Todays outrage: The price of burritos | Hour 3

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to dpeakclendarshow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. All righty, so let's talk about the price of burritos. Apparently this is the uh yeah, this is the topic of the day. We are to have a national conversation about the price of burritos. But not really, because apparently some people are under the impression that burritos cost twenty dollars. I'm not aware of are. I've never seen a burrito for twenty dollars. Okay, So I don't know why that number was used, but it was used, and that is part of the conversation. But the larger conversation is about affordability. But actually the larger, larger conversation is about demoralization. Okay, so let me let me lay this out for you in case you are not terminally online as I am. It all started when Matt Walsh, the Daily Wire commentator, does the Matt Walsh Show, and he's the guy who did what is a woman? And then he did am I racist? Right? He also famously endorsed the concept of no enemies to the right. Remember that that was that was a national conversation that we had to have probably about a year ago when you know, Tucker Carlson started going crazy and Candice Owens, well she already was crazy. But like when when we started to see this rise of the platforming of guys like Nick Fuentes and and that sort of thing, the woke right, right, remember all of this, and we like I brought this to your attention, like within the it's been within the last year. So Matt Walsh was in the camp of, you know, I'm not going to punch right, and so I'm not going to criticize these people for platforming people or anything like that. And he took a lot of grief for that. He got a lot of pushback. His coworker at The Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro, is of a different. Position. I tend to align with Ben Shapiro's position on that, which is that if you have an organization, you have to put up boundaries around that organization about what you will accept and what you will not like. For example, if you are let's say. You're an organization and you are dedicated to, I don't know, maybe getting women to play sports, you create a women's sports league, right, you want to let's just pick one. Let's say basketball. Okay, do they have a women's basketball league? They should probably do one if they don't have one already, so they So you create the women's basketball league, and then you have guardrails there which say this is basketball and it's for women. Right, They're pretty obvious. It's in the name. It's the whole organizing philosophy around why the organization exists. And so if you start to. Allow men to come in, then that's not women's basketball any longer. And if you allow some other sport to be played, then that's not basketball, right, So you have to have the guardrails, much like a country has borders. Right. So Shapiro's point on the whole no punching to the right, and his disagreement with that concept was that if you just allow anybody to call themselves on the right, even when they are espousing concepts and ideas that are not conservative or not anywhere remotely on the right, then you don't allow them into your organization. You don't allow them a seat at the table, because they are not part of your organization's mission, right, Okay, So that was where I first started, like having my concerns about Matt Walsh. When it comes to politics. I think he's very good on a lot of the social issues. I mean, the two movies that I just mentioned. Did more to destroy the rise of the transgenderism mania that had gripped the country right, helped to break the that fever. So like we are all indebted to Matt Walsh, and I want that very clear. Like I'm not here to bash Matt Walsh, but some of the stuff that he talks about when it comes to politics and economics, I disagree with him on and I am free to disagree with him on that stuff. Okay, and you are as well. You're also free to agree with them. So this is what he said, This is what started this national conversation. He said, grocery prices are insane, Okay, which I will come back to this. Grocery prices are insane. They're still rising. Addressing this problem should be the number one priority of every elected leader. End the stupid foreign wars and focus on this issue. It's one of the main reasons socialists are gaining power. Okay, so there's a couple of different things being brought up here, right. Number one is he citing grocery prices, which is that is the language that guys like Zaramamdanni have been using, right, the whole affordability thing. And by the way, affordability is not a concept or campaign slogan that is somehow tethered only to the Democrats. Republicans can make this argument as well, and they are and they should right because Democrat policies and spending are what has driven the prices to where they are. Looking at grocery prices today and expecting them to be lower than they were five years ago, however, is not realistic. Why because of the spending, the government spending, all of the spending during COVID, all of the money that would ount the door under both Republicans and Democrats, that created the inflation. We had nine percent in one year, nine percent inflation under Joe Biden over a two years spread, it was like over twelve percent Inflation went through the roof during Biden's term because of the policies he and his fellow Democrats did and the spending. Right, that does not come back down unless you have some sort of economic catastrophe and deflation occurs. The only way that you get groceries to be affordable is to increase salaries, right, so people have more money, so a twenty dollars burrito does not represent a large portion