The Great Burrito Discourse Isn’t Actually About Burritos
How the American Dream has been dashed and DoorDashed.
1. Burrito Discourse
Last week Republican influencers spent a few days fighting over the price of burritos. What happened was this:
A TPUSA guy tweeted about how a burrito now costs $20 and this sucks.
And then Republicans lost their minds. The reactions broke down into three reasonably distinct groups.
America First types agreed that burritos cost too much and blamed either Joe Biden and/or neocons.
Pro-Trump True ConservativesTM mocked the entitled snowflakes by explaining that when they were kids they walked to school four miles in the snow, uphill both ways.
The Anti-Anti-Trumpers tried to square the circle by insisting that $20 burritos don’t actually exist, but to the extent they might exist, the problem is the societal acceptance of DoorDash delivery fees as part of the natural cost of dining.
I am here to tell you that the Great Burrito Discourse isn’t actually about burritos.
It’s about housing.
The short version is this:
Thirty years ago young adults didn’t mind eating ramen every night because they were saving up to buy a house and they knew that once they had skin in the real estate game they were on an escalator to wealth.
Buying a first home today is increasingly out of reach for young adults. Real estate has become insanely expensive not just in absolute terms but relative to the historical standards of the last three generations of Americans.
As the American economy froze young people out of the traditional route to wealth accumulation it offered, in return, an elevated consumer experience. Sure, you can’t afford to buy a house. But we can offer you cheap iPhones, 65-inch flatscreen TVs, and tasty burritos.
Young people resent $20 burritos because it means even this crappy deal is slipping out of reach and they are praying that The System doesn’t alter it further.
Let’s go deep on this one.
What do we mean when we say that housing is “expensive”? Two things, and we’ll take them in turn.
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