Before leftists label two parents as an element of white privilege, I'll summarize a story from my hometown of Pittsburgh, PA. Most of the town's black families lived in an area called the Hill District. That part of town was home to two-parent families, with the men typically employed in the steel mills or ancillary businesses. Their kids went to, and stayed in, school. Statistics show that in the decade immediately following WW2, the divorce rate for Pittsburgh's blacks was LOWER than that for whites. Proportionally, there were more two-parent black households than white. And the Hill was home to many small, successful family businesses and a vibrant, tight-knit culture where even palefaces such as the members of my family, felt welcome.
All this came acropper in the mid-1950s, when Pittsburgh's business and banking elite, led by Richard King Mellon and David Lawrence (the town's mayor and also a PA governor), decided to "redevelop" the lower Hill. Block after block was levelled and cleared bare. Black families were promised equivalent housing in nearby areas. That housing was never built. Black families were scattered piecemeal into several other parts of the city, many into Cabrini Green-style stacked cement block housing.
The old neighborhood became the new home of the Civic Arena and its parking lots, the venue for light opera productions (and eventually the Pittsburgh Penguins' "Igloo"). But the developers and their tophattted patrons did well on the deal, as much of the initial work was funded with taxpayer dollars. I note that Pittsburgh's mayor (then as well as now) and most of the city council members were/are Democrats.
The other reason that the MSN article leaves out explaining higher grocery prices is the massive corporate consolidation that has happened as a result of the government shutdown of business during the pandemic. It killed small business. And so today there is less competition and these larger consolidated corporations can charge more.
Democrats love big business and hate small business because it is easer for big government to collude with fewer big businesses. Small business is like herding cats to control.
The MSN article on grocery inflation ignores a primary culprit of diesel and other energy inflation. It also misses the current lagging hit to supply chain impacts that have started with the shipping danger in the Red Sea and will expand as the US continues to pull out of its post Bretton Woods police of the seas.
Biden will be lucky if the lag of these impacts runs though the general election period.
If you're the kind of person who appreciates diverse political perspectives, The Liberal Patriot Substack is great ( https://www.liberalpatriot.com/ ).
I don't agree with everything they say, but the mark of integrity is admitting when you were wrong and not being a fanboi for your own side. And they do that, as needed.
I subscribe, but they don't allow comments and I don't trust nor like Substacks that don't allow comments. I find the comments add value to the actual content.
Governor Abbot is the 21st century’s Davey Crockett.
Crockett came from Kentucky to be free, only to die for my freedom at the Alamo. This hero helped to beat back the Mexican hordes. Yes, I meant to say hordes.
Brandon comes along and INVITES the world’s trash to storm our borders, and he won’t deport you unless you commit a US felony, but DUI is perfectly ok. The hordes woke up, just like the locusts, and headed for the US border.
Greg Abbot beat back an invasion of 70,000 per day, down to a trickle of 200. He is a hero. He never had to fire a shot.
And Governor’s Kemp and DeSantis are making a move, adding more National Guard, daring Brandon to fire that first shot.
It is true that when Texas joined the US it was via a Treaty. That treaty offered no money to Texas, and no standing army, but did grant Texas the right to succeed or to break up into 5 states. It always freaks the lefties out contemplating 8 more Ted Cruz's. It has never been tested in the courts, and some may believe that when the Yanks won Texas gave up the right to succeed. AND… as a Texan there is zero talk about either path…BUT… it's out there for the lefties to think hard about.
Nationalizing our National Guard will never happen, but it still pisses me off that Dems would suggest it.
Last year Texas accounted for 10% of all the firearms purchased in the country. Just sayin…
"Inflation has fallen. Why are groceries still so expensive?"
Because prices are only going up more slowly - not actually decreasing. Politicians and journalists (both of which obviously failed math) will tell us that a 5% budget increase - rather than a 10% increase - is a 5% 'cut' when its still a 5% increase.
Actual deflation is a rare economic phenomenon. It's one of those things that would instantly cause a populist revolt--yeah, prices might go down at the grocery store to match your smaller paycheck, but your mortgage, car loan, credit card balances, etc. would stay the same.
If you owe money and your paycheck can keep up with it, inflation--even big-time inflation--is "good". The Silent Generation who bought cheap houses in the 1960s with cheap-by-historical-standards mortgages made out like bandits in the 70s and 80s.
But in general, inflation is a ratchet on prices--prices don't fall when inflation falls.
