• the_q@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      But the economy is doing great! Billionaires and corporations are making record profits while eliminating thousands and thousands of jobs!

      • disheveledWallaby@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        The DOW is a misery index. A measure of how much wealth can be extracted from the working class and reappropriated to the wealthy.

      • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Ya but they fired one full time worker and replaced them with three part time workers! Progress!

        • naught@sh.itjust.works
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          11 months ago

          I’m confused. Wages are growing faster than inflation now. Unemployment is back down. Every metric for WORKERS (not stocks, markets, etc.) is on the up.

          Do you have evidence I can read about this part time phenomena?

          While I know things are generally bleak from a general late-stage capitalism point of view, and things cant be all good for everyone, but things are looking good or better, at least for most people. What benefit is there in denying this? It’s the same FUD the media is spreading, I feel.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Specific inflation, like rent and food, are not down and not being beat by wages. Also the official inflation numbers don’t include food.

            Furthermore, there’s decades of slippage to make up for, just in the official numbers. There is a 139 percent gap since 1974. (The first year for which numbers are easily accessible) That means that the inflation added up every year beats median wage change added every year by 139 points.

            A couple months of beating core inflation isn’t going to solve something that’s been problematic since the mid 2000’s.

            • naught@sh.itjust.works
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              11 months ago

              Good points! Isn’t decreasing runaway inflation still a boon? Also, what metric for inflation are you using? I thought the CPI included average essentials a person would buy, like food. It seems that measure is also decreasing:

              https://www.bls.gov/charts/consumer-price-index/consumer-price-index-by-category.htm

              How does one beat core inflation, though? Deflationary and austerity measures typically end poorly, right? I guess companies would have to pay up so that productivity gains match real wage gains.

              • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                Well yeah. That’s the basic problem. If we still prioritize corporate gains, we will never get people back on on track.

          • Sunforged@lemmy.ml
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            11 months ago

            That’s all great in a vacuum, but when you add in housing costs suddenly none of those gains are enough.

            • naught@sh.itjust.works
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              11 months ago

              Totally! In the context of Biden’s economic policies, generally, I think it reflects favorably for him.

              I would like to see corporations banned from purchasing single family homes, massive rent control measures, etc. But these aren’t things I can expect Biden to achieve unilaterally or quickly.

              • Sunforged@lemmy.ml
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                11 months ago

                Biden doesn’t even acknowledge the current issues with the way our economy is structured as evident by this article.

                • naught@sh.itjust.works
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                  11 months ago

                  They really only included a quick blurb. What about Biden’s other efforts?

                  Brainard [one of Biden’s top economic advisors] described “lowering costs and increasing access to housing for Americans” as “one of the most important issues in the President’s economic agenda.”

                  and

                  He has backed several affordable housing bills and action plans in 2023 — including the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act, which would produce 500,000 starter homes in under-resourced communities over the next decade

                  source

                  I am not hyper up-to-date on everything political these days, but it seems like Biden is doing alright. Especially when I consider the alternative 🥲

                  • Shyfer@ttrpg.network
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                    11 months ago

                    They need to shout about these efforts more. And I’d like to see actionable results and not just endless studies. The Democrats have always been terrible at messaging. Probably because all the media is corporate owned.

                  • Sunforged@lemmy.ml
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                    11 months ago

                    There are more 25 million kids coming of age in the following decade. 500,000 doesn’t even scratch the surface of housing needs, it’s doing something sure but I am not going to praise the man for doing below the bare minimum.

                    You’re once again looking at this in a vacuum.

                  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                    11 months ago

                    This is as bad as the GOP talking about “access” to healthcare in the US. They’re going to subsidize the construction of the worst kind of housing to solve a housing crisis and half of them are going to be bought by investment companies.

                    We need market rate mid rises administrated by a non profit organization.

          • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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            11 months ago

            Public sentiment is a trailing indicator of economic success. Until the gains are really felt by people they don’t see them. In a couple months that wage growth and lower inflation will even out.

            Quite a few states are increasing their minimum wage in 2024, and federal workers are getting a 5% raise. I imagine the “but why aren’t people happy about the economy” stuff will fade away in a quarter or two.

            • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              Hey if that happens, then great. But it’s one hell of a bet to make in an election year. Especially when people have been struggling for a decade now.

    • the post of tom joad@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      “fool! If you knew economics better you’d understand that your buying power is the wrongest metric. Look at the stonks you uncultured swine!”

      -a super smart economist, probably

      • Transporter Room 3@startrek.website
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        11 months ago

        I had someone try to tell me that the economy is better than ever, people are more rich than ever, and my “personal anecdotal evidence” can be completely dismissed.

        It’s no longer “personal anecdotal evidence” when 150,000,000 people are experiencing the same thing just in my own country.

            • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              BoTh SiDes is defeatist bullshit and just an excuse for mental laziness. Try thinking for a change.

              • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                The thing is for a great many people they don’t care. They aren’t getting deported. They aren’t getting shit on any worse than with Biden.

                That may change, but it didn’t in Trump’s first term. Biden has to be better now, for the working class, than Trump was. And he just isn’t.

                • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  Is the suggestion here that minorities shouldn’t or don’t matter even though they are a solid chunk of the working class?

                  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                    11 months ago

                    Oh, wow this was supposed to have a response last night. I guess Lemmy hiccuped.

                    The problem is that minorities are in fact minorities. You can’t win based on them. And even a bunch of them aren’t seeing the election as an existential fight. They didn’t see an increase in their situation under Biden. If Biden only makes concrete improvements for the upper classes then there’s no direct reason for the lower classes to show up for him.

                    This is how autocrats have gotten elected time and time again. Democracy requires actually helping the voting class. When it doesn’t, the voters are more than happy to vote themselves out of a democracy.

                • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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                  11 months ago

                  The POTUS has little control over the economy. But the economy is way better than when Trump left office, and the outlook is thousands of times better.

                  It’s just that people bought the claim that somehow the economy going to shit under trump wasn’t his fault (it wasn’t) but now that the same thing that fucked trump is still fucking shit up, it’s Bidens fault.

              • blazera@kbin.social
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                11 months ago

                You’re talking at me and not taking in what im saying. Working full time every week, my life is worse off now than before Biden took office. Im not going to vote to make my life worse.

                • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  I do hear what you’re saying. You apparently think another option would be better, despite the mountains of evidence against that

                  • blazera@kbin.social
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                    11 months ago

                    The mountains of what? What evidence? Evidence of presidencies besides Biden and Trump’s??

                • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  The only real reason to vote for Biden is his commitment to letting us vote again in 2028. Something Trump seems soft on. What are our options in 2028? Lmao

                • TheGalacticVoid@lemm.ee
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                  11 months ago

                  Worse off during Biden is different from worse off because of Biden. Hitting the brakes while going downhill 200 MPH doesn’t completely stop you from going more downhill. Every modern Republican has been so incredibly short-sighted that it’s genuinely destroying our future by insane levels.