JD Vance was roundly mocked online over a trip to the supermarket where he bemoaned the steep price of eggs — and botched the photo opp.
The Republican vice presidential nominee stopped by a supermarket in Reading, Pennsylvania, with his sons over the weekend to illustrate how grocery prices have been impacted by “Kamala Harris’s policies” when he claimed a dozen eggs cost $4.
The problem? When footage of the visit emerged, Vance was quickly called out by viewers who spotted the price tag of a dozen eggs behind him was actually $2.99.
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I mean, I think that he’s got a valid broader point that egg prices haven’t been great for a couple of years.
However…that’s not really due to anything that Biden has done, much less Harris.
A lot of it was due to major avian flu outbreaks:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bird-flu-outbreak-egg-prices-2024/
April 24, 2024
A multi-state outbreak of avian influenza, also known as bird flu, is leading to a jump in the price of eggs around the U.S. — an unhappy reminder for consumers that a range of unforeseen developments can trigger inflation.
As of April 24, a dozen large grade A eggs cost an average of $2.99, up nearly 16% from $2.52 in January, according to federal labor data. The price increase comes as nearly 9 million chickens across Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico and Texas have been discovered to be infected with bird flu in recent weeks, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That is crimping egg supplies, leading to higher prices.
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/egg-prices-rise-bird-flu-farm/
September 9, 2024
LONG LAKE, Minn. — Minnesota shoppers may be experiencing some sticker shock as eggs again emerges as a hot commodity.
According to the USDA, the average wholesale price for a dozen large Grade A eggs reached $4.26 in the Midwest region. That’s up $0.09 since last week, but up roughly 20% compared to what was recorded in last summer’s consumer price index.
“I’m not surprised by the volatility,” Loree Kinney, store director at the Orono Market explained. “There’s volatility in milk, there’s volatility in dairy products, and in meat. There’s not much you can do about the supply and demand.”
Indeed, economists have for months pointed to a bird flu outbreak as a key reason for dwindling supplies of eggs across the U.S. coming from major producers.
You can’t really lay that much at Harris’s feet, though.
I do kind of wonder how practical it would be to have some company just store powdered eggs if the prices are going to be jerking around that much. Can’t do a sunny-side-up egg or anything like that, but for baking, it should be fine.
Exactly. Egg prices have gone up in large part because factory farming is unsustainable and we’re starting to see that with flu outbreaks. Who’da thunk.
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Thing is, Biden has been paying farmers for their losses and ramping up inspections to detect and stop spread.
Egg prices would be even worse if Biden was sitting on his ass. We’d have even more of a supply and demand discrepancy.
But, maybe Trump wants to propose injecting chickens with bleach.
Not to mention the price spike on eggs specifically is also way less than he would like to make it appear. Yes, in 2020 dollars, a dozen eggs was $1.50. But adjusted for inflation to today’s dollars, that 1.50 is actually about 2 dollars today (inflation being a much broader issue and highly affected by covid). So the price didn’t jump from 1.50 to 4 dollars, an increase of 167%, nor even from 1.5 to 3 dollars, an increase of 100%. It only went up from 2 dollars to just under 3 dollars (given the signs), an increase of just under 50 percent. Considering all the avian flu outbreaks that is an entirely reasonable price hike on a high demand good.
I see the point you are trying to make, but inflation doesn’t quite when that way.
Comparing the prices of the same commodities at two different points in time is literally how inflation is calculated, the increase from $1.50 to $4 is real.
Now, what the inflation-adjusted dollars are telling you is that if eggs had only increased in price commensurate with general inflation, they would have gone from $1.50 to $2. The extra $2 increase is above what a consumer would expect given the general increase in the prices of everything else. If someone (magically) had a salary that increases with inflation, they would find eggs today to be a larger fraction of their spending if they kept the same level of consumption.
Eggs are more expensive both in absolute and relative to other products. The reasons for this are complex, but due in no small part to people continuing to buy large quantities of eggs even when they were heinously expensive in the early days of the pandemic. The market absorbed that information and came to the conclusion that eggs were previously undervalued.
First, you missed the part where the actual price now is not 4 dollars? He lied. It was 3 dollars, per the sign right behind him.
Second, national inflation is calculated off a broad spectrum of goods and services providing insight into the relative buying power of tthe dollar itself, so it is not missing the point to compare based on the adjusted buying power of the dollar. It is a more accurate reflection of the true rise in cost of this individual good comparing how its rise in price has outpaced the average rise in costs across the board. It reflects the extra pressures put on the egg market from the avian flu outbreaks and possible other factors rather than the general inflation of the entire economy.
