November 14, 2023
Inflation is down unless you buy food to eat
By Silvio Canto, Jr.
We keep hearing that inflation is down, lower than a year ago or in the right direction or some other explanation like that. It's about what you'd hear from a White House managing a bad message.
And then mom goes to the grocery store and comes home shaking her head and looking at the bill.
This is when inflation goes from being a news story to a family conversation.
This is from Steve Cortes:
In fact, the latest survey results from the battleground swing states of America finds that food insecurity is a foremost worry of American citizens. My organization, the League of American Workers, just commissioned a sweeping poll of the battleground states of Arizona, Wisconsin, Georgia, and North Carolina.
Our survey canvassed 800 registered voters from these states that almost surely will decide the 2024 presidential election, and perhaps control of Congress as well. The poll revealed an overall dismal mood in America, with a staggering 77% of voters stating that America is on the “wrong track” vs. only 17% conveying optimism.
The main driver of the pessimism is clearly economic anxiety, and only 39% of these battleground state voters gave Biden positive marks on that issue. Even more damning for Biden and the Democrats, among battleground state independents, only 9% say they “strongly approve” of Biden on the economy vs. a whopping 48% who “strongly disapprove.”
Within the topic of inflation, food prices worries placed far above other concerns for a supermajority of swing state voters. In fact, 60% of these citizens named food costs as either their number one or number two top concern. For context, the next biggest concern was income erosion at 39%.
Let's file that in the bad poll file.
As we chatted with friends over lunch a couple of weeks ago, buying food is something that you can't avoid. You can skip going out to eat or even making a car payment if things get desperate. You cannot skip food and that 's why inflation is foremost in the minds of voters.
