I think one of the big reasons for this un-surprising trend is that so many people -- especially young people -- simply don't know how to cook anymore. And about half of those who do cook do "convenience cooking"; for example, a casserole with canned soup as a base, so it's not particularly tasty or healthy.
Yeah maybe, but I don't know. I suppose the theory is that the kids who grew up in earlier generations where mom stayed at home, they learned to cook from mom. Is that what you're getting at? That in the modern age where there's no stay at home parents (either due to never married, divorce, or simply dual income) and thus neither adult is regularly cooking anymore. So kids are less likely to learn to cook if both parents are working and come home exhausted, not wanting to cook. Is that the theory? It seems plausible.
On the other hand, this is the information age, or so I've been told for the last 20 years or so since public access to internet or at least AOL became commonplace. There's cooking shows all over TV, both network and especially cable. There's both books and E-books for cooking meals quickly and easily. There's youtube videos by the millions and websites probably by the tens of millions with cooking instructions. Further, the packaging of food has gotten simplified so more things can be purchased as kits, rather than preparing food truly from scratch like in the old days.
I don't think there's any lack of ability to learn how to cook food, it's just become a social norm not to cook food for yourself much anymore. Like MMM's latest blog, once something is ubiquitous (like restaurants and eating out) it's hard for someone to feel the social pressure to do anything but that activity. The good news, IMHO, is that eating at home is done in private, so someone can ramp up their eating at home and generally nobody else even knows about it, so there's no social pressure except for public events like a group lunch/dinner, and those are (hopefully!) rare enough for most people to not account for a significant budget expense.
This was a very good post in general.
My mom was a SAHM until I was about 12 (when my dad got laid off and the new job made 1/3 the old one). She cooked from scratch, but also made casseroles with cream soups, because, you know, 80s. She gardened and canned too. It was typical American fare - meatloaf, spaghetti and meatballs, chicken, fish on Fridays, stuffed cabbage, mashed potatoes, canned veggies.
I did not learn to cook. I was the 8th of 9 kids. My mom cooked. My sister cooked a little when my mom went back to work. My dad cooked after the divorce. But I never learned to cook (I did learn to can). I did the dishes.
But part way through college I got an apartment, so the college and early Navy days I learned to cook *a little* - spaghetti with jarred sauce (sometimes my own meatballs), ramen noodles (that was college), burritos (from a kit), pierogies. Then I got a boyfriend who cooked (learned from his mom). When he moved away I started cooking more - I had 50 cookbooks, but didn't know how to cook, and I burned or cut myself whenever I went into the kitchen.
I didn't REALLY learn to cook until about 31-32 years old, by watching the Food Network, which happened to coincide with needing to lose 50 pounds. It wasn't going to happen with my husband's cooking (that great boyfriend who cooked? Yeah, him.) But cooking "from scratch" takes time! It's easier to buy pre-shredded cabbage than to make your own, easier to buy dressing than to make your own, easier to buy canned beans than to cook your own, easier to buy frozen meatballs than to make your own, easier to buy hummus. (In case you were wondering: I shred my own cabbage, make most of my own dressing, make 3/4 of my beans from dried, almost always buy frozen meatballs, and usually make my own hummus).
But FOR SURE eating out is so normal now - when I was in the Navy in DC, I ate out lunch EVERY DAY after I made LtJG. Sometimes breakfast and dinner! It got to be that my favorite two places knew my order when I walked up. When I moved to CA, I ate out lunch with my coworkers, and my husband and I had dinner out 1-2x a week. (We were spending $400 a month eating out, in 2001!!) I see it with my coworkers and friends. Lunch out. St Patty's day? Let's go out!
I made a decision about 4 weeks ago that we'd do NO eating out as a family for 6 weeks (until spring break). Exceptions: we ordered pizza for my kid's birthday party, business travel (husband), when other people are paying (I've had 2 interview lunches). Dang, it's been hard! Two more weeks to go. I cannot count the number of times I've been invited out. Plus, I've been eating salad for lunch every day and I'm craving something different. Some people eat out because it's a social thing - that's when they see their friends. Some people eat out because it's an "event", like with live music. Some people eat out because they cannot face another salad - and they are the only ones cooking.