How America Went From Al Bundy to the $22 Burrito

 The $22 burrito seems like a trivial controversy until you look at what people are actually arguing about. A burrito isn’t just a burrito when its price becomes a symbol of the changing cost of everyday life. The debate is really about wages, food, labor, housing and the feeling that ordinary work no longer buys the same kind of life it once did.

 Al Bundy was never supposed to be an economic success story. He was a shoe salesman who complained constantly about his job, his family and his lack of money. Yet decades after Married… with Children ended, the life he considered mediocre can look surprisingly difficult to reproduce. A suburban house, one ordinary job, a spouse, children, a car and some disposable income once formed the backdrop to the joke. Today, that backdrop deserves another look.