Scott Bessent's Insult to the American Dream: The "Cheap Goods Aren't Important" Take

Scott Bessent's Insult to the American Dream: The "Cheap Goods Aren't Important" Take

I can't believe this isn't getting more attention. While the stock market was crashing thanks to Trump's trade war, his Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent—a former hedge fund manager—made an absolutely baffling statement in front of a bunch of Wall Street elites in New York:

"Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American dream."

Wait... WHAT? Being able to afford things isn’t important to the American dream? This is coming from someone who probably doesn’t know the price of a gallon of milk—let alone what it’s like to actually live right now.

To be fair, if you're Scott Bessent, Elon Musk, or Donald Trump, sure—maybe you don’t get it. But for the average American, that statement is infuriatingly disconnected.

Take a minute and consider this: Just this week, Time ran a story about a hospital technician who works full-time but still has to sleep in her car in a Walmart parking lot with four kids. Oh, and here’s a kicker: Almost half of the homeless in America are employed full-time.

So, yeah—access to cheap goods is a huge deal for people who aren’t part of Trump’s richest cabinet in history. It’s the difference between surviving and barely scraping by.

But no, instead, we’ve got 25% tariffs on most of the things we buy, healthcare being stripped away, and another trillion dollars in tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. And Scott Bessent has the audacity to say cheap goods aren’t important?

It’s not just dumb—it’s cruel. And yet, Wall Street clapped for him. Unbelievable.