Poverty's Prices

Very solid piece on the costs of poverty in the Washington Post. As it goes, the poor generally pay higher prices than many other people for basic commodities. For example, in many poor neighborhoods across the US, the only place to buy groceries is a corner store, not a grocery store. Two results: 1) as a simple matter of economies of scale, corner stores are more expensive than bulk stores - thus poor people pay more than those who have grocery stores in the neighborhoods or can drive elsewhere; 2) poor diets - corner stores in the US aren't known for their fresh produce. The diet can end up essentially a fastfood diet; thus, the strange combination of extreme poverty and obesity.

Read the piece.