Are Bread Riots Still A Thing?
This week’s Inequality Roundup: April 18, 2025
Never think that food is not political.
In fact, historians have a formula to predict what bread price will tip the populace into rioting.
But in the U.S., people traded carbs for keto, so the price of meat and eggs might be the things to watch. We know that pricey eggs really brought out the pro-fascism vote.
At my house, we eat bread
I eat only a little of it. My dogs, the Breadwolves, beg for it constantly. My Dutch husband eats a lot of bread.
The only bread riot I’ve seen so far is the one my dogs start each time I bake a fresh, crusty loaf:
My husband, Harrie, subsisted mostly on bread, bananas and hagelslag sandwiches before he came to the U.S. He misses good European bread, which is why I prioritize baking sourdough bread.
I feel bad that he gave up so much to come to the U.S. for me, so the least I can do is feed him well. My loaves are not as good as their European counterparts, but they are better than anything you can purchase at the grocery store.
I’ll soon write about my new mill and the first loaf I made with the fresh-ground flour, because I like to keep the intros to the Friday Income Inequality Roundup on the short side. Suffice it to say that an important part of any Resistance is being able to keep yourself and your people fed.
Food prices continue to explode
A lot of us are worried about food insecurity. Planting gardens and learning to bake bread are some examples of some individual steps we can take.
But individual actions are never enough. We need to fix the system.
If you have some hot income inequality-related news you don’t see shared here, please add it in the comments or shoot me a message! I intend this round-up to be a one-stop shop for everyone who cares about this topic and a great place to discover new sources to follow.
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And now, here’s this week’s inequality roundup:
Shared by Tristan Snell
Shared by Robert Reich
Shared by Robert Reich
Is the Second Republican Great Depression Knocking at America’s Door?
Thom Hartmann, The Hartmann Report
… Jude Wanniski’s “Two Santas” theory from 1976, which argued that when there’s a Republican in the White House he should spend like a drunken sailor (which stimulates the economy, creating the appearance of good times) to drive up the national debt.
Then, Wanniski argued, when a Democrat comes into office, Republicans should scream and squeal about the national debt “that our children will have to pay” to force Democrats to “shoot their Santa” of Social Security and other social programs in the face.
Every Republican president since Reagan has followed the plan, and the result, in part, is that as Trump’s stupid tariff policies push us to the edge of another depression we now are so deeply in debt that we lack the tools to respond.
Donald Trump has bankrupted or thrown into crisis virtually every business he ever started prior to jumping into crony capitalism politics in 2016. He’s truly that much of an incompetent bumblefuck. And now he’s doing it to The United States of America.
After all, as I’ve written before, if you want to bring manufacturing back to the United States with tariffs you do it gradually, sector by sector, product by product, through Congress (as the Constitution specifies) so businesses know those tariffs will last longer than a presidential whim.
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Batten down your financial hatches and get ready; this is going to be rough for everybody except the morbidly rich, who are rubbing their hands with gleeful anticipation at the upcoming “buying opportunity of the century” to acquire everything from small companies to real estate to stocks, all on sale at massive, depression-era-level discounts.
Project 2026: A Check with No Strings: Why Universal Basic Income Is the Cornerstone of a Progressive Economy
This Woman Votes, Progress & Politics
In the richest country on Earth, nearly 38 million people live in poverty. That’s not a reflection of scarcity; it’s a reflection of failure. Not a failure of individuals, but of policy. America has built a sprawling, byzantine safety net riddled with loopholes, eligibility traps, and dignity-destroying gatekeeping systems that force people to prove, again and again, that they are poor enough to deserve help. This is not just inefficient; it’s morally bankrupt.
Universal Basic Income (UBI) offers a radical alternative rooted in simplicity, dignity, and trust. A monthly, unconditional cash payment, say $1,000, to every adult, regardless of employment status, won’t fix every injustice. But it will eradicate extreme poverty, dismantle the hidden taxes of being poor, and restore economic power to the people who’ve had it stolen by decades of austerity politics and neoliberal cruelty.
This is not a utopian fantasy. It is a practical, evidence-based solution with deep roots in American political thought and global trials to back it up.
How to Save Money on Groceries
Michelle Teheux, Untrickled
It’s astonishing how much grocery prices have risen this year, and there’s no indication they are ever going down again.
When the threatened tariffs hit, get ready to see even more dramatic increases. We import a lot of food from other countries (want fresh produce in winter, anyone?) and that means a possibly dramatic addition to your grocery bill.
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Don’t buy any food just because it’s cheap. Some people will buy things like the ultra-cheap ramen noodle packages or the kind of hot dogs made of the most questionable meat scraps.
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Meal planning, grocery shopping and cooking are real skills we need to value more. If you weren’t raised this way, I encourage you to start learning now. I can’t predict anything about the future except for this: You will never regret learning how to feed yourself well on a budget.
8 Smart Ways to Trump-Proof Your Money
Samuel Wynn Warde, The Art of Living
Join the Local Food Revolution
As global supply chains fracture and food import costs skyrocket, local food networks aren't just trendy – they’re essential financial protection.
Smart strategies:
Join Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs to lock in food costs.
Participate in bulk buying groups.
Support local farmers’ markets.
Learn basic food preservation techniques.
Consider starting a backyard or patio garden.
About Michelle Teheux
I’m a writer in central Illinois. If you like my work, subscribe to me here and on Medium. I also have a new Substack aimed at authors who want to self-publish books, called The Indie Author. My most recent book is Strapped: Fighting for the soul of the American working class. My most recent novel is The Trailer Park Rules. If you prefer to give a one-time tip, I accept Ko-fi.
All wealthy families are alike; each poor family is poor in its own way.
— Leo Tolstoy, if he had written about a trailer park
For residents of the Loire Mobile Home Park, surviving means understanding which rules to follow and which to break. Each has landed in the trailer park for wildly different reasons.
Jonesy is a failed journalist with one dream left. Angel is the kind of irresponsible single mother society just shakes its head about, and her daughter Maya is the kid everybody overlooks. Jimmy and Janiece Jackson wanted to be the first in their families to achieve the American dream, but all the positive attitude in the world can’t solve their predicament. Darren is a disabled man trying to enjoy his life despite a dark past. Kaitlin is a former stripper with a sugar daddy, while Shirley is an older lady who has come down in the world and lives in denial. Nancy runs the park like a tyrant but finds out when a larger corporation takes over that she’s not different from the residents.
When the new owners jack up the lot rent, the lives of everyone in the park shift dramatically and in some cases tragically.
Welcome to the Loire Mobile Home Park! Please observe all rules.
Harrie gave your fur babies the heel? THAT’S THE BEST PART! 😫
Your bread wolves, however, were VERY well behaved. I would have grabbed the slice out of his hand!
as a baker for over 50 years, I have to say that is a beautiful loaf of sourdough.