of their paycheck. That's like, that is the offset to inflation. I don't like the inflation. I'm not arguing in favor of this or the policies. It's the whole system is terrible. But this idea that you're going to bring down grocery prices to a level that is lower, like at an actual dollar cost level, you're going to somehow lower that to a point that's lower than the price was back in twenty twenty, that's not economic reality. It's not going to happen. Because of inflation, everything costs more. But as I said, the offset is increase in salaries, and the increase in salaries lags whenever inflation goes up, right, then you see there's a lag effect where the salaries then go up as well, because people can't afford stuff, right, and they will move to different jobs that pay more money and that sort of thing. And everything costs more, Yes, but everything gets inflated, including salaries. But it's a lagging factor. So that's first, he says. Addressing the problem should be the number one priority of every elected leader. Okay, I don't have a problem with that fine and the stupid foreign wars, and focus on this issue. That is a false binary. It is. It's a false binary. You don't government can do more than one thing at a time. It's very large, in case you had noticed, our government is very large, and they can do different things. I'm not sure what he's advocating, except ending the war or whatever. He says. It's plural, so I'm not sure what other wars there are, but and all the wars and somehow another that that is going to reduce grocery prices. And I'm not sure. He doesn't make any kind of economic argument to connect these two. I suspect he might have something to do with the price of oil, but he doesn't lay that out. You know, stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. They help us process the meaning of life and our stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video ard in nineteen ninety seven in Minhill, North Carolina. It was the first company to provide this valuable service, converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos and albums. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them off in person or mail them. They'll be ready in a week or two. Memorial videos for your loved ones, videos for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays, or just your family stories, all told through images. That's what your photos and videos are. They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you, and they will tell others to come who you are, visit creative video dot com. So Matt Walsh goes onto the Twitter machine says grocery prices are insane, and somebody then responds to him. A guy, some random says named Lance McDonald says what do you think the solution is? Is what exactly should they focus on? Because he says, and the stupid foreign wars and focus on this issue. It's one of the main reasons socialists are gaining power. I'm not so sure about that. I think it has to do with the anti Americanism, anti Israel, anti West, and a not a small a not small portion of bigotry. But what should they focus on, so guy asks him, and so Walsh responds, they should focus on the fact that grocery prices have gone up more than thirty percent this decade and they are still rising. What are you confused about? Which part of my post did you not understand? Okay? So that's so the guy asked what is the solution? What should they focus on? And Walsh says they should focus on grocery prices like okay, but what are the solutions that you think need to be taken? Like you just saying, you know, the rent is too damn high. You're just that's all you're doing. And that's just complaining, right, I mean, you're not actually offering any solutions. And you know me, I am all about solutions. Although Thomas Soule says there are no solutions, only trade offs. Anyway, Andrew Colvett from Turning Point USA, he responds to this post and he says, one of our TPUSA college students gave me his take on affordability. He and then he puts a quote in there that says a burrito shouldn't cost twenty dollars. And this is why we are having a national debate, a national conversation over the outrage of the day about twenty dollars burritos because some guy, some zoomer at Turning Point said a burrito shouldn't cost twenty bucks, and so of course people are pointing out they don't cost twenty dollars. I'm not aware of a single burrito anywhere, like maybe in some of the high end restaurants or something, the fruit Fruit places, I think is what they're technically called, you know, where you get like this jumbo sized plate the size of the dinner table, and then there's like a speck of food, like. An eaty weensy tiny little piece of burrito or something. I don't know, maybe that would be twenty dollars, but I'm look, I do not eat a lot of the burritos, Okay, I just I just I don't eat a lot of the carbs, and so I don't eat the burritos, but I do eat the bowls. So I'll have like a you know, an a bowl like if I go to Chipotle and or where's the other one. It's a q Doba, I think, right, don't they do this sort of same deal? And I'll get it without the tortilla, right, I like tortillas. Fine, I'm not bashing tortillas. I'm just saying that, you know, I watch my cards, so I get the bowl that does not cost twenty dollars. So COVID then says a lot of this is a hangover from COVID and Biden era inflation, but the lived experience is the same. It just feels like basic things cost too much. Okay, So now you are expanding out this conversation. It's not just the burritos, it's everything, right, And this is affordability. This is why I said, you know, the conversation starts off as burritos, then goes to affordability. But is that really what's occurring? Is that really what