Whatever some may claim and why ever they may claim it, the road to prosperity isn’t paved by a single product. It’s paved by people making choices based on what they value most and what they can afford, but really, this shouldn’t be that difficult to explain.
Last week, social media erupted once again over the so-called affordability crisis. This time, a student claimed prices were out of control because a burrito cost $20 and that’s too much money for him to purchase even on occasion. Turning Point USA’s Andrew Kolvet kicked off the frenzy with a post that went viral, claiming “One of our TPUSA college students gave me his take on affordability: ‘A burrito shouldn’t cost $20.’ Yeah, a lot of this is a hangover from Covid and Biden-era inflation, but the lived experience is the same: It just feels like basic things cost too much.” He was responding to conservative blogger and influencer Matt Walsh, who bizarrely linked the war in Iran – which admittedly has caused inflation to tick up slightly – with high prices, as though ending the war would cause a sudden drop. “Grocery prices are insane,” he claimed. “They’re still rising. Addressing this problem should be the number one priority of every elected leader. End the stupid foreign wars and focus on this issue. It’s one of the main reasons socialists are gaining power.” If anyone had previously doubted there’s a “woke right” which seems more aligned with progressives than conservatives at times, these two posts alone should disabuse the notion. Here, we see the language of the left and all their wishful thinking made absolutely plain. Rather than explaining the reality that inflation hits everything and the country is unfortunately coming out of a period of the highest inflation in four decades, Mr. Walsh chose to make an inflammatory statement, simply that “grocery prices are insane” followed by a completely useless one, “They’re still rising” when he knows as well as I do that prices always rise. The only time they fall outside a few commodities is during deflation, which is less desirable than inflation. Mr. Kolvert, if anything, was even worse. Forget the facts – most burritos do not cost anywhere near $20 – he relies entirely on perception, the poor college student’s “lived experience” and how they “feel” rather than what’s actually true and even attempting to educate on the nature of the economy and the choices one must make on a limited budget.
While I’m not trying to discount the importance of perception in politics, both of these gentlemen and others are supposed to be conservatives, which used to mean at least attempting to deliver the facts and the hard truths. In this case, there are multiple truths at play, but all of them are pretty straight forward. Economically, yes, prices are high and getting higher. That’s what inflation is and the harder truth is, it’s already happened. Like a clock that can’t be unwound, we’re not going back to 2019 prices and pretending otherwise is a fantasy. Politically, however, the truth is also that inflation has fallen dramatically over the past 18 months and will likely continue to fall further, slowing the rise and returning us to something resembling normalcy in the future. Both economically and politically, President Donald Trump has instituted policies to at least partially offset these rises, especially for lower and middle income people including no tax on tips or overtime. Also, while gas prices have increased a bit over the past month, they too are falling again and are lower than they were when President Trump took office. Putting this another way, it’s unfortunate we experienced this inflation, but like everything else in life, sometimes shit happens and adults simply need to deal with it rather than whine and complain. Forget that generations before this have dealt with major wars and actual economic depression for the last century, there is no magic price reduction wand that turns back the clock to six years ago. At this point, there is only a political argument to be made and in that regard, it might be fair to say that Republicans have not spent enough time focusing on the issue, but as those who are supposed to be conservative, focused on the issues that matter, it’s not fair to accept the premises of our adversaries, use the language of those adversaries, and completely fail to note the things that have been done to alleviate prices and grow the economy – which according to the latest manufacturing report, GDP report, and more, appear to be showing real signs of working.
At the same time, there’s an even deeper reality than economics and politics, namely that the supposed statement which started the debate, “A burrito shouldn’t cost $20,” is essentially meaningless on its own. Even as everyone who repeats it like some kind of incantation fails to state what it should cost – $5, $10, $15? – there is not one kind of burrito that you must buy at that price or starve at best, not be able to eat something you enjoy at worst. Instead, in the world of burritos and everything else, there are options thanks to the magic of the free market economy these conservatives supposedly support. Those available at the supermarket to heat up at home range from $2 to $4. Those available at Taco Bell, Chipotle, and others range from $6 to $12, and I’m quite confident somewhere out there, there’s a burrito boasting Wagyu beef and lobster that costs upwards of $40 (I couldn’t resist asking Google what was the most expensive burrito in the world, and am admittedly stunned to learn that there is a $500 variety from Cooking ‘n Style in San Francisco that rolls up Japanese A5 Wagyu beef, black truffles, a whole fresh Dungeness crab, lobster, and shrimp). If you love burritos, you can have one for less than a third of the quoted $20 price or shudder to think, make one on your own. Moreover, the same is true about almost everything we buy. Outside of gas, energy, insurance, and a few other necessities, no one in the United States is forced by anything for a fixed price. For example, the average price of a new car is $49,220. On the surface, that sounds very high, but if you look more closely, there is significant variance by segment. The average compact car is $27,443, a subcompact SUV is $31,122, a compact SUVs: $37,757, a midsize SUV, $50,185, an electric vehicle, $54,532, and a full-size pickup, $66,288. In other words, you can get a compact car for barely half the price of the average, but even then, it’s only an average. The Nissan Versa is the lowest priced car on the market, starting at $18,330. The Hyundai Venue starts at $21,550 and the Chevrolet Trax at $21,795. Of course, it’s also worth pointing out that there are cars that cost much, much more, cars that make even my beloved Porsche look cheap (including whatever variety of 911 I get next summer), cars that precious few of us will ever own, but that leads nicely to my next point.
