It's not the cost of eggs...or beef
Average wage earning Americans are falling further behind and focusing on the cost of a single item as a political talking point is short sighted and misses the point
THE EGGS ARE TOO DAMN HIGH!
Remember that guy who ran for New York City mayor about ten years ago and his whole motto was, “The rent is too damn high!”? Saturday Night Live had fun with it and it ended up being a bump in the moment that resonated more than anyone expected.
Now we have Zohran Mamdani winning the Democratic primary in the city because among many reasons, the rent really is to damn high. Not just in New York but everywhere.
When talking about economics there is a tendency to focus on an items current hight price. Maybe it’s gas or cars. I noticed this week that the latest attack on Trump on the economic front is that the price of beef has shot up in the last six months.
Before beef it was egg prices as the market example. Republicans used them against Biden and then Democrats used it against Trump who promised to bring them down.
Ironically, the avian flu and other market factors that caused the spike have eased while much more challenging issues have struck the beef industry. Shrinking herds, drought, and rising imports of foreign beef have driven the industry into trouble and ranchers are still barely making a profit with the higher prices.
But, there is every reason they might come down at least a little bit at some point. A wet summer and other factors could see it lowering. The harping on that one issue will lead to headlines like this one after egg prices fell on Fox ‘Business.’
See how it works? By focusing on one segment of the larger economy that rises and falls for many reasons, beef, eggs, gas, or whatever, we are missing the larger picture that wage earning, working class Americans understand: Average Americans have fallen further and further behind economically and it’s only getting worse.
Affording a minimal quality of life is harder now
I recently was sent this article from CNBC published in June that hit me across the forehead as so clear. The premise of the research from the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP) they are citing is simple: since 2003 average working class Americans have lost ground being able to afford what they termed a “minimal quality of life.”
You know this if you are one of us.
From the report:
To that end, LISEP developed a “Minimal Quality of Life Index,” which takes into account not only essentials, such as food and shelter, but also the costs living a fulfilling life with a chance at upward mobility. Food costs in the model, for example, include occasional trips to casual restaurants as well as the cost of hosting an annual holiday meal. The index factors in basic leisure costs, such as cable and streaming subscriptions, and trips to the six movies and two MLB games per year in the cheap seats.
The examples cited are shocking.
According to LISEP’s analysis, most Americans don’t meet that standard. In 2023, the bottom 60% of households by income fell well short of the threshold for a minimal quality of life.
That’s largely because wages have failed to keep up with rising costs, the researchers say. Medical premiums rose 301% from 2001 to 2023, they note, while travel expenses were up 170%. Rent grew by 131%. The cost of raising children, which includes saving for higher education, by LISEP’s estimates, grew by 107%.
With wages failing to keep pace, LISEP finds that consumers’ real spending power decreased by 4%, on average, over that period.
When you pull the thread you can see it. What I was able to do at 30 with four kids and an Army salary is nothing like what my own kids are able to do with similar circumstances. They simply do not have the buying power that I did at the same age. If you’ve got kids in their 20’s and 30’s it will hit you clear as day.
If you are just a regular American in a salaried role, or even more challenging, an hourly wage one, you simply cannot do the things that were possible for your parents or grandparents. There is no denying this phenomenon.
An article from CNBC in April discussed how fewer Americans are now planning summer vacations. Some 46% of respondents in a survey from Bankrate “said they are planning a summer vacation this year — down from 53% in 2024. Of those who don’t intend to travel, nearly two-thirds (65%) said money was the main reason.”
But, the nugget in the story wasn’t that it was because of travel costs at all. No, 68% said the biggest reason was the cost of EVERYDAY life as opposed to to higher vacation expenses (64%).
Yes, working Americans are cutting back on the things we took for granted.
Talk about that!
I already see a daily talking point from the Democrats saying to highlight beef going up but it’s a trap!
Not only does it miss the larger point but it offers the opposing side an opportunity to claim success when they inevitably fall back down again.
What Zohran Mamdani did in New York City was talk to average people and over and over he heard that they couldn’t afford to live in the city they love or were born in. That things their parents could do right in the same neighborhood are now out of reach for them. That’s why he talks about affordability.
He talked to actual people. Not surveys. Not focus groups. Not polls.
My good friend John Della Volpe wrote about how Mamdani shaped his campaign and messaging that won.
In focus groups I conducted earlier this year, participants voiced the very same concerns Mamdani eventually built his campaign around. They weren’t demanding a Green New Deal or a democratic socialist manifesto. They were asking for something more basic: to be acknowledged.
“Do you understand the cost of commuting on a broken subway system?”
“Do you know what it feels like to be priced out of your neighborhood?”
“Do you see me waiting tables, juggling side hustles, raising kids, trying to survive?”
Mamdani didn’t offer slogans. He listened. He took those stories seriously. Then he built a platform that sounded less like a press release and more like the people living it.
He listened…to actual people.
I am begging candidates, consultants, and activists to just go talk to actual people and listen to them. Ask them how they are making ends meet? Can they afford to go to a Cardinals game anymore? How often do they go to the movies? How are their kids doing in this changing economy?
What keeps them up at night?
I spoke in Union, Missouri two weeks ago to the amazing Four Rivers Progressive Coalition at the library in town. We asked and answered questions for 40 minutes of my hour. What I heard was real fear from the fall out of the Big Ugly Bill because healthcare is the number one employer in this Congressional District and attendees understood that not only will people lose insurance but the clinics that rely on them will close.
They understand that most of the patients they see might likely lose their Medicaid, called MO HealthNet here, and that means those who work in healthcare will lose their jobs at the clinics, nursing homes, and memory care facilities that support them.
Their member of Congress, Ann Wagner, who hasn’t held a town hall in over 12 years, proudly and loudly voted for the bill based almost entirely on the tax cuts for her rich friends.
They know.
We should listen and then act for their best interests. Run good people. Repeal these outrageous cuts. Make life better for working Americans instead of the ever growing wealthy few.
Talk like real people and tell the consultants to get out of their offices.
Rising beef prices are also a consequence of Trump’s immigration policy. ICE has been showing up at slaughter houses & rounding workers up. Fewer workers, less supply, higher prices.
Pretty much the 2nd & 3rd order effects of ALL his policies include higher prices.
If a Trump falls in the forest does it make a sound of anyone caring?