Americans Just Took a Huge Pay Cut!

Did you take a pay cut and not even know it? Photo courtesy Business2Community.com.

 

Thanks to the policies and bungles of the Joe Biden Administration, Americans just took a huge pay cut! Yes, a pay cut! Everywhere you go the prices are climbing steadily, people who haven’t paid attention before are noticing, and feeling the effects of their money not buying what it should. Some of these skyrocketing prices are the result of inflation, while others are part of supply line disruption and interference. Either way you look at it, whether a reduction in your paycheck or a reduction in what your paycheck will purchase—it’s a pay cut!

Most people don’t work at home, even though many more are working there now than ever before. That due to manipulation of a supposed “health crisis” which is probably more accurately a bioweapon targeted at Americans that affects the middle and lower income folks most. Plus, how better to give camouflage to inflation coming from the Fed and big banks? And, there are still multitudes who are receiving government checks for sitting at home on their… sofa.

In early January 2021, prices were mostly stable, especially gas prices. America was pumping our own gas, we had domestic production and gas flowing out of Canada in a new pipeline. That, thanks to President Trump and his understanding of what makes an economy grow and go.

Fortunately for Americans, Trump had been a an excellent student at Wharton business school, worked for his father’s company growing up and was a businessman himself for the past 50 years—not a lifelong career politician living off the largess of government funded by the citizens of this country. Those career politician policies are the same ole thing that has stifled productivity and liberty in this country for a long, long time on both sides of the aisle.

Last January, gas prices in my home town of Columbia, S.C. were around $1.79/gallon. Through January 2022 the same gallon of gas will cost you somewhere around $3.00+, and that’s down from last month when prices were upwards of $3.49/gallon. Any way you look at it, that’s over $1.00/gallon minimum increase in the cost of gas, closer to double in some cases!

Question arises, how much gas do you use each week? I’ve personally asked many people I know who are in business and friends who are employed. Answers vary as to how many gallons someone uses per week, but many are using 100 gallons each week.

Think about that. If someone is using 100 gallons of gas each week their fuel cost has risen dramatically since last January when the Biden Administration took control. For simplicity sake, think that gasoline rose an even dollar. If the car or truck in your household is consuming 100 gallons each week, that’s $100 more you’re spending—if gas only went up $1.00/gallon.

That’s $100 more you’re paying for gas each week. Let’s say your vehicles consume 100 gallons each week of the year. That’s $100 dollars more you are paying per week over the 52 weeks in a year. Whoa, that’s $5200 MORE you and I are paying since the Joe Biden Administration took control!

So, just in gasoline alone you just took a $5,200 pay cut over last year! Perhaps your paycheck didn’t show a cut, but your purchasing power at the pump was decreased by $1.00/gallon over 52 weeks! Yes, I know it didn’t all happen at once, but we are over a dollar a gallon more at the pump also, and it was that way for most of 2021.

How about food you purchase at the grocery store? Have the prices gone up any? In the words of Roy Rogers’ old cowboy sidekick “Gabby” Hayes, “Yer, dern tootin!”

Food prices are through the roof! I shop in a variety of stores for a variety of items. I grew up in the grocery business and I worked in the grocery industry for many years. I learned a long time ago you had better check prices on every item in the store whether you are buying it that day or not. Prices fluctuate and change on a normal basis anyway due to cost of goods, distribution costs—which includes fuel, wages, etc., but for the most part they stay close to the same. But, not in 2021. Last year prices rose tremendously!

Just in my personal survey of the grocery marketplace with my own purchases and eyeballing everything else, I am seeing prices through last year rising anywhere from 10% to 50%, and more, on many shelf items. As the TV commercial goes, “but wait, there’s more!”

Some of those lower priced items were over double priced from earlier in the season, while higher priced items like steak and beef were 35%-40% higher! I like a good steak from time to time, like many folk, unfortunately, I saw the price of a Rib Eye steak go from $7.99/lb early last year to $12.99/lb mid last year to $19.99/lb late last year! I just priced out hamburger at $3.99/lb at one of my favorite big box warehouse stores! It’s been higher than that at various other local and chain grocery stores. Wow! When does it stop?

Yes, I know that prices on gas and food tend to increase around holidays, but they more than increased a little bit! So, what does the new year bring with increased prices? The forecast looks like higher prices may be on the horizon due to continued supply line disruption. We’ll all be watching to see what happens and hope you get back your full paycheck.

 

Michael Reed is Editor and Publisher of The Standard newspaper, print and online, and TheStandardSC YouTube channel where many video reports may be found. Please share freely and donate to The Standard on this page to assure the continued availability of news that is ignored too often by the dominant media.

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