Third, if Vance’s goal was to demonstrate that inflation in general had gone up tremendously and blame Harris specifically for that (despite how ridiculous that is), using eggs as a specific measure of the effect of their policies when the price hike on eggs have significantly outpaced other goods and is clearly due to non-policy related circumstances outside anyone’s control is obviously disingenuous. And that was before he lied and tried to add another 30+ percent on top of the already inflated price.
Intentionally did not talk about Vance, I was merely responding to the idea that using past prices adjusted for inflation compared to current prices isn’t that straightforward.
Thanks for the lecture, appreciate the tone.
Vance’s comments was the context in which my comment was made. Context matters
I think they know this but it won’t help their campaign. That’s the state of US politics. Just like the gas prices. Biden was blamed for increasing gas prices while all the gas companies showed record profits because they just increased their prices.
I know CA voted for more humane living conditions for egg farms years ago. That seemed to have a direct price impact that slowly came down a bit.
They haven’t done anything to better it, either. I can’t find numbers for this year, so we’ll probably have to wait until next. https://www.yahoo.com/news/profits-largest-u-egg-producer-180807947.html
He said his three kids—7,4 and 3 years old—eat “14 eggs every single morning”. Either he’s an idiot or the toddlers are training to fight Dolph Lundgren.
Pictured: one of Vance’s kids
I am sure the actual quote is even stupider than I can imagine but:
Three kids. Let’s assume 3 sunny side up eggs for him, 7, and 4. That gets 9. Then whatever his couch eats so let’s say 10-11. Then another 3 or 4 for a “big pile of scrambled eggs” for the 3 year old and for the 4 year old to actually eat because yucky runny eggs. And then whatever his servants are able to sneak off to feed themselves.
It is very reasonable for a household that doesn’t care about money or food waste.
I mean … Vance is an idiot, but I have three boys. Between me, my wife, and my three kids, we each eat 2-3 eggs worth of scrambled eggs some mornings. 5x2 is 10, 5x3 is 15. That’s right in line with his claims, if he counts himself and wife, which he probably is and just being an idiot again.
That said, I don’t have eggs EVERY DAY. FFS my cholesterol would be sky high. I do buy 10-15 dozen eggs at a time, though, because the local farmer’s market sells 15 dozen for $25-30 and eggs will keep for 6-10 weeks in the fridge that is consistently the same low, near freezing temp (perfect for the outdoor, secondary fridge).
FFS my cholesterol would be sky high.
Cholesterol intake is not directly correlated with blood cholesterol. Eat all the eggs you want. The bigger problem is saturated and trans fat.
Further, in the specific circumstances where eggs are the source of dietary cholesterol, an improvement in dyslipidemias is observed due to the formation of less atherogenic lipoproteins and changes in HDL associated with a more efficient reverse cholesterol transport. However, if the cholesterol sources are consumed with saturated and trans fats, as happens in the Western diet pattern, increases in plasma cholesterol may be observed.
One of those egg council creeps got to you too eh?
I assume that was a snide remark and not meant to be serious.D’oh!I’m just a person who has maintained a keto diet in the past and went down this rabbit hole before.
Well then, the egg is on my face!! Struck that out. Thanks.
The bigger problem is […] trans […].
Such a transphobic statement.
That’s still almost 3 dozen short of Gaston, they’ll never get large at this rate.
https://64.media.tumblr.com/bda1fe3b9784777fd550b776d1e89364/tumblr_inline_ow6sw7yn1j1spja7s_400.gif
(Hecc, not sure how to make that embed)
I could totally have gone for a five-egg omelette or scrambled eggs every morning when I was a kid.
My mother was not going to do that every morning, though.
Either he’s an idiot or the toddlers are training to fight Dolph Lundgren.
¿Por qué no los dos?
Did he just add their ages together? Does that mean he eats 40 eggs each morning? Fucking weirdo
They obviously each eat one egg per year of age.
I’m not Cool Hand Luke. I can’t eat fifty eggs.
Not with that attitude, you can’t.
Have you even seen the price of eggs? They’re either $2.99 or $4 and I can’t just ask my friends for all their chickens’ output
OMG. His kids must shit solid bricks.
That’s more than enough protein for three young children .
Why did Kamala Harris choose for there to be an avian flu epidemic that led to many bird deaths/culling? I can’t believe she’d write that into policy!
The lying about the price aside, fucking morons, I swear to god.
