Kamala Harris wants to implement federal price controls on groceries and other items Americans spend their hard-earned money on.
She wants to give first-time homebuyers $25,000 to afford a starter home and give families earning $50,000 or less a $6,000 income tax credit for each minor child.
She wants to punish Big Pharma and other corporations that she and her Marxist minions unilaterally decide are price-gouging.
It all sounds lovely to the low-information Democrat devotees who attend Kamala’s modest rallies. They jump up and cheer each time Kamala mentions another federal government giveaway.
Wow, free money. Who wouldn’t sell their vote for that?
Of course, nobody asks who is paying for this bounty or how all this new spending will impact the $35 trillion national debt.
Who cares? It’s free money.
Sorry. Nothing is free. Somebody always has to pay.
As Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion says: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Good old Isaac could just as well have been talking about economics as his renowned three laws of motion.
Let’s look at one egregious example of what I am talking about that is occurring as I write here in the Marxist State of California.
Socialist Governor Gavin Newsom and his subservient army of Marxist Democrats who rule California decided a while back that it would be a good idea to raise the minimum wage for fast-food restaurant employees in the Golden State from $16 an hour to $20.
According to a survey by the Employment Policies Institute, the results have been disastrous for both fast-food employees and customers.
The survey revealed that 98 percent of fast-food restaurants raised prices and cut hours and staff in response to the state’s new minimum wage, which took effect on April 1.
The Institute said more of the same is expected in the next year when 93 percent of fast-food operators surveyed said they would have to lay off employees, cut hours, and raise prices on items like hamburgers, tacos, hot dogs, and pizza.
For example, my favorite In-N-Out Burger double-double hamburger meal is now $10.95, up from $7.95 two years ago.
The enormously popular In-N-Out Burger chain pays its workers $22 per hour—two dollars above the new California minimum wage—to attract new employees and retain current ones. So far, foot traffic at this particular In-N-Out Burger restaurant seems steady. Of course, that may be because In-N-Out hamburgers are damned good, and folks will bite the bullet for a great burger.
“Unfortunately for many of California limited-service restaurants, 93 percent of owners think that raising menu prices will adversely affect customer foot traffic,” according to the institute.
Do ya think?
Eighty-nine percent of operators said they are less likely to expand in California with the higher minimum wage, and 74 percent said the likelihood that they would close their restaurants had increased.
So, there it is again. Newton’s law. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Raise the minimum wage, and thousands of fast-food workers lose their jobs or have their hours cut.
Raise the minimum wage, and fast-food restaurants lose customers because, as the survey revealed, people who once visited fast-food eateries because they were inexpensive now view such a trip as a luxury.
Timing is everything in the world of business. Raising the minimum wage when most California and American families struggled with 21 percent inflation was an idea only economic illiterates would try.
It’s a surefire recipe for recession.
Most Americans believe that the U.S. is already in a recession—and they have good reason to think that.
Prominent employers everywhere have been conducting mass layoffs, the cost-of-living crisis is overwhelming millions of working families, and the number of business bankruptcies has escalated by more than 40 % in the past 12 months.
Given the economic agony we are witnessing everywhere, it shouldn’t be surprising that 59% of Americans, according to a recent survey, believe “that the U.S. is currently in a recession.”
The survey by Affirm, the “buy now, pay later” lender, found that most respondents believe a recession started about 15 months ago, in March 2023, and could last until July 2025.
Respondents cited higher costs and difficulty making ends meet as their reasons for that conclusion. Affirm added that the average U.S. household has $6,000 in credit card debt, which only rises as families struggle to live paycheck to paycheck.
Many borrowers are falling behind on their monthly credit card payments. During the last year, roughly 9.1% of credit card balances transitioned into delinquency, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported for the second quarter of 2024. And more middle-income households anticipate struggling with debt payments in the coming months.
Another Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco study found that Middle and lower-income Americans are running low on disposable cash and are on track to have less than before the COVID pandemic disrupted the economy.
But discretionary spending isn’t the only thing in decline. Many Americans can’t afford the basics. In fact, according to a Clever Real Estate survey, 39% of Americans have skipped meals to make their rent or mortgage payments. That figure rose to 44% among millennials, and among baby boomers, it was 20%.
What will it take for the media to report those startling facts and call out the Biden-Harris regime for its failed economic policies?
Don’t hold your breath. The legacy media are too busy trying to defend Kamala’s Marxist plan to abandon our free-market economy and replace it with a Soviet-style managed economy complete with government-mandated price controls to offer any meaningful criticism.
After all, it’s the mainstream media’s job to drag “Komrad” Kamala across the finish line in November.
Who cares if doing so will probably spell the end of our free-market economic system and, with it, the entire American republic?
Our legacy media certainly don’t.
–30–
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