this conversation is about. And I think there is a clue that it's not really about affordability. Here A clue is in original post by Matt Walsh, where he says, end the stupid foreign wars and focus on this issue. I think he's just saying affordability end the war because he wants to end the war. He's opposed to the Iran war, and that's what he's So he's using affordability as a way to argue against the thing that he was opposed to because he was a post I think he's been opposed to it from the beginning, and that's his prerogative. He's free to be opposed to it. That's fine. I disagree, but that's his position. So you're using affordability and grocery prices, which have all sorts of factors, you know, on the input side and on the economic monetary policy side that impact this thing that you are citing, and there and then then that's just groceries. You want to talk about housinglegal immigration. You could probably make a better case that that has more impact on all of these different pricing problems and the cost problems right through healthcare, government services, like a. Lot of this stuff. All right, So that's what launched the national conversation, all right. So Joel Berry, who works at the Babylon b. He responds to Matt Walsh's initial comments about grocery prices are insane, and he says, last night, my wife made homemade burritos for our family of eight, and it cost less than twenty dollars total for everyone. I'm beginning to think the affordability crisis is really an I don't know how to cook crisis, which I have talked about this in the past. We examined the habits of the different generations, and younger people tend to spend more money on delivery services Uber, eads and that sort of stuff, right, and like, don't get me wrong, I mean I recognize the convenience. I don't do it because I don't trust people. So I'm like, like a pizza delivery is like that's the line anything, And even then I don't I just go pick it up because now there everybody's like outsourcing all of the deliveries to Uber and lyft and whatever, and so now you have to pay the delivery charges and so I'm not going to do it. I'll just drive over and pick it up myself. So Christy and I just don't do that. But where gen xers, millennials and gen z they do get the delivery. So maybe that's how you end up with a twenty dollars burrito, right, So what Joel Berry was expressing there is like this idea that the twenty dollars brine is not a it's not a real example, and there is a perception maybe that you're spending twenty dollars for a burrito because you're actually dropping seven dollars or something additional for the delivery. Maybe that's what's happening. Whatever, But the point here is that you can make better decisions buying different foods and save money. I lived on ramen noodles and tuna fish for years. I had like recipes on how to do different things with ramen. I mean I didn't write them down or anything, but if I did, I could probably do a cookbook. Actually no, because I only had about four different recipes. And basically it was just like add mayo to this one, add ketchup to that one, you know, and it tastes like something else. If you add the ketchup to the it was called I'm not trying to be offensive, but it was called oriental flavor. If you add ketchup to that it tastes like spaghetti, but like so, there are ways to eat on the cheap, is what Barry is saying. So, then Matt Walsh says, one of the problems with this claim is that virtually no Republican was making the affordability crisis's fake arguments during the Biden years. It's extremely transparent to everyone that the unwillingness to acknowledge these obvious economic challenges is at least partially politically motivated. Well, oh, yes, of course, of course that's true. When Democrats were in charge and their policies were driving up the cost of everything with inflation, then of course Republicans pounced, seized, I dare say on that issue why because they wanted to win control. Now Republicans are in charge and Democrats are making this argument, right, that's why all of a sudden everybody cared about the price of eggs, which, by the way, you notice what the price of eggs is recently, It's down to like two and a half bucks again, so it did come down. The price of beef, in case you're interested, is the national average as of May twenty twenty six eight dollars and sixty five cents a pound, So you can get a pound of ground beef or a pound of beef. Rather, you can get ground beef for cheaper, he says. The second problem, Walsh says, no matter how thrifty your family might be, and no matter how cheap your homemade burritos, these significant rise in grocery prices over the past six years. So notice what he's doing there. He's throwing in the Biden hyper inflation that we saw. He's throwing that into the window. Okay, so past six years. The fact that the rise is continuing, not stopping, and certainly not reversing, is just a mathematical reality. It can't be denied it as fact. Yes, inflation, as the name indicates, goes up, and it has slowed under Trump. Right now, if you wanted to do something about that almost immediately, one of the things you might be able to do is like take some of the tariffs away, because I'm pretty sure, like I opposed all of the tariffs the way Trump was going about doing it, but I said, like, if there's some larger leverage that he's working here for different deals or whatever, like, I was willing to give him space to operate on some of the stuff. But it does not appear that the tariffs have driven prices down. Okay, doesn't appear to be the case. Grocery prices have gone up by thirty percent or more of this decade. I'm happy for you if your family isn't significantly impacted by this problem. But it