Do we know that’s actually the reason the prices doubled (and is jt still a valid reason)? Or is it mostly just unchecked gouging like almost all other groceries?
First one, then the other, and that’s why Kroger is getting their asses sued off by the FTC under Biden appointee Lina Khan. The avian flu issue was a legitimate supply/demand squeeze for a little while, until it wasn’t, and Kroger didn’t back down an inch, so the FTC is stepping in.
That’s a great point, I’m not sure.
Either way though, it has nothing to do with top level leadership. It’s either something the FTC needs to take care of (price gouging) or the USDA (avian flu).
Why not both?
OK, is it both?
I’m asking what data shows is actually true in this case.
I don’t know that anyone has traced that out but there were articles predicting this some months ago.
Why is this dude this bad at being a politician? I feel like if you pick a random person off the street and swapped places with Vance, they would have more charisma, and also more experience with groceries and donut shops.
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His only job will be to do what Pence wouldn’t
Instructions unclear…JD runs toward the gallows
Why is this dude this bad at being a politician?
Because he’s literally an idiot.
I feel like if you pick a random person off the street and swapped places with Vance, they would have more charisma, and also more experience with groceries and donut shops.
Well, ANYONE would be better than Putin. Even most drunk alcoholic from streets.
Wait, you were talking not about Putin?
Quote: “now a dozen eggs will cost you around four dollars thanks to Kamala Harris’ inflationary policies”.
Checks source: Average cost $4.10.
Edit: I’ve updated this post to reflect the point of it being posted in News.
The problem? When footage of the visit emerged, Vance was quickly called out by viewers who spotted the price tag of a dozen eggs behind him was actually $2.99.
– Vance is being called out for saying eggs cost around $4 while standing in front of eggs that costs $3 when in fact the average cost for eggs he is standing in front of is $4.10.
I hate that this is the bullshit we spend our time arguing over.
good post. i hate vance and I don’t think inflation is bidens fault but i wish everyone would stop acting like clowns.
Strong agree. I think most people just go for the low hanging fruit because they don’t actually care enough to be invested in policy. The vast majority of “news” is just trash to generate clicks and engagement and we all suck it up like calorie-free frappaccinos.
I posted earlier in response to his full comment regarding the “inflation explosion act”. This is something worth reading about - that the Inflation Reduction Act has not had any immediate impact on inflation to date (up or down). Others here have accurately commented about the disease spreading across poultry farms which has most impacted the costs of eggs in particular.
It’s also worth pointing out that bird flu is increasingly having an impact on cattle. https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/09/bird-flu-is-spreading-rapidly-in-california-infected-herds-double-over-weekend/ So, expect dairy prices to slowly and steadily increase.
i wish everyone would stop acting like clowns.
Don’t hold your breath. It’s been this dumb for as long as I can remember.
Well the Democrats are running a campaign on Joy and “Look how shitty and Dumb those guys are”.
So I am not expecting good political discussion around this election.Everyone seeks the validation they crave, of being right before they ask any questions or have to look at reality. And that means ignoring issues to prove they are the most morally connected to their side of righteousness.
Each side is gonna provide their snippets to their sycophants to feel superior.
I just want to point out that the box he is holding… well it’s not a dozen eggs. That’s more like… 30 eggs? or something. 5 rows times 6 rows, if my eyes aren’t deceiving me. No idea how many eggs are in all those boxes behind the price tags, of course, but still. Saying a dozen when you’re holding two-dozen or more is also a lie. :p
Edit: or is it 6 x 6 rows? That’s 3 dozen eggs he’s holding. Edit2: not sure why the downvote. I’m not making it up, you can see him holding the box.
I fail to see how that is relevant at all. He could be holding a steak or a roll of paper towels standing in front of bananas or at a car dealership and speak about the cost of a dozen eggs.
What is relevant is his claim that “Harris’ inflationary policies” had an impact on the price of items at grocery stores. This is untrue.
I think I get it. The internet wants to call out every detail in an image as if they’re true crime detectives. They want to be more right than everyone else. But only based on the most simple piece of content possible. If it requires reading a few paragraphs, or finding your own source material that a news outlet fails to provide, or using a middle school degree of reading / listening comprehension that’s too much work. I did that here, and hate that it needed to be done, to back up my previous comments elsewhere in this thread.
I responded to a post that took a bunch of price tags and calculated an average price of $4,10 for a dozen eggs. I pointed out that we can’t even see how many eggs are in each of those boxes behind the price tags, so the conclusion that a dozen eggs cost on average $4,10 is bullshit (and I used Vance himself holding a box of 3 dozen eggs as proof, because it shows that obviously not all those boxes hold only a dozen eggs). Simple math would show that when you put any of those price tags on a box of 3 dozen eggs, the average price of a dozen eggs goes down significantly.
