Price of Eggs

As we enter this new unchartered phase of American democracy, everyone has a theory about how Donald Trump won a stunning comeback victory. The one thing we keep hearing from voters and pollsters, it was the economy. Specifically, the price of groceries. Inflation had come down. Unemployment is at an historic low and wages are up. But it wasn’t being reflected in the supermarket aisle. People were fed up. Trump had the answer they wanted to hear, across the board tariffs and mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.

Many economist claim these two things will not solve the problems, but make them worse. Paul Krugman is an economist who writes a column for the New York Times. Many will say he’s a liberal and doesn’t know what he’s talking about. But many economists agree with him. Krugman points out that the non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates Trump’s tax plans will add $8 trillion dollars to the debt over the next ten years. I know people trying to make ends meet don’t care about the government’s debt. They care about their own debt. Trump claims he will pay for tax cuts with money from tariffs and big cuts in government spending. Remember, higher tariffs on imported goods are paid by the American companies who are importing the goods. That higher cost will be passed on to you and me in the form of higher, not lower, prices.

If Trump goes ahead with his mass deportation plan of illegal immigrants, Krugman says things will get even worse. Immigrants are a big part of the agricultural work force about half are undocumented. Undocumented immigrants make up thirty to fifty percent of meat packing workers, and about twenty per cent of the construction work force. If all those workers are removed from the work force, someone has to replace them. Two problems, American workers are going to demand higher pay and the country’s unemployment rate is very low. People aren’t desperate from low paying manual labor jobs. All this is going to raise prices on everything from groceries to housing.

Trump made a lot of promises. Some crazier than others with little detail on how he’s going to accomplish many of these things. All politicians make promises. The majority believed him and now the pressure will be on him to deliver. The tariff and deportation plan were at the center of his cause. Millions have believed everything he’s said since he ran for president the first time. They believe he lost the last time because he said he lost because the election was rigged. We know how that turned out.

Of course, there were no claims of a rigged election this time because Trump won. It was a perfect election. Voters have spoken. This is what the majority wants. They will now get their man in the position to change the country for the better. They will be keeping an eye on the price of eggs. We know how fragile they can be.