What is the ideal price for a burrito?
This seemingly innocent question has ignited a fiery debate across social media circles, particularly resonating with right-leaning influencers, media personalities, and even engaging Vice President JD Vance in a heated discussion about affordability. With the election season in full swing, this issue has become a controversial talking point.
The conversation began when Matt Walsh, a well-known podcaster, raised concerns about “insane” grocery prices. He urged Republicans to prioritize domestic issues over “stupid foreign wars,” suggesting that rising costs are a primary reason socialists are gaining traction.
Echoing Walsh’s sentiment, Andrew Kolvet, a representative of Turning Point USA, chimed in. He referenced a college student associated with his organization who remarked that “a burrito shouldn’t cost $20,” reflecting the widespread frustration over skyrocketing food prices.
Joel Berry, a podcast producer, presented a contrasting perspective by sharing a personal anecdote. He noted that his wife managed to make burritos for their family of eight at a total cost of under $20, highlighting the potential for economical homemade alternatives.
“I’m beginning to think the affordability crisis is really an ‘I don’t know how to cook’ crisis,” he added — setting off a nasty old-school flame war.
More From Karol Markowicz
More contentious than the war with Iran — and very possibly just a proxy fight for it — burritogate is dividing Republicans at a time when leftists are veering into full-bore communism as the solution for rising costs.
And no one seems to be interested in the fact that, as David Harsanyi laid out in these pages, food prices have actually gone down as part of the average American family’s take-home income, from around 42% in 1901 to 9.7% today.
Or in reflecting on the core economic truth that “foreign wars” have nothing to do with the inflation that spiked during Joe Biden’s presidency and continues to plague us — or with leftist policies, like an ever-increasing minimum wage, that’s made fast food so much more expensive.
Bad ideas have consequences, and a costlier burrito is one of them.
It doesn’t even seem to matter that no one can pinpoint the existence of this rage-inducing $20 burrito.
Many noted that a fully loaded steak burrito at Chipotle with, yes, guacamole, comes in at under $17, even in Manhattan — and that you can get three Cheesy Double Beef Burritos at Taco Bell for around $15.
Or, as others pointed out, that cash-strapped young people can buy an eight-pack of burritos at any supermarket for just a few bucks.
Nobody wanted to hear it.
Following all the back-and-forth reminded me of the old canard that wives only want their husbands to listen when they complain, not to actually suggest solutions.
Berry, of course, was correct to say that cooking at home is far more economical than eating out — and that the sooner young people accept this reality and learn to cook for themselves, the better.
But it’s also true that many Americans, young ones in particular, really are in bad financial straits, and they’re right to feel that an occasional restaurant burrito shouldn’t be an extravagance.
I vividly remember, when I was a financially struggling 20-something, my bitter response at being encouraged to cook at home by older and wiser friends.
It felt unfair: Everybody else could go out to eat, why couldn’t I?
My perception of being left out, the feeling that I deserved to have what my peers had, was acute — and that sense is only heightened today, when everyone on social media seems to be out there swigging champagne on yachts while I’m stuck browning ground beef for my homemade Tex-Mex meal.
When everything feels tight, when you have no savings and little splurges like a burrito make a real dent in your disposable income, it doesn’t help to be told that Americans are in fact richer than ever, or that frequent dining out has never been the norm, let alone that needlessly pricey DoorDash delivery.
Yet it’s possible to care very much about how rising costs are hitting the younger generation — while still pointing out that frugality has long been the norm for those just starting out in life, and is worth encouraging.
And as Berry wrote in a later tweet, every solution that would truly impact affordability — from cutting entitlements to decrease the federal debt, to ditching the minimum wage — is portrayed as “cruel.”
Even his advice to cook at home was called “out of touch.”
Our bickering has us falling into the left’s trap.
Republicans must get serious about countering the leftists’ siren-song promises of free stuff to a generation that’s genuinely hurting.
And they must take the time to explain how the previous round of free stuff is what got us into this expensive mess in the first place.
Tone-policing those trying to offer solutions isn’t the way.
There are policy solutions that can address the high cost of food, but none of them come from an economic system that has failed every previous time it’s been tried.
Socialism won’t actually give us free burritos.
Karol Markowicz is the host of the “Karol Markowicz Show” and “Normally” podcasts.