And you can hold off on the weird insults. I don’t even really care. Not American, I have no horse in this race. Just wanted to point out that the average price conclusion was wrong.
Ok. Simple observation of the image would inform you that you’re wrong. I’m not sure how one person can say the sky is blue and the other look at the same sky and claim it’s “obviously red”.
I wasn’t insulting you. I was speaking generally about the internet’s strange insistence to focus on pointless semantics for the sake of pride. Although, this conversation informs me that maybe there is some elementary education left to discuss among grown adults. I’m going to do us both the favor and assume you’re trolling me.
I bet the $4 ones are 18 count instead of 12 count. I always buy mine in 18s and you can’t really tell unless you look from above.
You are being a shit, I’m not sure if it’s on purpose but you’re so shit sure of yourself you won’t even take a beat to see if you could understand where someone else is coming from. Grow the fuck up.
You’re tripling down on this? This is the hill you want to die on?
Do you think a grocer would stock 18 eggs next to 12 eggs without any clear indication until you took it off the top shelf? Or do you think they’d stack it differently, on a lower shelf, so you could easy discern the difference?
What the fuck does this have to do with the fucking point of this story? You want to argue over a fucking dollar? That’s important to you?
I’m not the same person I just recognized you were a jackass and decided to call you out on it, turns out you’re not even an observant jackass.
I was going to point this out as well. He said “a dozen” eggs. Has anyone with eagle eyes verified that some of the more expensive tags on there are not in front of 18 or 24 pack cartons? I sure as hell can’t tell from the potato quality of the image, plus the shelves being out of the camera’s depth of field a bit.
Anyway, regardless of all other tomfoolery either real or imagined, the average price of a dozen eggs nationwide is roughly $3.20 at present,. This is demonstrably down from its peak last year, which was $4.82.
It’s only one banana, what could it cost. Ten Dollars?
Well I mean you can get eggs for $4. You don’t have to, but you can. It depends on how well you want the chickens to be treated.
I mean don’t get me wrong, Vance is still a fucking tool. But the prices of premium products do not reflect the prices of what the average working class consumer can afford.
You can get eggs for $10,000 if someone is willing to charge that much and you’re willing to pay it.
I know someone like that. Special eggs from a small farm in Australia flown on a plane to where they will be eating breakfast.
Truly horrifying.
Even though I would never do anything like that, this makes me glad I’m not wealthy enough to afford doing that sort of stupid shit because I’d end up being around the sort of people who cater to the sort of people who do stupid shit. Like if I wanted to do something like buy a house or a car. “Oh, you’re worth $100 million? I have this vast McMansion just for you. What do you mean you don’t like that McMansion? How about this McMansion? What? A three bedroom house with a finished basement? No no, you don’t want that!”
It depends on how well you want the chickens to be treated.
Sounds like legislative skill isssue.
Republican challenge impossible: Speak any sentance without lying.
Do they need Peskov? Volodin says he is so good, that he works for National Tresure(Putin). He can lie even when silent. He is kinda national treasure too, but Republicans(or anyone else) can have him for free if they choose self-pickup.
James “JD Vance” Bowman is either the dumbest man alive, or it’s a 7D plan to sabotage the Trump campaign
Either is possible
Hanlon’s Razor
Grey’s Law
Hanlon’s razor is stupid.
“Kamala Harris’s policies”? Well, I guess we don’t need an election is she’s already in office making these policies exist in reality.
This isn’t anything new, I’ve seen GOP defenders in comments say the same thing. For some reason she’s already doing things outside the VP job just because she’s running for President. They sure forgot Biden fast, as well as things put into place by their favored Trump when he was slashing and burning in office. It’s the old “look at the gas prices” ignorance.
I had a person talking at me the other day because of my retail job. They said, “I can’t understand why someone would vote for someone, if you’ve already seen them in power and you don’t like what you see.”
I said, “Exactly! Makes perfect sense.”
Then they went on to add, “I mean, she’s been in the White House 3 and a half years!”
Not just GOP defenders. She’s personally sending arms to Israel because she apparently sets that policy. She also, for some reason I just can’t imagine, refuses to call her boss a war criminal.
Oh well, at least we can call her “Holocaust Harris,” am I right? Because that’s not super fucking offensive to more than one group of people.
I forgot the current Vice President was the person to enact policy that directly raises egg prices. It has nothing to do with consumer price gouging and corporate greed. Nosiree.
