What a life it is in Biden’s America. Instead of sitting at home, people collect their unemployment and enjoy their stimulus checks. Yes, it’s grand, and yes, I spent my stimulus check too. And if Biden sends me another one, I’ll probably use it to write my first book, but I digress. However, trust me folks, the time is coming to pay the piper, and a lot of people aren’t going to like it.
How do we continue to ignore all of the businesses that are literally begging with their “help wanted!” signs? How do we continue to ignore the possibility of more coronavirus-related lockdowns? How do we EVEN fathom the prospect of the national debt with all of those zeros?
Either way, it can’t go on. The reason for that is because there are laws to economics, and if you continue to poke the beast that is the economy, yes, it will come back to bite you.
Newsflash, folks: the economic beast is now showing its teeth. It’s getting ready, but you’d better pay close attention to the letters written on those teeth. I’ll give you a hint: the letters spell out I-N-F-L-A-T-I-O-N. As the price increases, of course, the earning power is going to drop.
It’s happening right now at this very moment, and really it should come as no surprise given the behavior from the current administration.
Technically, average hourly earnings increased from $29.35 in June 2020 to $30.40 as of last month, as noted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
However, at the same time the real average hourly earnings only increased by a margin of 1.7 percent over the same time period, due largely in part to the Consumer Price Index – which measures the price of consumer items -which rose by 5.4 percent. So no, in the long run we are not gaining ground; we are actually losing ground.
When you add in the fact that there was a 1.7 percent real earnings drop, those that are making $50,000 per year are actually losing $850 per year due to inflation!
The problem is that it is starting to look worse. Even though the average hourly earnings have risen by at least 0.3 percent from May to June of 2021. Moreover, the Consumer Price Index also rose by 0.9 percent.
The bureau also began to mix wages and inflation in its formula for the economic numbers, and they came up with even more sobering statistics: apparently, average hourly earnings between mid-May and mid-June dropped by a margin of 0.5 percent, and if you multiply that rate by a whole year, then the buying power of your paycheck is going to evaporate at a rate of 6 percent.
Of course, you are probably already well aware that inflation is a problem if you have been a recent visitor to a gas pump, tried to rent a car, or went to a lumber yard. Chances are, at the last location, you probably heard one of your friends call the employees there “lumber barons”, but I digress.
Now, I want you to fully analyze those metaphorical tentacles of inflation because each and every one of them can be traced back to some type of government action.
First of all, car and truck rental prices are up as much as 36 percent from this time last year. Part of the reason for this is because these vehicle operations were stalled by the lockdowns. Because the vehicles didn’t sell in the lockdowns, the auto manufacturers also canceled their orders of the computer chips that now run practically every vehicle that is on the road today.
Meanwhile, retail gasoline prices are through the roof! They have gone up as much as 96 cents since July 2020, and this is due to the increased demand from the higher prices in crude oil costs, according to AAA.
Of course, the liberals are going to continue to argue that this argument is not valid, but it’s hard to escape the images of the higher gas prices after the Biden Administration took office, because what did they do? Immediately after he took the oath of office, Joe Biden canceled the Keystone Pipeline, and that totally ruined any chance of energy independence that had been started by the Trump Administration.
Luckily, it looks like there is some relief in the form of lumber prices, which are now falling at a rate of 68 percent since late May. Back then, the going rate was about triple the pre-pandemic building price, as noted by Fortune magazine.
It looks like the current inflation has two different sources, according to noted economist Brian Jackson, a professor at Oklahoma’s Northeastern State University.
“The government is borrowing, selling treasury certificates to the Federal Reserve, and the Federal Reserve is having to pump dollars into the economy, of course, so by the quantity theory of money, inflation is going to follow,” Jackson said.
“Also, I think, really, all these stimulus checks that are going out — at least [to] the non-skilled labor force — is disincentivizing work, and so I hear stories all over the place of employers having a hard time finding people to work, so as wage inflation from that creeps into the supply chains at various points, you’re going to see product prices continue to increase.”
Jackson also noted that the hardest hit individuals during these inflationary times are those who are on fixed incomes.
However, last month Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell had something to say about that. Basically, his prediction was that inflation was going to be short-lived, according to the Associated Press.
However, it doesn’t matter just what the rate of inflation is, nor does it mean very much the length of time that it would continue to rise. The bottom line is that most of these difficulties can be traced back to these faulty government policies, especially these lockdowns.
On the other hand, there are some who would argue that this initial action to flatten the curve was needed simply because of the tremendous amount of unknowns. However, evidence continues to grow of the immense survival rate of most people sick with COVID, it definitely appears strongly evident that suspending economic activity is highly irresponsible.
However, even now, we have talk of imposing further restrictions! Are you kidding me? Folks, this is a time that requires leadership, and many individuals are simply not finding it in the Biden Administration.
A version of this article originally appeared in the Western Journal.
