John Edwards Clearly Doesn't Shop for His Kids
Greg Mankiw has an uncharacteristic post up highlighting Michael Barone's assessment of John Edwards's Two Americas rot.
I had to chuckle. If Dems are going to use this message they simply have to choose something credible like healthcare or gas prices to flog, nobody with children is going to buy this coat shinola. The reality is that children's clothing is one of the most remarkable deflationary stories of recent years. Children's clothing is so cheap, laughably cheap. Without consciously looking to find bargains and stretch the budget at the expense of our children, Mrs. Baseball regularly picks up attractive and durable kiddy items for less than $10, very often less than $5. I think my son's entire basic winter wardrobe of five pairs of pants, seven shirts, two sweaters, a down coat, a hat and gloves came to around $100 total. It is only if you want your kid to look like a miniature Paris Hilton or P. Diddy that it becomes expensive. Indeed, 'ole Junior Baseball's toddler-sized Tiki Barber jersey cost about as much as all of his other clothes for winter combined (which demonstrates another key economic insight, oftentimes making something cheaper means we only use more of it to use up the same aggregate level of expenditures - cheaper refrigeration means bigger fridges, better fuel economy means bigger vehicles, etc.).
I remember when George H.W. Bush came in for derision because he couldn't correctly state the price of a gallon of milk. This was semi-forgivable seeing that his kids had long since become adults. The same cannot be said of John Edwards's kids. His excuse, of course, is that he is incredibly weathy and he probably is insensitive to the price of his kids' clothing and/or not involved in the purchase of such. Not that there is anything wrong with that (in fact, I personally aspire to such out-of-touchness as a consequence of great wealth), but, as always, we should be very skeptical of class warrior rhetoric from someone who is so obviously out of touch with the everyday concerns of the rest of us.
I had to chuckle. If Dems are going to use this message they simply have to choose something credible like healthcare or gas prices to flog, nobody with children is going to buy this coat shinola. The reality is that children's clothing is one of the most remarkable deflationary stories of recent years. Children's clothing is so cheap, laughably cheap. Without consciously looking to find bargains and stretch the budget at the expense of our children, Mrs. Baseball regularly picks up attractive and durable kiddy items for less than $10, very often less than $5. I think my son's entire basic winter wardrobe of five pairs of pants, seven shirts, two sweaters, a down coat, a hat and gloves came to around $100 total. It is only if you want your kid to look like a miniature Paris Hilton or P. Diddy that it becomes expensive. Indeed, 'ole Junior Baseball's toddler-sized Tiki Barber jersey cost about as much as all of his other clothes for winter combined (which demonstrates another key economic insight, oftentimes making something cheaper means we only use more of it to use up the same aggregate level of expenditures - cheaper refrigeration means bigger fridges, better fuel economy means bigger vehicles, etc.).
I remember when George H.W. Bush came in for derision because he couldn't correctly state the price of a gallon of milk. This was semi-forgivable seeing that his kids had long since become adults. The same cannot be said of John Edwards's kids. His excuse, of course, is that he is incredibly weathy and he probably is insensitive to the price of his kids' clothing and/or not involved in the purchase of such. Not that there is anything wrong with that (in fact, I personally aspire to such out-of-touchness as a consequence of great wealth), but, as always, we should be very skeptical of class warrior rhetoric from someone who is so obviously out of touch with the everyday concerns of the rest of us.
posted by Donny Baseball at 2:36 PM
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