Per capita margarine consumption

As global email volume has grown, American margarine consumption has declined, a negative correlation of -0.979 that connects digital communication to dietary retreat with the spreadable confidence of a chart observing the same modernization killing both physical mail and physical margarine. The inbox fills, the margarine tub empties, and both trends measure the same digital economy replacing analog everything—including breakfast spreads that nobody under 40 remembers buying.

Emails grew from about 250 billion to over 350 billion per day. Margarine declined from about 3.5 to under 2.5 pounds per capita between 2015 and 2022. One rises, the other falls. Both are products of modernization: emails grow because digital commerce expands, margarine declines because butter was rehabilitated and trans-fat bans accelerated its fall. Eight data points, opposite directions.

Eight years of more emails and less margarine is a correlation between digital growth and dietary regression: the same decade that produced peak email also produced peak butter rehabilitation, and margarine retreated on both fronts. The inbox expands, the tub shrinks, and neither trend will reverse. The send button is permanent. The margarine is not.