I've also lived off and on in the suburbs of a moderate size, sleepy and slightly backwards mid-western town which dons its "Southern" persona for two weeks out of the year, culminating in a overhyped and overpriced two minute horse race, after which it goes snuggly back to sleep and dreams of its former days of prominence.
As someone with particularly deep Southern roots, I especially enjoy my fried chicken, biscuits and gravy, (no sausage in the gravy please. That's "Yankee" style gravy corporate restaurant chains try to pass off as "Southern" or "country". It ain't, plus they can charge you more). I also love fried apples with cinnamon, and fried white corn. You'll find that in the South almost everything we eat is fried.
That tradition was born of the Scots, Irish, Welsh, and Northern English who settled primarily in the southeastern portion of the country along the Appalachian Mountains, from Kentucky in the north down to Florida and over to Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri which created a culture and tradition uniquely their own, including what we ate. Nevertheless, for some reason many of us don't seem to have our typical "Southern" dinners as often anymore because of the price of everything.
Chicken used to be considered "the poor man's steak" because, next to fish, it was one of the cheapest and healthiest meats one could eat. However, nowadays, chicken is the premier meat as more and more people have turned away for overpriced beef, which is seen by many so-called "health experts" as being unhealthy thanks to pesticides, growth hormones, various drugs and antibodies, and dyes.
To turn this around, as of 2020, most people ate roughly 82 pounds of red meat annually. That same year, we ate 127.2 pounds of chicken (to put that in perspective, globally speaking, the average person only consumed 35.7 pounds of chicken, meaning that we're eating about 40% times the recommended amount.
Did you know that Iowa and Ohio are the two largest consumers of chicken? They annually eat 54,957 and 52,690 of those little cluckers respectively. The highest ranking Southern states are Georgia in 5th place and Texas in 6th. Georgians ate 31,641 chickens while the Lone Star State munched down on 30,527.
In 2014, when Trump was elected to office, the average price for a one pound boneless chicken breast was $3.47 (the previous low, in 2011, when the same one pound boneless breast cost $3.10). By the end of Trump's term, the price for that same one pound chicken breast was $2.94.
When we look at the price of sugar, it isn't any better. A pound of white processed sugar (which is essential for the Southern tradition of "sweet tea") was $0.63 in January 2014. In June 2017, it was slightly to $0.66. By April 2020 it had dropped to $0.64 per pound.
However, starting around May 2020, sugar prices began to climb from $0.65 in May to $0.69 in November 2021. September 2022 saw sugar prices reach a new plateau high of $0.84. By September 2024, sugar had become "sweet gold" when it hit $0.97 per pound. As of July 2024, the price of sugar was selling for a whopping $1.00 a pound!
Ground roasted coffee, that staple of civilization, has seen similar hikes in price. Selling at $2.75 a pound in July 2004, it skyrocketed to $5.01 in March 2014. It drop by December 2019 to $4.05. As of April 2021, a average one pound can of "Joe" would run you $4.75. If that didn't wake you up, the prices by December 2022 sure would when they hit a record $6.47 a pound. By mid-year 2024, that same pound of coffee was down slightly to $6.31. What about just stopping by "Mickey D's" instead?
According to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, the costs of fresh biscuits, muffins, and rolls rose 134.49% in 2024 over 1997 prices. McDonald's "McDouble" sandwich went from $1.19 in 2014 to a fat $3.19. A medium order of French fries increased from $1.59 to $3.79 over the same time frame. Overall, McDonald's price have doubled over the last ten years.
The fact of the matter is that the price of nearly everything has gone up. The inflation rate of food prices was 3.3% in 2014. In 2015 is had dropped to 0.8 %. The following year it was -0.5% (when was the last time you saw food prices actually go down?). By the end of 2019, the inflation rate of food had risen slightly, to 1.8%.
With the incoming Biden Administration, the food inflation rate jumped to 3.9% in 2020. The very next year, in 2021, the inflation rate for food had risen to 6.3%, but that turned out to be nothing compared to 2022. That year consumers were robbed when the food inflation rate hit a staggering 10.4%!
The U.S. Department of Labor Statistics reported that August 2022 saw the highest rate of food inflation---11.4%---since May 1979. Things finally cooled off when, by 2023, it had dropped off to 2.7% and then, finally, to 2.2 thus far in 2024 (just in time for an election. Imagine that).
