An Economic Policy Driven by Vibe, Paid for by You
A compelling article from The Atlantic reframes recent price hikes as a deliberate "anti-woke tax" imposed on all Americans. A must-read.
I'm always fascinated by the gap between rhetoric and reality—what people say is happening versus what the data and systems actually show. This recent piece from The Atlantic really caught my eye because it digs into the economics of the "anti-woke" culture war. As someone who likes to follow the numbers, I've been watching inflation and pricing data closely, and this article does a compelling job of connecting the dots.
It argues that many of the price hikes we're all feeling—on groceries, energy, housing—aren't just random market forces. Instead, they're the direct result of policies, like tariffs and anti-immigration efforts, that are designed more to win a culture war than to create a sound economy. It reframes these policies as an "anti-woke tax" that everyone has to pay, whether they agree with the ideology or not. It’s a sharp analysis that cuts through the "manly jobs" talk to look at the actual financial consequences, and it really resonated with my inner tinkerer who just wants to understand how the machine actually works.
A couple of passages that stood out:
Americans seem to like the culture-war fixation on manliness in the abstract much more than they like the financial reality. Some 80 percent of Americans, according to one YouGov poll, think “America would be better off if more Americans works [sic] in manufacturing than they do today,” but only 25 percent agree with the statement “I would be better off if I worked in a factory instead of my current field of work.”
And this, which really sums up the core thesis:
There was nothing wrong with the idea of an anti-woke economy in which people could, if they chose to, shell out for Conservative Dad’s Ultra Right “100% woke-free” beer. People are allowed to vote with their wallets. The problem is that Trump-era conservatives don’t seem to believe in that kind of freedom. Instead, they are imposing their anti-woke tax on all of America, raising the cost of living for everyone.
Adam Serwer
