It’s Labor Day weekend, and I hope my fellow Americans enjoy laboring, because we’re all going to be doing a lot more of it in order to afford food. And gas. And pretty much everything.
The long weekend was ushered in by news that diesel fuel prices hit a record high in the United States on Sept. 4, averaging $5.85 per gallon
. That’s what people who use diesel to fuel freight trucks and farm equipment call “a lot.”The new price-tag-at-the-pump record will invariably translate to higher consumer costs, since the folks who grow and ship food and other goods will be spending more on both the growing and the shipping. (The math on this isn’t difficult.)
Enjoy Labor Day. Life is about to get even more expensive under Trump.
Jaime Brito, executive director of refining and oil products for Dow Jones Energy, told NPR: “Diesel
is the blood of the economy. It's the engine in which you move goods, food, agricultural goods from the farm to the supermarket.”
Guess we'd all better get to laboring!
On top of rising costs at the grocery store and … well … pretty much all stores, the cost of gas heading into Labor Day weekend remained astronomical.
AAA reported Sept. 3: "Labor Day weekend travelers are facing the highest gas prices ever for this time of year. The national average is $4.14, up 4 cents from last week. … The national average has never been above $4 per gallon on Labor Day.”
I suppose congratulations are in order? Those congratulations can go directly to President Donald Trump, the man who promised to lower food prices and halt inflation on day one of his presidency, then proceeded to do neither of those things, while also starting a war with Iran that’s directly responsible for our record-breaking fuel costs.
Trump and the GOP are directly to blame for high gas prices
Generally speaking, it’s hard to blame presidents for what we pay at the pump, as they don’t exert great control over oil markets. But in Trump’s case, there’s a direct line from his reckless and unnecessary decision to go to war with Iran and the world’s oil supply getting kneecapped by Iran shutting down the Strait of Hormuz.
So raise a beer (if you can afford one) or a burger (which you definitely can’t afford) to President Trump and the Republican Party.
Wage stagnation is another fun reality this Labor Day weekend
Then give some thought to wages, those little things large corporations that make tons of money throw at us every week or so.
According to a New York Times report: “Wage growth continued to cool in August, with average hourly earnings rising 3.1 percent compared to a year ago. That was the slowest pace since the depths of the pandemic and lower than the inflation rate.”
I would cry in my soup if soup wasn’t so expensive.
When it comes to what we’re being paid, the words “slowest pace since the depths of the pandemic” are not great to hear. In fact, another way to describe inflation outpacing wages during a time of rising consumer prices is: We’re working harder while moving closer to broke.
Life under Trump is great if you're rich, not so hot if you're a worker
It’s a heck of a way to spend a holiday weekend meant to celebrate American workers. Our knucklehead president conned a large swath of voters into believing he’d lower prices, started a war that’s making all things more expensive and has pampered his business-is-booming billionaire friends while the rest of us mopes watch our wages stagnate.
So here we are, waving our fists at gas pumps on a holiday weekend in the waning weeks of summer.
Perhaps if we all pool our resources we can afford some hot dogs and chips. Though if I had to bet, most of us will be spending Labor Day too mad to be hungry.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Happy Labor Day. Everything's about to cost more! | Opinion
