How Inflation is Affecting Santa Clarita
Santa Clarita has been hit by fast-rising inflation, which has been at an all-time high for decades. Everyone has had trouble dealing with inflation, here’s how it’s been affecting Santa Clarita.
Inflation is a general increase in prices and a fall in the purchasing value of money. As it is, people have noticed that prices are increasing at a high rate. In the Los Angeles area, it peaked in June with a rate of about 8.6% and was 7.8% in September.
The rise in food prices rose by 9.7% percent, energy has risen by 22.0% and housing jumped by 6.1% in Los Angeles over this year. Which has slashed the money that all can spend on luxuries by increasing the prices of necessities and lowering the amount of money that could be spent frugally. Abraham Bracamontes has covered the story on how the increase of gas cost has made people reluctant to travel.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/inflation-rising-food-energy-prices-impact-economy/ (Dorothy Neufeld)
All people in Los Angeles and communities across southern California. Even if you are outside California the inflation has increased severely, as in the US the average inflation rate from 1960-2018 is 3.76% whereas inflation in 2022 is at 8.2% this September from last year. This year’s inflation is the worst it has been since 1981.
The combination of inflation and recession (as the US in the first and second fiscal quarters has had negative GDP growth), has impacted California severely with companies making less and consumers paying more.
This could be seen with Arnold Rodreaz the owner of a food vendor in his interview with the New York Times, “As a result, “profit margins have shrunk” and he’s had to make significant adjustments. After meat prices rose, Rodriguez raised the price of his pulled pork nachos to $18 from $20.”
It can be seen that the cost that the producer and seller get passed on to the consumer. This is why even with business taking a bit of a crunch, the business compensates by giving some of the noticeable loss to the consumer.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/charted-four-decades-of-us-inflation/ (Pablo Alvarez)
The rise in prices can also be seen in local stores as Costco is a large example. The Costco CFO stated that the price increase is as high as 8% for many goods. Some clothing items saw price hikes of 3% to 10% according to CNBC
Another example is Costco raising the chicken bake from $2.99 to $3.99 and the sodas from 59￠ to 69￠. This shows that despite Costco being a company with a net worth of billions of dollars, inflation has caused them to increase the prices of their goods to compensate for lost profit.
Though this is a short recession, the effects have spread to all California residents and impacted those who cannot afford to lose more, as necessities have risen in price faster than luxury goods.
Patrick M. Pixley is an editor for the Community News Team and senior at Golden Valley. The research of state, national and international news is fascinating and how it affects local and life for those around the world that he finds interests in. As a lot of the time people do not realize that news that doesn’t directly affect them even though it may indirectly affect them largely ways that are not immediately visible which he finds the most important part of journalism.
He finds that student journalism is important, as historically student journalism gives voice to those who do not have the ability to vote or affect politics in such a way that adults do not. Student journalism has challenged established forcing them to more into consideration, refine or change so that they adapt to the criticism. Patrick is excited that taking part in something that is critical of information allows me to challenge my opinions and world views.
Patrick is a born and raised Santa Clarita resident...
