Ctwo {dollars}, or 95 euros, for an evening on the campsite, on the finish of October, out of season? Kathleen, the receptionist on the Watchman Campground in Springdale, Utah, is the primary to be embarrassed, however these are the costs of America in 2024. Sure, the very well-known Zion pure vacationer website is close by, but it surely already was a number of years in the past, with out these extravagant costs.
The French may legitimately marvel why voters didn’t credit score the Democrats with a very good financial report. Seen from France, Americans have by no means been so wealthy. In March 2024, the median wage within the United States exceeded $61,000, or 54,700 euros. It looks like rather a lot, however going to the money register dispels the phantasm.
ALSO READ Election of Trump: “Democrats must relearn how to speak to the working classes” The common American shouldn’t be rolling in gold. Even if Joe Biden in all probability had nothing to do with it, his arrival on the White House coincided with a surge in inflation, which peaked at 8% in 2022, earlier than falling to 4.1% in 2023. Total over the length of his mandate, greater than 20%.
100 {dollars} per evening on the campsite, 15 {dollars} for a steak…
Without even mentioning well being prices, on a regular basis errands are dizzying. The buying basket at Walmart for a easy picnic (chips, tomatoes, sandwiches, drinks, cookies) is near the value of a lunch in a French brasserie: 20 {dollars} per individual, or 18.50 euros. At a comfort retailer in Kanab, Utah, a 6-ounce frozen steak prices $16. This is the hourly wage supplied on a big poster positioned within the window of the Subway fast-food restaurant within the small neighboring city of Glendale.
One hour of labor for a steak, in a farming area… We are underneath the buying energy of a minimal wage in France (9.40 euros), with out Social Security, household allowances, APL, tariffs social, and so forth. At this wage stage, nobody is shocked that the American restaurant business employs an awesome proportion of Latino immigrants. Same in lodges.
Even junk meals has grow to be a luxurious. In West Yellowstone, a small village in Montana on the sting of the well-known nationwide park, it prices 130 {dollars}, or 120 euros, for 3 hamburgers and fries and as many beers! There was a time when espresso was bought at a nominal value, and even supplied to those that crammed up, at American fuel stations. It now exceeds 3 {dollars}.
Gasoline and housing, indignant topics
And what about gasoline? For a European, a liter of unleaded stays very reasonably priced. Count 3.40 {dollars} per gallon within the countryside, or 0.90 euros per liter. The Americans solely see that it has doubled in a number of years. However, they continue to be very connected to their monumental pick-ups, which regularly devour 15 l/100 km, they usually drive rather a lot. In Utah or Wyoming, touring 200 kilometers spherical journey for a live performance or a easy dinner with associates is nothing uncommon.
The most painful stays, actual property. At 16 individuals per sq. kilometer, Utah is underpopulated. Housing, historically, was not very costly there. As a results of the Covid pandemic, costs have doubled in simply two years. In Salt Lake City, the capital, houses rose from a median of $300,000 in early 2020 to greater than $600,000 in 2022, in accordance with knowledge compiled by Florida Atlantic University.
This is the place politics merges with economics. With two exceptions (the Salt Lake City area and Grand County, bordering Democratic Colorado), Utah has all the time been a Republican stronghold, which voted 60% for Donald Trump in 2024. The latter would have received the state’s main voters in each conceivable state of affairs, however there’s nonetheless 1% progress this 12 months, in comparison with 2020!
ALSO READ The election of Trump or the revenge of deep America, deserted by Obama and the Democrats
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Kangaroo of the day
Answer
This is probably as a result of native TV channels and newspapers, broadly adopted within the United States, repeat time and again that native actual property costs are boosted by the arrival of neo-rural residents fleeing the democratic metropolises of California. A supreme provocation, they often arrive aboard electrical Teslas freed from pump costs. Follow my gaze, we all know the place inflation comes from…
Ironically, whereas all economists agree that the customs limitations promised by Donald Trump shall be inflationary, he’ll take cost of an financial system the place inflation is falling. In October 2024, it was at 2.1% over one 12 months, its lowest stage since February 2021. Too late for the Democrats.
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