is real, and it is a problem, and conservatives better come up with an answer that isn't just learn how to make cheap burritos, or we will get absolutely crushed. That's another reality. Okay. So part of this might also be somebody making a prediction that chances are their betting will be true, which is that Republicans will lose in the midterms. And then Matt Walsh can come and say it's because of affordability and the grocery prices, and I tried to tell you, you didn't listen to me. I was right, Okay. So that's part of the issue going on here too, probably, And then comes the pushback and the accusations of demoralization when you tell people that everything is so expensive that you can't afford anything and you can't go out to eat, right because burritos are twenty dollars, Right when you're dancing that kind of argument. That is a form of demoralization. You're telling people that they don't have the control, that it's all of these external forces that are oppressing you. And this is why people have started calling Matt Walsh part of the quote woke right because he's adopting that lens that oppressor appress. You got some people they're doing this stuff to you. They're oppressing you some way, and you can't get ahead because of them. Now. I don't know if Walsh's he's not explicitly saying that, but he does give that vibe. But there are other reasons, by the way why like, for example, beef is expensive. Apparently there's a cattle shortage. Did you know that there is? I didn't either, but there is details in moments. Got an email from Anne Marie who says affordability hits the retirees hardest as our income does not increase. Dka says, yes, many items have remained expensive because food manufacturers did not experience a big decline in consumer purchases after the price is elevated several years ago. There isn't a law on this kind of profit, nor should there be. It's about supply and demand. People gripe about prices, but there's still buying the goods, so there's no incentive for food manufacturers to lower prices. From the text line bunch people, Gary says, there are a couple of things outside of inflation driving food cost We had a killing off of cow herds and then hookworm in cattle in Mexico. Similar issues in chicken. But one thing the government and GOP should be doing is trying to get away from these corporate megafood companies controlling meat and farming. We need to empower local ranchers and farmers, change or end regulations that choke out local meat markets. And kids complaining about twenty dollars burritos are having Chipotle door dashed to them. Yeah, I just saw somebody pulled up the pricing on like the biggest burrito that you can get at Chipotle, fully loaded with like everything is like seventeen dollars and has like twenty one hundred calories, which is more calories than you're supposed to be eating in the day. So a couple of these things can be true at the same time. Now, regarding the cow herds, due to drought, US cattle herd. The US cattle herd is at its lowest level in over seventy years. The drought has reduced forage areas in key ranching regions, which forced ranchers to liquidate cattle. Ranchers are also facing higher operating costs for feed, labor, fuel, and equipment, while some live cattle imports have also been constrained due to concerns over diseases affecting live stock. This is true. The cattle imports from Mexico were suspended due to an outbreak of the New World screw worm, which posed a threat to domestic livestock. They are fixing to open that back up again, Open up the imports again, all right. Kirk says that I got two eight count bags of burritos from Aldi that I keep in my freight liner's freezer for about six dollars. John from Indian Land says affordability is just another euphemism for free stuff. Yeah. Well, I mean, look, we are still in the COVID era. We are the ramifications of what governments did, Politicians, bureaucrats, health experts like the We are still feeling the ramifications of all of those decisions to this day. And that includes locking down the. All you know, all of the businesses, It includes the spending that occurred, the inflationary pressures. All of that stuff still obtains. It doesn't go away. The inflation jumps up nine percent under Biden in one year, that doesn't that doesn't deflate again unless we have some sort of economic calamity. But to Gary's point, yes, like more abbatois or slaughter houses to service small farms, that would be like doing more of those, making those easier to build and run, That would be beneficial. Well for the beef and the pork and the chickens. Seven oh four number says they have no frame of reference. These kids are saying they can't afford anything, but they've never held a job or paid for anything themselves. Another on Central Avenue, the burritos are around twelve to thirteen dollars or so plus expect to pay over a dollar in tax on it. They used to go for like five or six just a few years ago. Carol says, where are these people shopping? My groceries actually have gone down recently. Yeah, I do the shopping mainly in our household, and I can say that during COVID our grocery bills were up around like to three hundred dollars, and now they're back down to like two hundred. That's just my personal experience. When we were in Norway twenty thirteen, a big Mac was twenty five dollars. Oh my gosh, that's from Spencer. That's crazy. I don't know if I'd spend that kind of money on a hamburger. That's just crazy. Twenty five dollars and that was fifteen years ago. Good Lord, and Dollar Trees got burritos for a buck twenty five. Thank you, Anna, that's helpful. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecallanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.