So, why do economists tell us that we're teetering on a recession but Vice President Kamala Harris says everything is fine? Why does Ms. Harris have this long list of things she wants to start working on starting "day one" when she and "Slow Joe" have had four years to produce numbers like these? How can Americans afford another four years of prices like these?
Ms. Harris talks about curtailing illegal immigration to one group of potential voters and turns around and says she's going to create a easier path to citizenship to others, especially for those seeking "asylum". From 2007 through 2019, illegal immigrant numbers in the United States had been decreasing.
However, 2022 marked the beginning of a reversal of that trend when the number of illegal immigrants reached 11 million (which is still below the peak of 12.2 million in 2007). Still, illegal immigration makes up 3% of our total population and nearly a quarter of the foreign born population in the U.S..
By the way, does Harris realize that most of these illegal migrants aren't coming here for citizenship? Statistics show they're actually coming here for a job. Some may claim it's "amnesty" they're here for but that isn't necessarily so. It's to get a regular paycheck. However, by applying for "asylum", it puts them into a different category and delays their review process thereby allowing them additional time to find a way to stay.
These individuals can't openly admit say they're "job immigrates". The reason is because "job immigration" is not recognized by the U.S. State Department, the UN, or even Amnesty International as a legitimate reason to seek entry into a country. Besides, international law requires anyone seeking amnesty to apply to the next closest safe country, no apply to the United States first!
70% of students graduating with a Bachelors degree has some measure of debt. About 35% of all undergraduates make use of federal and state grants or loans. Those with certain majors such as science, mathematics, computer science/robotics, finance/economics/accounting, and engineering---degrees in high demand. In some cases, employers will help pay off their student debt!
Those with the lowest---or no debt---when they graduate are those attending trade schools. An average of $10,000 in debt for trade schools vs. 36,000 for a BA/BS degree. Getting a degree in one of the trades, such as carpentry, electricity, or plumbing, HVAC are in high demand and is faster---six months to two years to complete compared to four years for a Bachelor's degree.
Many start earning while still in school as apprentices, and most have jobs before they graduate. The median income for a trade school graduate is $42,000 compared to $36,000 for a four year undergraduate. Statistically, degrees in the arts, music, gender or racial studies, or philosophy face the lowest prospects of employment and tend to have the largest debt. They also earn less than average.
So, here's the rub. Students graduating from college, many of whom with degrees that have little demand in the job market that doesn't involve "you want to supersize those fries?" are demanding that taxpayers paid for their poor decision making skills. The Biden/Harris Administration has placed so-called "debt forgiveness" at or near the top of their domestic priorities.
As Vice President, Harris has supported Biden's efforts to eliminate student debt. She also backed forgiving debt between $10,000 and $20,000 for every borrower. That, however, was shot down by the Supreme Court. It should be pointed out that former President Donald Trump opposes all out debt forgiveness but supports restructuring debt payback such as eliminating interest rates and other fees.
We've come a long way from fried chicken, biscuits and gravy to illegal immigration and student debt, but each of these issues deeply affect every working class American. We face a rising poverty rate as more and more of our fellow citizens are unable to keep up with rising prices (especially medical) and ever increasing taxes (which I believe should be voted on by registered voters as originally intended).
Illegal immigration serves the interests of Wall Street. It creates a artificial demand for jobs, which drives down wages and benefits (in many cases eliminating benefits altogether). It also increases the demand on our taxpayer funded social safety net. You can bet that if the ruling elite didn't benefit from illegal immigration, it wouldn't still be happening.
It's time we put working class Americans at the top of our national domestic policy. If we continue with the same old smoke and mirrors game of politics, our collective future looks bleak regardless of who occupies the Oval Office or controls Capitol Hill. VP Kamala Harris has not just told us what she wants to do, her actions has shown us what she intends to do. The only real question then is not whether you can live with it, but whether this is what you want for your children and grand children to live with?
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McDonald's menu prices have increased by over 100% during the last decade: study
Food Inflation in the United States (1968-2014)
Charted: Inflation Across the U.S. Fast Food Chains (2014 -2024)
Statista: Have Wages Kept Up With Inflation?
What Kamala Harris has said (and done) about student loansduring her career
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