In his Letter to the Editor in the Aug. 10-16 issue, Professor Sander Zulauf’s 2022 quote of U.S. households being poorer by $433 per month is old news.
The same Moody’s Analytics reports that in 2023, U.S. households are spending $709 per month more than they spent two years ago, which is $8,508 per year due to inflation. Yes, it is due to inflation, not skeptical “due to inflation.”
This “success” of the current administration is only part of damage. Another part is the growing national debt.
The current debt is $32.66 trillion, which is $97,700 per each U.S. person. In July 2020, the debt was $26.51 trillion. The debt is growing approximately $517.5 per month for each U.S. person. This is not some abstract figure. This money plus interest will be paid mostly by future inflation.
The burden is disproportionately borne by low-income Americans, whose already stretched paychecks are heavily affected by price fluctuations. Dollar inflation causes U.S. labor to be cheaper internationally, lowering unemployment but making poor people poorer and very rich people richer.
Some commodities mostly bought by poor people saw a lot higher inflation. Gasoline prices grew from $2.30 to $3.80 (65 percent). This is the result of administration’s fight with gasoline, and gas increases cause just about everything to cost more. Bread prices grew about the same percentage. Other supermarket prices and rents grew a lot more than official average inflation.
It is the Democratic Party that is pushing for big spending whenever it has a majority in Congress. The professor’s listing of debt by presidents is misleading and misses the fact that as per the Constitution, it is the Congress that has the power of the purse.
He criticizes lowering the 70 percent income tax. It was even 90 percent before that. This was very close to the ideal economy recommended by Karl Marx. All money to the hands of government and the government will invest and create jobs.
I suspect Mr. Zulauf was not a history professor.
Wieslaw Mokrzecki
Sparta