This site noted, two days after the election, that the college-educated elites who supported Kamala Harris Emhoff just couldn’t understand how a majority of Americans didn’t just love her to death and cast the vast majority of their votes for her. We pointed out on Friday that working class voters along the Mexican border in Texas were casting their votes for Donald Trump because the economy that the Democrats told us was so very great wasn’t so great for them.

The following article from The Philadelphia Inquirer wasn’t about the election at all, but it seems to me that it says a lot about it:

$500 hair appointments are becoming the norm as the cost of cuts and colors rise

The increased costs of color and other products, as well as the greater complexity of trending hairstyles, have led many salon owners to raise their prices over the past five years.

by Erin McCarthy | Monday, November 4, 2024 | 5:00 AM EST

Erica Kovelman pays about $2,000 a year to maintain her honey blond locks and keep her naturally brunette roots at bay.

“I definitely am hitting a point where I’m like ‘this is very expensive,’” said the 30-year-old Center City resident. But she keeps paying to maintain professional appearances.

Kovelman has felt the financial sting more as the bill for each color-and-cut appointment has increased to between $400 and $500, plus a 20% tip, she said. A few years ago, it was closer to $300.

She’s far from alone: The cost of personal-care services — which also include dental, shaving, and other grooming — have jumped 27% nationwide since 2019, according to the Consumer Price Index.

I will admit to some surprise that dental care is part of personal-care services, rather than health care. But I have to ask the obvious question: can a 30-year-old not “maintain professional appearances” as a brunette? Zillow tells us that the median rent in the City of Brotherly Love is $1,600 a month, so Miss Kovelman is paying, with the specified 20% tip, $600 a month, or more than a third of an average month’s rent. It might be two weeks worth of groceries, or all of her utilities for two months. To me, a guy whose barber charges a whopping $12 for a haircut — I normally just hand him a $20 bill — the bills that reporter Erin McCarthy wrote about are just plain insane.

Miss Kovelman’s hair care bills are, of course, her personal choice, and if she’s spending “about $2,000 a year”, that’s on her. I would guess that the ladies living in Kensington or Strawberry Mansion probably spend less.

According to statista.com, Donald Trump won the votes of those making $30,000 to $99,000 a year, but Mrs Emhoff did far better among those earning $100,000 a year and above. Thus, while we don’t know Miss Kovelman’s vote individually, I infer that many of the customers of these “high-end salons” voted Democratic last Tuesday.

Is it any surprise that these well-to-do ladies just can’t get a grasp on why the Latinas in south Texas voted for Mr Trump? If they are spending, if they are able to spend, $500 or even more on hair coloring and a professional cut, is it any surprise that the well-paid talking heads on CNN and MSNBC, on The Washington Post’s Editorial Board and cabal of columnists just never got it? Let them eat cake!