You deserve a break today...

When a Big Mac costs double what it did five years ago, is it any wonder lots of folks think the economy sucks?

Now I don’t often eat Big Macs. That’s not being snooty. I like to cook, so I do most of my eating in my own kitchen, and when I’m looking for a bite away from home I like to wash it down with a cold, tap beer, so the fast rising prices of fast food pretty much passed me by.

I have a hunch that’s true for a goodly number of folks, particularly those of a politically progressive bent. Fast food joints don’t much cater to the tastes of dedicated vegan loacavores and folks with fatter wallets tend to favor more upscale options.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Of course, stock prices have been going up as well…something folks who own stock, especially folks who own lots of stock, have been taking notice of. The rising price of MacDonalds stock has a much different emotional impact than the rising price of a MacDonalds burger.

Diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks.

Now this is just my supposition, but I think it suppositions well…the folks who look at what costs what, how that changes, and pontificate on what those changes mean keep a closer eye on the stock market than on what it costs to buy a carful of kids Happy Meals and a chocolate cone. But even if unemployment is down and the market’s up, if it takes the better part of a Benjamin getting past the drive-through, Mom’s gonna be wondering who it is to blame.

And the price of eggs and the note from the credit card company telling her the interest rate on her overloaded Visa has just gone up isn’t boosting her mood one little bit.

And when the old curmudgeon across the street chimes in about the old Mac-ads boasting “change back from your dollar,” Make America Great Again starts to make sense.

Best to keep that in mind.

Election Day’s comin’.