The $4 Fry and the Fall of the American Middle Class

A Medium Fry Is Now $4.19. And That’s Just the Canary. A medium order of fries at McDonald’s now costs $4.19. Just five years ago, it was $1.79. That’s a 134% increase. But let’s be clear: this isn’t about fries. This is about a crumbling middle class that can’t afford what used to be fast food—America’s cheapest calories. The humble potato, once the staple of the poor, is now part of a corporate luxury product served in a paper carton. The very concept of a “value meal” has become a punchline, and the real joke is on the American worker. The Lie of “Low Inflation” While Washington’s bureaucrats and central bank apologists massage numbers to keep the official Consumer Price…