I was looking at an article in the Daytona Beach Journal which listed the highest weekly grocery bills in America and listed Miami #1 at $326 dollars weekly average. Living in Florida there is considerable sticker shock at the grocery store. I live in a State that produces a third most fruits and vegetables in this country and yet we tend to spend more on these items at the grocery store. Florida is ninth when it comes to beef production. I would think that would lead to lower prices not higher. Florida produces 25 percent of all watermelons grown domestically yet I can buy watermelon cheaper in Wisconsin when I visit than where I live in Florida. When I researched the rise in inflation in Florida the most popular reason seems to be the price of housing. House prices and rent has skyrocketed in Florida.  Why is living so damn expensive in Florida?

My question always comes back to, when people have less money to spend because of the high cost of housing why is their groceries are so high? We are always looking for the deals and very seldom buy any beef because of the high price. I would think that people having less money to spend would mean that there would be more of a supply which should send prices down. You throw in the fact that shipping to the Florida market is less because the stuff is grown and raised here so, that should also keep prices down. That doesn’t seem to be happening. None of the explanations I hear make any sense. Well, maybe one answer does, greed and political corruption, which we have plenty of in Florida. The three things that are killing the people of Florida is the cost of housing, the cost of insurance and the cost of goods and services. I really think that in Florida our own governor has had more to do with that than any of Biden’s policies.

One thing that I do hear is that under Biden or Trump we are in for more inflation. Trump wants higher tariffs and he targets China the most. Under Biden with growing wages and spending power I could very easily see prices rising. Trump proposes a 60 percent tariff on all goods from China and at least a 10 percent tariff from everyone else. Who is going to pay for these tariffs? What will be the repercussions from all of our trading partners that now are facing tariffs on their goods shipped to the United States? Do you think they won’t put tariffs on American goods? People don’t like to be bullied and that is what Trump threatens to do. Walking softly and carrying a big stick worked for Teddy Roosevelt but Trump’s talking loudly and threatening people with that stick will just piss people off. Trump already lost his trade war once to China and I think it will be even more disastrous a second time around. One thing it will do is cost you and me a lot of money. Another thought is that bad economic policies could lead to an actual shooting war. They have in the past.

Just like Trump’s job loss much of the inflation under Biden was really caused by the pandemic. The supply chain issues that Biden inherited were because of the pandemic and the lack of planning during the pandemic. To be fair because this was a worldwide pandemic I really don’t know what could have been done to avert the supply chain issues. When there is a shortage of goods prices are going to go up. Could have it been averted by better planning? I don’t know but nobody should have been surprised by the supply chain issues that happened. I don’t think anyone planned enough or reacted fast enough to the pandemic in general let alone the problems that it caused to goods coming into the country. You can put money into people’s pockets but if the goods are not there to buy then the prices will go up for what is there to be purchased.

The last numbers that I have looked at which are from March of 2024 inflation was a 3.5 percent and wage growth was 4.7 percent. Really they are not bad numbers that I can see. I am sure that there are still many that are not keeping up with inflation just as I am sure that there are many whose wages are far exceeding the inflation rate. I am one of those retired people on a fixed income so I am one of those groups that have not kept up with inflation. My lifestyle is already changing and I am sure it will change more in the future. I would not be surprise if there is a change in demographics in the State of Florida in the not too far future.

Immigration is a very hot topic that Congress has not been able to solve. The Republicans like to put the blame on Biden when the blame should solely rest with Congress whose job is to actually come up with legislation to solve the problem. Yup, go ahead and look at the Constitution. Congress writes the laws and the only way a permanent solution can be found it must be found through legislation and not some executive order. But I am getting side tracked. Trump has said that he plans on deporting 15 million people as quickly as possible if he is reelected. Trump plans to use the military to do this. From the standpoint of the economy I think this would be a disaster. What would happen if you would take 15 million workers away from the workforce? What industries would get hurt the most? I will guarantee you that it would hit the agriculture a whole bunch that would affect every consumer in the nation. Where would the farm workers come from? How about the service industry? Where are those workers going to come from? We already have really low unemployment. What is Trump’s plan on replacing those workers? He loves to say that migrants are taking away “Black jobs”. Do you really think that? Migrants are taking jobs that may have been done by black slaves. Is that what people mean when they say traditional “Black job”, jobs that were performed by Black Slaves? 

What would happen if you would take 15 million consumers away from the market? I would think that would be disastrous for the economy. We need a resolution to the immigration problem and not a wall. The lying has to stop about the border because we as a country have been failing at that border all my life and I am 70 years old. That solution has to come from Congress.  We also need agreements with our neighbors that are allowing the immigrants passage through their countries to get here. We need real legislation that looks out for the needs of the country, and we need solid and constructive diplomacy with our neighbors. This knee jerk reaction to deport them all may hurt the nation more and also just makes us look more racist than we are already are.