Cost of living

“First and foremost, I think Zohran and I are two good-looking guys in our thirties.” James Fishback, the controversial Republican running for governor of Florida, tells me that it is “not politically wise” to acknowledge his similarities with New York’s new mayor – but he can’t help himself. Both he and Zohran Mamdani are from privileged families, have taken on their own parties, have harnessed youth activism, are big on social media and have courted the same voters on the same issue: the rising cost of living. And, like 34-year-old Mamdani, at this stage of his campaign, Fishback, 31, needs a boost in the polls. Currently he is polling between 5 and 23 percent, while congressman Byron Donalds leads the Republican primary pack at 37 to 47 percent.

Notionally, Americans have never been better off. The ructions in tech stocks over the past few weeks cannot detract from the fact that the US economy has been outgunning other developed economies all century. The overall graph of real disposable income for Americans continues to trend upward, almost as if the sharp dip during the pandemic had not happened. That is certainly not true everywhere: in many countries, Covid has been followed by stagnation in GDP and wages. Yet, for all the wealth generated, many Americans simply do not feel that they are living in a thriving country. On the things that really matter, such as basic living costs, citizens at the lower end of the income scale feel their wages are increasingly inadequate. They are not imagining it.

Earlier this week, Politico ran a piece called “Inflation’s biting. Roe’s fraying. Dems are still trying to connect with voters.” The crux of the article is that while congressional Democrats have plans to counter rising inflation, they are having a hard time selling their command of the situation to voters. It’s no wonder. The star of the piece is Representative Katie Porter. Porter, a member of her party’s progressive wing, is portrayed as more aware of the impacts of inflation than her colleagues. The story describes an instance in which Porter had to put a package of bacon back on the shelf because, to her surprise, it was up to $9.99 per pound.