Maybe it’s that the “US economy” and it’s metrics are severely detached from the American people. Unless we’re still on this corporations are people too bullshit
So very much all of this. Just because corpo America, the 1% and the
fake numbersstock market are doing good means nothing for the average American.Our wages are stagnate. Our healthcare either kills you or bankrupts you. Our housing is prohibitively expensive. Our food is to expensive to eat. Our education system doesn’t educate and is slowly privatizing. And our police are killing us in lieu of protecting us.
But we’ve got guns for tot’s, piles of dead school children, an insurrectionist running for president, insurrectionists in congress facing zero consequences, a fading separation of church and state. Rising hate crime numbers. And a corrupt Supreme Court openly accepting bribes to destroy democracy.
Yeah Joey everything is sunshine and rainbows.
That healthcare bit hit home. Been trying to get treatment for 9 months. Docs spent a lot of my money doing nothing. I got tired of trusting, read peer journals, put together my own plan using promising options, have the first actual sustained relief I’ve seen since last May.
$100 OTC versus like $6000 in tests, scans, and fuckery.
I guess it beats the NHS, partner can’t even get seen for a fractured vertebrae. “Do PT first.”
*too
Economy Good: The majority of people work their asses off to make a handful even richer.
Economy Bad: The majority of people suffer even more so the handful of people does not have to suffer a bit.
Because most Americans can’t afford to loose a week of pay?
Because it’s a zero-sum game and most Americans are losing so rich fucks can have their “good economy”.
Biden is so fucking out of touch it’s embarrassing.
it’s a zero-sum game and most Americans are losing so rich fucks can have their “good economy”.
That does seem to be what his rhetoric is pointing at:
“But for all we’ve done to bring prices down, there are still too many corporations in America ripping people off. Price gouging, junk feeds, greedflation, shrinkflation,” Biden added.
“bring prices down”? Does Biden think we’re in a deflationary period or is he intentionally misleading people?
EDIT: It’s weird how when people ask why prices haven’t come down they’re mocked for not understanding the difference between deflation and lower inflation. But when the president of the United States confuses them and I point it out I get down voted. Classy people. Classy.
It’s not allowed to discuss “bring wages up.” Only impossibilities of putting the genie back in the bottle such as this. That way Biden can continue to deliver on his most important promise to donors - nothing will fundamentally change.
The latter or both.
Polling suggests this is not the case. In December there was a poll of swing states that showed the people were split 50/50 on whether what they saw in their own lives, their local or city economy, was heading in the right direction but when asked about the national economy, something they have to rely upon the media for rather than their own experience, only 1 in 4 thought things were heading in the right direction. People are constantly fed negative economic propaganda but don’t see it in their own communities so they assume it’s happening everywhere else.
Polling is opinion, and they all have varied (and usually terrible) reasons for their opinions. But some telling statistics?
nearly half of Americans have little to no savings , while 89% of Americans save, the average savings is ~1000, and 60% don’t have a retirement account
60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
About 50% of people under 65 have trouble affording healthcare- with insurance
All while corporations are netting record profits despite all this.
I get my credit score up through tricks of the trade, get whatever procedure I need on credit, and then don’t pay at all, because I can’t afford basic medical even though I work, for above minimum wage no less. They want too much for essential medical treatments, so now I have to do this to survive, I just hope that between every 2 years when my credit tricks work again, that I don’t get mysteriously ill with no way to pay. I tried everything. I work 40 hours and live in a very basic tract home built in the 90s with roommates, I sell things on the side, my old man does repairs/handyman services, we don’t shop, or go on dates, or get to enjoy life really at all outside the home, hell, I’ve even tried selling porn; but apparently I’m not hot enough to pull that off either. And to top off this absolutely lack of sundae; I work enough to not qualify for any assistance despite all the above details keeping me stuck renting/working a shit job until something breaks or I get sick or somebody dies. I know some of y’all are gonna hate me for this, but I didn’t create this broken economy where $10-$30 a month for insurance is an unaffordable expense on top of copays and deductibles and all the BS to make sure you never use the service they’ve made you purchase… When is enough gonna be enough? Then our leaders have the balls to ask why we’re upset? Give me a damn break.
