Analysing the increase in bread prices

Of course bread does not consist of water and flour alone, there are several more ingredients put into the dough, all of which have gone up and keep going up in price.

Then one must remember that labour costs have increased, likewise transportation and delivery and the mark up by the retailer or distributor have to be considered.

There may not be many persons of my age that are still around and remember the bad old days when a "hops bread" the size of a large bread fruit sold for one penny and two could be purchased for three cents and it was even cheaper by the quart. Of course in those days a large leg of ham was about $8, a new Ford V-8 was $975 and a gallon of gas was about 30 cents.

Salaries of course were a mere pittance and a bank or office clerk got about $60 per month or less and a reasonable sized house in a respectable area was about $25 per month. Well here we are many decades later and one little "hops bread" the size of a large orange is 50 cents, a slice of cooked ham, about three inches in diameter and exactly .040 inch (40 thousands of an inch) measured with a precision Moore and Wright micrometer is 68 cents per slice, a new Ford V-8 well over $200,000 and a gallon of gas $11 per gallon. Even a simple little "swiss roll" which can be cut into about ten slices costs $14 now.

What I have some difficulty in trying to understand is how a great many individuals can still go out and pay $140 for a bottle of Scotch, $8 for a bottle of beer, $50 for a bottle of rum, pay $1800 per month house rent, pay close to $2,000 per month installment on a new car, go out and spend close to $200 for a single steak dinner in some restaurant and yet complain so bitterly about the price of a loaf of bread?

Has not every single commodity gone up in price by leaps and bounds over the past several decades? I remember in 1944 when I got married, I purchased a tailor made suit from one of the leading gents outfitters in Port-of-Spain. It was made of the best imported English tweed consisting of two pairs of pants and a jacket for just $60. In comparison, the last tailor made suit that I purchased about eight years ago to attend a wedding, cost me over $1,000. Made of a similar material, and with just one pair of pants.

So what is the special problem with the increase in the price of bread? Has not the price of everything else gone up by unbelievable quantities?

MARTIN KAVANAGH

La Romaine

Mr David Abdulah of all people should be well aware that with the unions seeking higher wages every Monday for their workers, the cost of production is bound to increase and so too, the ultimate cost to the consumer. Higher wages go hand in hand with higher cost. It is a cycle that will never end. MK