Along with the anxiety and excitement, the first day of school also brings a list of school supplies for each class. It is school tradition that is becoming an increasingly pricey venture for American families.
Huntington National Bank’s Annual Backpack Index shows that school supply prices have surpassed the average inflation at 1.8%, with its costs rising rapidly by 7.3%. “It is one of the reasons why I shop mostly online,” said advance placement (AP) Psychology teacher, Chad Patten. Teachers, like Patten, spend their own money to purchase supplies and class rewards for their own class, even after using a $255 worth lead money visa card given by the Florida Teachers Classroom Supply Assistance Program. According to a National School Supply and Equipment Association (NSSEA) survey, teachers spent an average of $347 of their own money during the 2013/2014 school year after using their lead money.
Importing from China was meant to provide us with ‘The China Price’, or low cost goods made in China. Shouldn’t we question for the reason why prices are still raising through the roof? Depending on how you view it, producing commodities from this county is either a terrible mistake or a huge success. The reason to why many capitalist favor Chinese imports is because of low wage workers and cheap production. This makes goods 40% to 50% cheaper in comparisons to producing back here at home, meaning, believe it or not, supplies are cheaper than they could have been. These investors look past the fact that the number of jobs in America are plummeting because of Chinese manufacturing. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that more than 2.7 million American jobs were lost due to the record breaking high deficit of $315 billion associated with China.
There is no doubt that the United States benefits greatly from China’s innovative advances, low costs and expansion, but there is also no doubt that the US needs to deal with the economic challenges. This is as much as a problem for us as it is for China since they depend on us for jobs.
Parents manage to afford school materials for their high school teenagers by looking for sales and discounts, but can the government afford to pay back ‘The China Price’?