You should be one of Biden’s economic advisors.
Oh no, more negative propaganda! Better hide it before it shows up in the polls! 🙄
Does anyone under the age of 50 respond to polling calls/emails? Polls are shit for actual representation nowadays and are mainly used as a way to influence rather than gauge.
Yeah, but have you met anyone from Wisconsin?
Went to a wedding in Milwaukee last summer, it wasn’t terrible. I wouldn’t want to be there in the winter, I’m content to stay in California. I was on the college side, but it seemed like a slightly larger Redding/Chico area. A lot more brick, closer to a major city, and with more local national level sports teams. The locals seemed nice enough, I enjoyed the first generation immigrants running their cafes.
On the contrary, the fastest growth in real income right now is among those in the lowest quintile. Which means income inequality is actually decreasing for the first time in decades.
Maybe in a few decades people will feel better about it.
Well said! Very well said.
“Fastest growing in real income” sounds really fancy.
But it’s a bit misleading. I assume you’re looking at percentage gains. For someone working 40 hrs/week 42 weeks a year, a dollar raise (which is huge for that “lowest quintile”), would equate to a bit more than 2,000 per year.
At federal minimum wage of $7.25/hr, that dollar gain represents an increase of 13%. At 15 an hour, its a 6% gain. At 200k/year? Barely a percent. For Walmart CEO, for example, who’s salary is 24.1 million is barely even worth mentioning at .08%.
Said another way, Walmart has 2.2 million “associates” which iirc, is everyone whose not a manager. Let’s say 3 million people who aren’t corporate because I don’t care to go get the accurate stats and frankly want to keep the math easy.
So if they gave them all a 1 dollar raise, that would cost Walmart 3 million dollars. Last year, Walmarts annual gross profit was 147.568 billion, with a 2.65% increase over ‘22. An increase of 3.8 billion dollars.
You know the difference between a million and a billion? About a billion. That hypothetical dollar increase would have been a rounding error on their financial statements.
So if they gave them all a 1 dollar raise, that would cost Walmart 3 million dollars.
I think your numbers are off. It would cost $3m to give 3m workers a bump of exactly one dollar on exactly one paycheck. That’s not a 13% increase. It’s not even a 0.01% increase.
If you actually wanted to increase the wage of 3m full time workers from $7.25 to $8.25, it would cost $6 billion.
Walmarts annual gross profit was 147.568 billion
This isn’t really relevant. Gross profit is Walmart sales minus what it paid manufacturers for its products. So if it buys a TV for $200 and sells it for $300, that’s $100 in gross profit.
Gross profit is used to pay employees, rent, utilities, advertisers, etc. The amount left over after paying the bills is the operating income. Then they pay taxes on that, and the actual earnings (aka net income) are left over.
Nearly all of Walmart’s gross profit was used to pay employees, etc. Their operating income was $23 billion in 2023, which is a decrease of 20% from the previous year. Of note, this coincides with pay increases for Walmart’s hourly workers, from $17.50 to $18/hr on average.
Nearly all of Walmart’s gross profit was used to pay employees, etc
That’s a mountain sized “etc” covering mainly shareholder dividends and artificial profit minimizing for tax avoidance purposes.
The publicly reported profit margins are always AFTER those things and as such as informative about reality as having literally no information.
No, operating income does not take dividend payments into account.
The fact is that employee payroll/salaries is one of Walmart’s biggest expenses by far, and gross profit does not include it. So you cannot use gross profit to argue that Walmart could afford to give its workers a raise.
It’s the equivalent of looking only at someone’s salary and then saying they should put more away for retirement. You are ignoring their expenses.
That just shows that the economy is not “booming” as they say in the capitalist media - the needle may be moving in the right direction, but we need to acknowledge that the current position of that needle is deep in the gutter, with a lot of improvement still needed before the voting public feels like the economy is actually working for them. Claiming that the economy is doing well, when the people are not doing well economically except for a handful of ultrawealthy, causes feelings of resentment and alienation in people who are currently working hard and still unable to afford basic necessities, ie the majority of Americans. It makes the journalists and the politicians they appear to be hyping seem out of touch and unaware of the problems the voters are dealing with, and therefore it does not inspire hope that those problems are being worked on.
