Your Economy (No Politics)

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Bidenflation eats into the working poor's fast food -Axios

By Monica Showalter

Joe Biden is losing working-class voters across racial lines based on his Bidenomics economy, and one of the reasons is the rise in fast-food prices, Axios writes.

Why it matters: Fast food restaurants have had some of the sharpest price hikes during the Biden administration, higher than both grocery bills and gas prices.

Biden relied on working class voters to win in 2020, but high prices and high interest rates are hitting the poorest Americans the hardest.
Biden is now either losing, or splitting, lower income voters, according to survey after survey.
Nearly three in five Americans believe (incorrectly) that the U.S. is in recession, according to a new Harris poll for the Guardian.

Zoom in: The average price of "meals at limited services eating places" has outpaced wage gains for workers since before the pandemic, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Prices are up 31%, vs. average hourly earnings up 25%.

That's Bidenflation for you, eating into your fast-food hamburger, along with your groceries and your gas prices.

Axios doesn't prove this anywhere in its piece, but it stands to reason that its writer's argument is probably right. Poor and working-poor people have less disposable income, so expensive restaurant dining is usually out, but fast-food historically is less costly as well as quite available in inner cities, and more accessible.

It's also a bit more than just food. Anecdotally, I've spoken to women on public assistance who have told me taking their kids out to have fast food is a special occasion experience they value being able to give their kids, given their limited incomes. Taking their kids out to have fast food is the treat they save up for.

Fast food historically has been the least-expensive restaurant option, so it makes sense that more poor people might use it more, though people of all ages and social statuses like fast food.

Is it the least expensive option now?

Well, to get back to more anecdotes, yesterday I tried Applebee's, a fast-casual restaurant chain in San Diego, California for the first time with two other people and the tab came to $42. The atmosphere was pleasant, the service attentive, and the food, while probably out of some freezer, was fresher and more carefully made as well as delicious. In contrast, I tried El Pollo Loco, a fast-food chain, a few weeks ago, with the same two other people, and the tab for three salads and an extremely tiny order of chips going for $6 came to $45. This was before California's famous fast-food wage hike to $20 for fast-food workers, so all I can conclude is that it's even more now.

Obviously, it's cheaper to go fast-casual, or better still, ethnic food truck, than to dine out on fast food, and if that's the treat you give your kids for special occasions, well, there won't be any more treats.

Of course you'd hate Joe Biden for that kind of inflation: It doesn't just hit you, it hits your ability to do something special with your kids. Things like that have got to make voters angry.

Axios adds that the problem doesn't significantly affect the rich, either:

Zoom out: Five months before the election, America is a tale of two economies.

For wealthier households, smirking about their low fix-rate mortgages, the Fed's aggressive rate hike just doesn't sting that much, if at all.
The S&P is up 12% on the year, frequently flirting with new record highs.
And just as the poorer Americans are moving towards Trump, wealthier Americans are heading in Biden's direction.

By the numbers: In 2020, Biden beat Trump 55%-44% in households earning less than $50,000. In households between $50,000-$99,000, Biden had even bigger margins, at 57%-42%.

What's significant here is that while Biden is responsible for Bidenflation, Biden's union pals, particularly the Big Labor SEIU, have been the bedrock force driving fast food costs even higher than other costs, which Axios has a chart on.

The wealthy leaders of the SEIU, such as its newly elected leader, insist that they're doing this to help the working class. The irony is, they and Joe Biden are driving working people to President Trump more than anyone else is. Take away poor people's small remaining pleasures and they will turn on you.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/joe_biden_has_a_big_mac_problem_axios.html