It's also probably people who've lived with crushing rent burdens for so long that they feel like a background aspect of life, not something that can be changed.

Yeah I think you're right. My food bill is up around 50% but it's still less than half of housing.

Not dragging you on this, but maybe you just haven’t noticed the creep plus where you live could make a difference. I never paid more than a dollar for a box of pasta in my life even after I moved to NYC. Then in the past few years no matter how much I shopped around, not a single box was under $2 unless it was on sale. It’s things like that which crush people the most, the cheap ingredients people use all of the time. Pastas, soups, eggs, butter, chicken, fresh vegetables, etc have all shot up in price in my area