Showing that the needle is moving in the right direction is an important component of effective messaging, but so is demonstrating a clear eyed view of the problem. Articles that talk about how ‘strong’ the economy is fail on the latter.
#1 Rent and housing - costs of housing are unsustainable
#2 Affordable transit - prices and sizes of cars are unsustainable
#3 All other cost of living - people buying groceries on emergency funds
Nearly all of this can be pointed at a number of big business cartel-like behavior: Air BNB, Price Fixing, Layoffs, Inexplicably high corporate profits, fraud and abusive behavior by individuals and businesses.
Fund the welfare state for god’s sake.
Fund the welfare state for god’s sake.
Not gonna happen; why do you think they sacked Bernie twice in the primaries?
It will never happen if people just say “it’ll never happen” instead of joining the voices and being an advocate for that change!
By the time it does happen all the rioters in the streets will be geriatric
Older folks can certainly frustrate if given the wherewithal. I can be an old bastard marching my walker down the street and holding up traffic… but I think Bernie won’t be around then.
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Unfortunately, a small handful of voices with large pocketbooks are the only ones they listen to.
#1 I am inclined to agree I just bought a crummy cottage because I couldn’t afford rent
#2 I agree they are selling affordable EVs in China, but they are under tariffs, and nobody else is selling really affordable basic cars
#3 I kinda disagree… Granted I really only shop at places like Aldi/Walmart because standard grocers are very pricey. Prices aren’t all that bad overall.
prices went up, my wages didnt.
Also I’m medically not doing well but I dont make enough money to qualify for financial help with health insurance
Wait until you read about how shitty our tax law is for people spending most of their money on HC costs. sigh
My wages did go up a little, but not enough to help me out of the hole I’m in with everything else going up (rent, groceries, etc.). Gas prices have gone down, but not by a lot, at least not for me in California. Why are prices still at like $4.30/gallon when we’re pumping more than ever out of the ground and plenty of supply? Why didn’t it go back down to like $3.50? Is this just our new baseline? Why?
Everything is like that. I feel like I’ll just end up dying of poverty if we don’t actually gain some consumer protections to limit how much companies to upcharge on literally everything, and ban companies or internationals from buying up properties. At this rate, I feel like I’ll struggle this hard forever and never be able to buy a house unless I move somewhere super shitty without actual rights for women.
“The US economy” means “the flow of money for the rich minority of people” that’s why. I work at least 50 hours a week and still can’t make ends meet because my partner is severely underemployed by a corporation who won’t schedule her enough hours for the amount of work she’s expected to do, she doesn’t have adequate health insurance, I’m watching it destroy her body before my fucking eyes exactly the same way her mother died before her and am stuck at my own shitty job figuring out what the fuck I’m gonna do about it if and the worst comes to pass.
Fuck this economy, burn it to the ground
One of the richest countries on Earth. SMH
The richest country to ever exist lol
Smell that freedom! Smells like medical bills…
The land of the fee
Because the US economy isn’t doing well. The metrics that lead to that statement are wholly and completely disconnected from the American people who, except for a very, very select few, are not rich shareholders and really don’t care how the S&P is doing if their pockets are constantly empty.
Rents are systematically high. Wages are systematically low. There is no end in sight. It’s disconcerting that someone elected to represent me doesn’t see that.
It’s disconcerting that someone elected to represent me doesn’t see that.
He’s a wealthy career politician in his 80’s I’d be surprised if he wasn’t out of touch with the vast majority of the population. I certainly didn’t vote for him in the Democratic primaries, but he’s much better than the alternative.
I don’t disagree that he’s better than the alternative, but at a certain point, the government ceases to help anyone but its donors. We may be at that point.
“Wealthy career politician” is a group that does not really represent anyone, so ideally it shouldn’t exist.
I don’t disagree with you either, but I’m not sure what to do about it other than to continue to vote for people that I do think will represent me and then vote for the least shitty choice after none of those people make it past the primaries.
