is a GOOD THING(tm).
I love this - I hope we get MORE transparency into this stuff. Either it raises the price of food so that sustainable food will be on par, pricewise, with this stuff, or people embrace it and use every bit of the food we kill. It's the disconnect between what we're told and what's real that's the problem.