What's causing the prices to rise?
Gasoline, Cars, Food, Clothes, Taxes, PG&E, Cable/Internet...
Answer:
Big question with many categories..
The law of supply and demand rules the day..
The greater the demand, the higher prices will go unless supply can catch up.
So dependence on foreign oil and more gasoline consumption will lead to higher gasoline prices.
Taxes go up depending on how government spends money - that is why choosing the right candidates at election time is so important. Some political candidates want to raid your wallet. Others political candidates want you to save your money for yourself and for your family.
Food prices go up and down depending on various factors. If a cold front hits where citrus grows, then the frost will kill many crops leading to higher prices. For each food category, you would need to know what factors are involved including weather.
Clothing as a category will depend on what clothing you purchase. Prices of European goods tended to increase with the conversion from regional currency to the Euro as a generalization, and in Europe if a country charges a VAT (Valued Added Tax), then the VAT is added to the price of goods. Whenever a country has strong unions or expensive social programs which are charged to corporations in the form of taxes, then those are passed along to the consumer in the form of higher prices. Whatever costs come down on manufacturers whether increased regulations, high fuel bills, the conversion of free roads into toll roads when trucks roll, increased labor expenses, increased employee healthcare expenses, et, it all translates into higher prices for the consumer.
Each industry has its own set of regulations, supply issues and competitive issues which lead to the setting of prices.
The struggle for many consumers is knowing when not to spend money, when to purchase less, when to save more and when to put aside the credit cards which charge interest and chip away at the amount of money a family or individual can save. When a consumer uses a credit card to purchase goods, the actual prices of the goods are higher because of the interest rates charged by credit card companies. Credit card interest is just money spent as an outflow..
inflation.
the f.u.c.k.i.n. government...trying to take all our money and people overseas that know we have more money and raise their prices...so everything cost more for the US anyways...If this keeps on...everyone is gonna be on Foodstamps
the in creasing of the population causing the prices to rise
Different Factors like The orevious guy said inflation, that is just a word for rising prices and not the cause . Its the cost of manufacturing and the price of raw materials also low interest rate can cause inflation so governments put up the interest rates to curd public spending, that works because you most expensive thing you buy is your house and you never know really what it will cost you as the repayments change as the lenders alter the lending rate to fall in with the central banks lending rate so you have less money in you pocket to go out and spend . Its a balancing act that is very difficult to get right.
Things are not getting expensive in the US!
If you don't believe that, then just come to the UK for a while. Things you mentioned:
Gasoline (Petrol as we call it): Here it is about £1 per litre, that's $9 per gallon
Cars: You can't even get a Ford Focus for under £12000/ $23970
I could carry on down your list!
Anyway, the main cause for the increase in prices is inflation. It happens in almost every country, and you should be very glad of it, when it's between 3.5 and 9% anyway.
As the country's standard of living and wealth grows with it's economy, the CPI (consumer price index goes up).
This is due to Inflation. When people become wealthy, they're demand for goods increase because they can afford it. However supply still remains limited.
To control people's demand for goods and keep it in equilibrium with the limited supply, their purchasing power and ability to so easily afford these goods must be reduced. This is done by increasing the price of the available goods.
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