The Layoffs happening at UPS are entirely the fault of the unions. While some market considerations like Amazon switching to their own delivery service, are a factor. It is clear the overweight costs of the new union deal have strangled the company financially and forced them to take action.
This very much reminds me a factory in Wisconsin. The company was facing sales shortfalls so they began to cut wages. The union workers went on strike to demand a new deal. The company couldn't match the deal as it just didn't have the money so they closed. 12 months after the factory closed there was still union workers picketing outside an empty and decaying building shell.
Unions hardly ever think of the consequences of their immediate actions and any benefits reaped from their existence is usually only felt by the Union bosses who are akin to the mob.
Now on to the two parent advantage.
I would say that needs a footnote. Two "stable" parents advantage. If you lived in a house where the parents are constantly at each others throats arguing and even some physical or verbal abuse, that is NOT a good situation to remain married just to give a child a two parent household.
I grew up in a divorced parent being raised by my Dad. Perfectly fine if done properly. I was only 2 at the time they split so I have no recollection of it but according to my dad they constantly fought and they both determined they didn't want their children growing up in a hostile environment.
I also can't say splitting is completely a good situation either. I have an acquaintance right now that has been divorced for 8 years and they are constantly fighting over the kids. Multiple trips to court. Kids used as pawns against the other parent, kids manipulated to like one over the other. Certainly not a good situation either.
I think the definition needs to be changed as "Two parent" advantage meaning two parents mutually involved in the childs life. Whether that's being married or not.
Educators have long realized that, generally speaking, kids from two-parent homes, or at least those who come from divorce situations where both parents are supportive and engaged with their children, have the best chance at succeeding in school and staying out of trouble. Those schools that are described as failing schools usually have a majority of students who have a single parent with no engagement or support of the other parent. Often that single parent works more than one job, thus leaving the children largely unsupervised. Those parents are usually not involved in their children’s education. Of course those kids are mostly not successful in school.
I was in the Air National Guard with a guy who had survived Khobar Towers. Notably, the Clinton Administration scapegoated the commander on the scene BG Terryl J. Schwalier. This caused the resignation of the Chief of Staff USAF General Fogleman in protest. No Clinton Admin officials took any responsibility.
Before leftists label two parents as an element of white privilege, I'll summarize a story from my hometown of Pittsburgh, PA. Most of the town's black families lived in an area called the Hill District. That part of town was home to two-parent families, with the men typically employed in the steel mills or ancillary businesses. Their kids went to, and stayed in, school. Statistics show that in the decade immediately following WW2, the divorce rate for Pittsburgh's blacks was LOWER than that for whites. Proportionally, there were more two-parent black households than white. And the Hill was home to many small, successful family businesses and a vibrant, tight-knit culture where even palefaces such as the members of my family, felt welcome.
All this came acropper in the mid-1950s, when Pittsburgh's business and banking elite, led by Richard King Mellon and David Lawrence (the town's mayor and also a PA governor), decided to "redevelop" the lower Hill. Block after block was levelled and cleared bare. Black families were promised equivalent housing in nearby areas. That housing was never built. Black families were scattered piecemeal into several other parts of the city, many into Cabrini Green-style stacked cement block housing.
The old neighborhood became the new home of the Civic Arena and its parking lots, the venue for light opera productions (and eventually the Pittsburgh Penguins' "Igloo"). But the developers and their tophattted patrons did well on the deal, as much of the initial work was funded with taxpayer dollars. I note that Pittsburgh's mayor (then as well as now) and most of the city council members were/are Democrats.
The other reason that the MSN article leaves out explaining higher grocery prices is the massive corporate consolidation that has happened as a result of the government shutdown of business during the pandemic. It killed small business. And so today there is less competition and these larger consolidated corporations can charge more.
Democrats love big business and hate small business because it is easer for big government to collude with fewer big businesses. Small business is like herding cats to control.
The MSN article on grocery inflation ignores a primary culprit of diesel and other energy inflation. It also misses the current lagging hit to supply chain impacts that have started with the shipping danger in the Red Sea and will expand as the US continues to pull out of its post Bretton Woods police of the seas.
Biden will be lucky if the lag of these impacts runs though the general election period.
If you're the kind of person who appreciates diverse political perspectives, The Liberal Patriot Substack is great ( https://www.liberalpatriot.com/ ).
I don't agree with everything they say, but the mark of integrity is admitting when you were wrong and not being a fanboi for your own side. And they do that, as needed.
I subscribe, but they don't allow comments and I don't trust nor like Substacks that don't allow comments. I find the comments add value to the actual content.
Governor Abbot is the 21st century’s Davey Crockett.