Cost is one thing. If someone is willing to buy something at whatever price, someone will be willing to sell it, up to and including a $500 burrito, but what you value and what you can afford are different and in many ways, more important things. Unless you happen to be extremely rich, you aren’t going to be able to afford everything all the time. Saying so is not encouraging people to live with be “downwardly mobile” as someone described, or insisting they simply need to tighten their belts. It’s a statement of fact about being an adult and the reality that the title comes with responsibilities. Even if you are upwardly mobile and can afford that new Porsche, a $20 burrito for lunch every day might not seem like a lot, but that’s $100 per week, $430 per month, $5,160 per year, a not insignificant sum over time, especially when that money can be spent elsewhere, either invested or on something with much longer term value to you. Unless burritos happen to be your passion like cars happen to be one of mine, common sense should tell you that’s a lot of money to spend on lunch of any kind for the year and would recommend you consider other, less expensive options, saving that money to acquire other things you value. This doesn’t mean you should never have a $20 burrito or that $20 for a burrito doesn’t sound like a lot of money to most people (to be fair, it does to me), but it does mean that the cost for a single product you are not forced to buy and for which other, far less expensive options are available is not the measure of a successful economy or upward mobility. Unless burritos are your thing, what difference does it make what one costs in isolation when you can get something of equivalent value to you at a lower price? If anything, food is a market where you have an almost unlimited number of options to choose from and where, at the risk of repeating myself, unless you are addicted to burritos, everyone should certainly be able to find something they like without breaking the bank.
In that regard, why does no one ever seem to want to focus on the better deals that are available right now? Outside the world of burritos, fast casual chains regularly offer 2-1 meal specials including an appetizer and two entrees for around $25, or an appetizer and one entree for $15. Is that too expensive as well? Are those prices insane? Even when it comes to those said-to-be insanely high grocery prices, why does everyone fail to mention that there are such things as sales and the same way one may choose a less expensive lunch option, one can choose to purchase whatever happens to be marked down? These markdowns regularly include fresh chicken for $1.99 to $2.99, and fresh fruits and vegetables for about the same. Is that insanely expensive as well? Is it downwardly mobile or tightening your belt to buy what’s on sale over what isn’t, as I did on Friday, picking up a rack of ribs for $2.99 a pound and chicken thighs for $1.99, enough to feed four people for two meals? While prices have risen for some products – beef in particular, especially the choicer cuts – claiming prices are “insane” in general is as meaningless as bitching about the price of one burrito at one store. If you’re referring to Wagyu steak at $89 or more per pound, king crab at around the same, or caviar even more, I’d be inclined to agree with you. Barring special occasions, it is insane for the average person to spend that much money and I certainly don’t most of the time, but they don’t have to and I’m not poor or disadvantaged because I choose not to. They can choose something far, far less expensive based on what’s most important to them, as I did this weekend. Whatever the case, there’s the inescapable reality that choices must be made and life has never been easy. There are things all of us give up because of a lack of money and time. Ultimately, everyone needs to decide what is most valuable to them independent of the price and plan your spending around it, rather than incessantly whine about the price of a single product independent of anything and everything.
Perhaps even worse, using a single price point or even the fact that prices have risen in entire categories to justify the rise of socialism, as Mr. Walsh has done by noting, “It’s one of the main reasons socialists are gaining power,” both tacitly acknowledges the socialists have a point and completely abandons the conservative ideological position that socialism, whether the strong version where no one has any bills or does any work they don’t want to advocated by the Democratic Socialists of America or the softer version advocated by tax and spend mainstream Democrats, will only make the situation far, far worse. We’ve already witnessed how the soft version under President Joe Biden unleashed massive inflation in the first place when he implemented spending policies that even left-leaning economists described as reckless beyond comparison in the modern era. Less studied and talked about is how forced investments in electric vehicles accelerated inflation for the automobile market overall, as car manufacturers were required to spend billions of dollars on models that lost money, then offset those losses by increasing the prices on regular models. Almost completely ignored has been the increased restrictions on fossil fuels, which drove up prices for oil, energy, and everything else. While we haven’t witnessed the DSA version in the United States yet, there isn’t a country in the world that has tried it and seen more choices at lower price points than the free market. Invariably, the range of products declines and the costs go up as government bureaucrats decide what should be sold and at what price. If you doubt this, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan for government run grocery stores in New York City should give you a sense. While he’s promising prices 30% below retail, he’s doing so by forcing the operator on both the costs and the products on the shelves. The recently released RFP to find an operator outright declared the selection would be “limited” to what they define as a “Core Basket” of goods while also requiring the stores to carry kosher, halal, vegan, dairy-free and diabetic options.
In other words, you will get what they see fit to give you, the stores will be forced to sell what they see fit at what price they see fit, and if you think $20 for a burrito is bad today, at least you can choose to buy it or not buy it based on what you personally value. In a socialist system, that choice is made by the government and you buy what they tell you at the price they tell you, or you will not be able to get it at all. While they always promise the price will be lower, it never works that way in the real world because choice and competition breeds options, options result in a range of prices, in the case of a burrito, from around $6 to $500, in the case of a car from under $20,000 to millions, and the customer is the one empowered to make the decision for themselves. In principle, Mr. Walsh and others are supposed to know this – and advocate for it as influencers – but increasingly they are just as bad – whiny, nonsensical, and addicted to feelings rather than reality – as the left. Whatever they may claim and why ever they may claim it, the road to prosperity isn’t paved by a single product. It’s paved by people making choices based on what they value most and what they can afford, but really, this shouldn’t be that difficult to explain.
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 