Back-to-School Costs: What matters to voters
If the GOP doesn’t figure out how to stem the tide of rising prices, too few jobs, the Democrats are going to win big next year even if they have no solutions to the economic problems facing us. Namely, the rising cost of nearly everything under the sun.
In fact, some Democrats are so stupid, like the guy running for NY City mayor, they think one solution to the current economic problem is to raise the minimum wage to $30/ hour. That will surely help the small business owner.
Wait a second.
I need to listen to Fox News for a minute and CNBC so I can be told how well our economy is doing. I need an economic shot in the arm, a bit of daily indoctrination, so to speak.
Okay, I feel better now.
Ten minutes of Fox, 10 of CNBC, I’m good. The country, the state, the economy are all going along splendidly.
The economic/jobs data I’m seeing of late is all fake. In fact, if the president doesn’t like the data, he’ll just shoot the messenger, like he did last week when he fired Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, hours after the agency she leads reported that job growth in the U.S. had slowed to a near-halt.
Doesn’t she know how to cook the books, so to speak? If the numbers are bad, then change them. Hello?
On Truth Social, with its Orwellian name, the president posted:
“We need accurate Jobs Numbers. I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY.”
As if McEntarfer just made up the numbers out of whole cloth?
What Trump didn’t like is that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported a gain of only 73,000 nonfarm jobs in July, which was below market expectations.
Now it’s pretty much a guarantee that McEntarfer’s successor will know what to do and what not to do — never deliver bad jobs news even if it is accurate. Just make up some fiction and go along with the flow — the country is better than it’s ever been.
Change the 73,000 nonfarm jobs to 173,000, and hey, how hard can that be? One extra digit.
No need to worry about massive layoffs in the tens of thousands. Plus, as BLS director, you can keep your job.
No need to worry about the increased cost of everything.
No need to worry about the fact that with regard to tariffs, no one has a clue about what’s happening, other than the fact that prices are still rising.
We’re going to be hit with a tariff placed on Mexican goods, then we’re not, then we are, then we’re not.
Who can keep up?
The Republicans need to, or the Dems are going to roast them in the midterms even if they have no plan how to fix things.
In fact, for at least four decades, I’ve often thought that both political parties — the GOP and the Dems — have largely been comprised of crooks and shysters, only in it for themselves.
The political power may change hands, but in the end, we all get screwed just the same. Nothing ever changes except for the names.
Back-to-School
According to a July 23 CNBC story, the cost of back-to-school supplies this year is forcing 44 percent of parents to take on debt to cover the cost of school supplies.
That’s messed up. People have to take on debt just to outfit their kid(s) for school?
In fact, roughly 20 percent of back-to-school shoppers said buying supplies for the new year is straining their budgets, according to a new report by Bankrate, which polled more than 2,600 adults in June. (Source: CNBC.)
Based on a separate report by Intuit Credit Karma, 39 percent of parents said they can’t afford back-to-school shopping this year. (Same source.)
In the RGV, it’s a guess that the percentage is even higher given our sad poverty rate.
According to a report issued by the National Retail Federation, the average cost of school supplies this year for only one child is $858.07, which is actually down from last year, $874.68. (Source: CNBC.)
That’s from elementary through high school.
Four kids? That will only be $3,432.28.
That doesn’t even take into consideration the pressure the ICE deportations are putting on the local Valley economy.
People staying home for fear of deportation, even if they did graduate high school here and have worked hard their adult years, with no criminal record — boot them back to their country of origin.
The new normal. The new America.