Everything about the American economy right now feels weird. The hiring picture is weird, the stock market is weird, and AI infusion into work is very, very weird. There is, however, a number that’s stranger than all the rest: the amount of disposable income being spent on food. That might sound odd if you’ve taken a good look at your grocery receipt lately, but it needs a little context. In 2025, American consumers spent approximately 11.3% of their disposable income on food, including groceries and dining out. That might sound high, but in 1901 the average American family spent 42.5% of its budget on food — not eating out, just groceries. At today’s median household income, that would be the equivalent of roughly $2,600 a month going to the grocery store. In 1947, Americans were still spending 23% of their income on groceries alone, and as recently as the 1960s, the figure for food spending hovered around 15%. All this happened not by accident, but because of one of the most under-appreciated revolutions in human history: the transformation of American agriculture. In 1940, one American farmer fed about 19 people; today, one farmer feeds nearly 170 people. Today we produce more food with fewer people on less land. Americans today have access to food from every continent, in every season, at prices that would have baffled their grandparents. The fact that the average American family can feed itself on roughly a tenth of its income — something that would have seemed like science fiction in the 1900s — is a genuine achievement. When a society spends less on food, it frees up resources for everything else, including school, medicine, saving and living. That’s human freedom, measured one grocery receipt at a time.