It’s one banana, Michael. How much can it cost?
The conservative folks I talk to always, always, always bring up the price of eggs and the price of gas when they are talking about how bad the economy is these days.
I’ve heard “Groceries have doubled in price.” many times. Obviously I can’t prove that’s not true for them, but then I ask what items that they buy regularly have doubled in price? The answer: “Eggs”.
Okay, so what else, I know that eggs alone do not make up your entire grocery bill? “Everything”. That’s pretty much all I get.
Even if they can tell me a few more things that have doubled in price, it’s basically going to be outliers or things I know for a fact they rarely/never buy. Like when it comes to the eggs, they’ll make claims like “eggs are $10 a dozen”, but when pressed about it, you find out they’re talking about the gourmet premium brand that’s always been way more expensive than the cheap ones and which they’ve never purchased in their entire lives.
Okay but groceries actually have doubled in price. Where they’re wrong is the blame. They blame Biden, who actually got the trust busting stick out. While giving a pass to GOP leaders who just keep blaming the poor while grocery chains gleefully price gouge us.
This. I actually drink water now beacuse soda is too fucking expensive
Good! Water is better for you and amazing. Get you one of those vacuum metal water bottles (hydroflask or knockoff) and fill that sucker with ice cubes and water and you’ll never need soda again (except as the occasional treat).
I consume a lot of cottage cheese. Pre-Covid the 48oz container I buy cost about $2.50. The price spiked to about $5.00 during quarantine and has since fallen down to about $3.00. There’s a lot of items that have followed similar trends and, while they’re more expensive than they were in early 2020, they’re not at their Covid spike prices which is what everyone seems to think.
The “gourmet premium eggs” (regular eggs laid by pastured chickens instead of life-in-a-tiny-cage chickens) also barely increased in price during the covid/bird flu/supply chain price gouge excuses.
Weird thing is, sometimes the “premium” eggs are cheaper than the standard eggs, because the prices don’t fluctuate nearly as much. I have a thing of cage free brown eggs in my fridge that was actually cheaper than the plain, white store brand eggs right now.
I’m not a right winger and while I can’t give specifics exactly, I do basically buy the same things every week because I’m boring like that. All cheap stuff, no organic or gourmet anything. I can say that in the last say 18 months I went from spending $65-$80/week depending on whether I was restocking non food items, to spending $110-120/week. Not exactly double, but damn close.
To get it back to the 70ish I now just eat less and I don’t buy any extras like anything premade. :/
And are you stupid enough to blame this on the current Vice President? Or even the President?
Is JD Vance wearing eyeliner? He looks like a poor Tim Minchin impersonator.
I remember reading somewhere that it was likely something he picked up from his wife, as it is apparently not uncommon in India?
That could have been a lie, but honestly who cares how the guy chooses to dress or present? His views and words are toxic enough that we don’t need to resort to personal attacks on his appearance; calling him and his ilk ‘weird’ is more cutting to them than anything else.
My problem with it, and this might be wrong so sorry if i am, is that he doesnt have a clue how the people he represents live. Politics have separated from the people and he doesnt recognize this. Instead of understanding his job or his land, he seem to care more for his looks. Its another little step in diverting from the people. I personally have no problem at all if someone just does what he/she likes as long as no boundaries are hurt. Im happy that this gets more common these days.
The best way to look at it is to ask “if he cared less about his appearance, and dressed more slovenly - would it excuse his abhorrent views and stances?”.
If the answer is no, then it should be a non-factor.
A cynical part of me thinks that some of the more outlandish politicians dress that way (Trump’s hair dye and fake tan, JD Vance’s guyliner, Boris Johnson’s unkempt hair, etc.) are done in part as an attempt to de-rail reporting by having us fall into the easy trap of ridiculing their appearance rather than criticising their views and actions.
While I do think this is an intended strategy for Boris Johnson (he’s admitted as much), I think the clown show which is Vance / Trump, and don’t forget Giuliani’s dripping hair dye, is not premeditated. That would be giving them too much credit.
I think they are just simply bumbling from one grift to the next, completely unaware of how ridiculous they look.
To me, it’s more about the fact that if any of his followers saw someone in makeup and decided they were a man in any other instance, they would treat that person like shit.
Facts don’t matter for the maga crowd. Only feelings. And they feel that eggs are 4 USD. Therefore eggs are 4 USD, despite evidence to the contrary.
They also don’t want solutions, they only want to complain. Which is why trump and vance are still good for them.
