15¢ A SLICE November 15, 2024

Inflation, a prime issue for Donald Trump voters, took me down memory lane.

A (small) 14-inch pizza (eight slices) from my neighborhood go-to, Village Pizzeria, runs $21-$31. When I was a kid in 1950s New York, a slice of cheese pizza cost 15¢ 

Hamburgers in my Queens neighborhood also cost 15¢. Then Hamburger Train—a model train brought you your hamburger—offered the best burger around but with a premium price: 25¢

Fifteen cents also bought a subway token, discontinued in 2003, to ride throughout the city except Staten Island, a ferry trip. A quarter got you a line of bowling (one game). Also admittance to the Saturday matinee at the Drake Theater on Woodhaven Boulevard: cartoons, serials and a feature.

A nickel bought a pack of five baseball cards, which included a sheet of pink chewing gum. First-class stamps in 1960: 4¢.

Seventy years later, prices are astronomically higher, and higher now than during Donald Trump’s administration. Many Americans say their wages or salaries have stagnated. If they’ve gone up, they haven’t kept pace with the rising cost of living. They voted to go back to Trump’s “golden era.”

That pain must be recognized. Recent positive economic data hasn’t raised all boats. Gross domestic product and productivity gains, along with falling unemployment, are good news for many people but don’t affect all Americans. If the price of eggs has dropped recently but remains higher than during Trump’s first administration, people are unhappy.

Sadly, they may not have kept up with recent history.

I wish the Harris campaign had talked more (even some) about Covid’s gigantically negative influence on the economy. Inflation didn’t just happen. Given the health risks the virus posed, millions of people lost their jobs. The supply chain went to hell. Remember all those cargo ships and oil tankers sitting outside American ports? Many people hoarded toilet paper and whatever else they could get their hands on. Some store shelves went bare. While the economy tanked, prices shot up. 

Worse, Washington and Sacramento sent money to spur the economy to all citizens, including the wealthy. What a foolish misuse of taxpayer dollars. 

To people looking to return to the “good times” of Trump, who inherited a revived economy from Barak Obama, I say: I also hope grocery prices go down along with interest rates (the Federal Reserve has been helping the latter along). I’d also love to see more good-paying jobs that don’t require college.

But making campaign promises is far easier than keeping them. 

Deporting millions of illegal aliens might seem righteous but could strip farms, meat-processing plants and construction projects of workers. That might produce higher wages for a small pool of American workers willing to take those backbreaking, injury-producing jobs. However, food stocks might go down, prices up.

Tariffs? American importers pay these, not China, Mexico and other countries. Prices for both imported and domestic goods, which rely on imported parts, may well rise.

Am I predicting doom and gloom? In reality, presidents exercise limited sway over the economy. Sound policymaking helps but only somewhat. 

Here’s hoping the White House and Congress opt for pragmatism over political recklessness. The 15¢ slice is a fond memory. Significantly lowering current prices may prove to be a cruel illusion. 

Be careful what you wish for.

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