Crockett came from Kentucky to be free, only to die for my freedom at the Alamo. This hero helped to beat back the Mexican hordes. Yes, I meant to say hordes.
Brandon comes along and INVITES the world’s trash to storm our borders, and he won’t deport you unless you commit a US felony, but DUI is perfectly ok. The hordes woke up, just like the locusts, and headed for the US border.
Greg Abbot beat back an invasion of 70,000 per day, down to a trickle of 200. He is a hero. He never had to fire a shot.
And Governor’s Kemp and DeSantis are making a move, adding more National Guard, daring Brandon to fire that first shot.
It is true that when Texas joined the US it was via a Treaty. That treaty offered no money to Texas, and no standing army, but did grant Texas the right to succeed or to break up into 5 states. It always freaks the lefties out contemplating 8 more Ted Cruz's. It has never been tested in the courts, and some may believe that when the Yanks won Texas gave up the right to succeed. AND… as a Texan there is zero talk about either path…BUT… it's out there for the lefties to think hard about.
Nationalizing our National Guard will never happen, but it still pisses me off that Dems would suggest it.
Last year Texas accounted for 10% of all the firearms purchased in the country. Just sayin…
Cheers
"Inflation has fallen. Why are groceries still so expensive?"
Because prices are only going up more slowly - not actually decreasing. Politicians and journalists (both of which obviously failed math) will tell us that a 5% budget increase - rather than a 10% increase - is a 5% 'cut' when its still a 5% increase.
It ain't rocket science. And most of us rocket scientists understand that our grocery bill is still 70% to 100% higher than 2020.
Actual deflation is a rare economic phenomenon. It's one of those things that would instantly cause a populist revolt--yeah, prices might go down at the grocery store to match your smaller paycheck, but your mortgage, car loan, credit card balances, etc. would stay the same.
If you owe money and your paycheck can keep up with it, inflation--even big-time inflation--is "good". The Silent Generation who bought cheap houses in the 1960s with cheap-by-historical-standards mortgages made out like bandits in the 70s and 80s.
But in general, inflation is a ratchet on prices--prices don't fall when inflation falls.
On the economic news and the UPS layoffs.
The Layoffs happening at UPS are entirely the fault of the unions. While some market considerations like Amazon switching to their own delivery service, are a factor. It is clear the overweight costs of the new union deal have strangled the company financially and forced them to take action.
This very much reminds me a factory in Wisconsin. The company was facing sales shortfalls so they began to cut wages. The union workers went on strike to demand a new deal. The company couldn't match the deal as it just didn't have the money so they closed. 12 months after the factory closed there was still union workers picketing outside an empty and decaying building shell.
Unions hardly ever think of the consequences of their immediate actions and any benefits reaped from their existence is usually only felt by the Union bosses who are akin to the mob.
Now on to the two parent advantage.
I would say that needs a footnote. Two "stable" parents advantage. If you lived in a house where the parents are constantly at each others throats arguing and even some physical or verbal abuse, that is NOT a good situation to remain married just to give a child a two parent household.
I grew up in a divorced parent being raised by my Dad. Perfectly fine if done properly. I was only 2 at the time they split so I have no recollection of it but according to my dad they constantly fought and they both determined they didn't want their children growing up in a hostile environment.
I also can't say splitting is completely a good situation either. I have an acquaintance right now that has been divorced for 8 years and they are constantly fighting over the kids. Multiple trips to court. Kids used as pawns against the other parent, kids manipulated to like one over the other. Certainly not a good situation either.
I think the definition needs to be changed as "Two parent" advantage meaning two parents mutually involved in the childs life. Whether that's being married or not.
Educators have long realized that, generally speaking, kids from two-parent homes, or at least those who come from divorce situations where both parents are supportive and engaged with their children, have the best chance at succeeding in school and staying out of trouble. Those schools that are described as failing schools usually have a majority of students who have a single parent with no engagement or support of the other parent. Often that single parent works more than one job, thus leaving the children largely unsupervised. Those parents are usually not involved in their children’s education. Of course those kids are mostly not successful in school.
I was in the Air National Guard with a guy who had survived Khobar Towers. Notably, the Clinton Administration scapegoated the commander on the scene BG Terryl J. Schwalier. This caused the resignation of the Chief of Staff USAF General Fogleman in protest. No Clinton Admin officials took any responsibility.
Well, OF COURSE Clinton's pals had clean hands. They always do.
Podesta is back as the Climate Czar! Good thing he has Clinton-level integrity!