Yeah, that’s the only option I think. Which is to say: we don’t really have a democracy anymore.
Time to protest
But HE’S BEEN IN WASHINGTON SINCE NINETEEN SEVENTY FUCKING FOUR.
He has ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA who he respresents.
Bernie isn’t out of touch. We tried.
Unfortunately in my eyes he is the only good option. It really sucks, but that is the world were living in
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I’m in a similar spot as you. Doubled my income over the pandemic (though I got laid off in December), bought a house at 4.99%, and moved to a slightly lower cost of living city that’s still in range of Seattle.
I’m mad for all the same reasons.
Same, but I snagged a 3.125% right at the end of 2020, could not have been better timing. I got approved to move from the east coast back to my home town while keeping my current job (at the time), and was super lucky to find my house when I did. I also got laid off in March 2023, but thankfully rebounded quick and although my new job is also remote, it doesn’t pay as much as I’m qualified for in experience.
But I’m also mad for the same reasons and also mad that my friends in similar fields have not been so lucky and are still struggling to even afford a house.
This is a very good synopsis. I, too, have an experience similar to yours, and while I don’t feel it in my bank account, I see Republicans, Fundigelicals, and Conservatives being allowed to run amok and cause all kinds of localized damage. It does not feel good to know that businesses are currently getting away with greedflation, churches are getting away with tax fraud, and Conservatives are successfully robbing the government via fraudulent PPP loans and school vouchers.
The Biden Administration might have a general handle on the economy, but they still seem to be operating under the illusion that the above groups have some basic decency and decorum. And it’s that “boys will be boys” attitude towards them that makes a lot of people worried about the future, in spite of economic improvements.
The focus on the economy is the problem. The average American cares about the cost of living and the quality of life. An economy that fails to deliver those is worthless to most of us.
I really wish we could get universal healthcare in this country. It is just insane I spend $5k on health insurance that I never use because I’m afraid a visit to the doctors is going to result in some stupid high bill that for some reason united healthcare will weasel their way out of paying.
Yo I am in the exact situation and mindset you are. I got really lucky in regards to jobs, buying a home, and living in a low cost area. I do have a ton of recent medical debt because I broke my ankle and leg and needed surgery to fix it. I was off of work for 3 months so shit sucked for a while. I’m paying back my debt with $5-$10 a month because they can’t do jack shit if it looks like I’m attempting to pay. These fuckers don’t deserve more than that.
Because his economists aren’t treating income & wealth disparity as indicators of economic health.
IIRC about 2/3rds of americans are living paycheck to paycheck. That is not an economy that is working for the people.
We need dramatic overhauls that Biden, and especially Trump will never deliver. We need employee ownership of companies for starters.
Forget whoever is president, there’s a snowballs chance in hell that 99% of the house or Congress would ever let such legislature be heard, never mind actually be voted on.
Yeah, congress needs to be stacked with representatives that actually give a shit about protecting workers and democracy. And that’s never going to happen with a 2 party system and legalize bribery (“lobbying”).
And those things won’t get fixed until people start giving a shit and voting accordingly, and/or we have massive protests.
The problem with voters is more our voting system. If you vote for anyone other than one of the two major parties, you’re all but throwing your vote away. The current system heavily discourages voting third party.
We would need election reform for that to change, and while we are getting closer to that state by state, I don’t think we will ever get enough states to sign on for the laws to kick in.
And these changes will never happen with our current system in place, so it’s a catch 22. Can’t change the system without reform, can’t reform with our current system.
Agreed.
We would need election reform for that to change, and while we are getting closer to that state by state, I don’t think we will ever get enough states to sign on for the laws to kick in.
I assume you’re talking about the NPVIC. But yeah, we are getting marginally closer to reform each year. And public sentiment towards FPTP voting is changing, which is good. The only downside is that it is slow, and people seem more keen on rank choice instead of approval (IMO the best).
And these changes will never happen with our current system in place, so it’s a catch 22. Can’t change the system without reform, can’t reform with our current system.
Honestly that’s the case with most problems in the U.S., it’s just a bunch of catch 22s the whole way down, and the whole way up.
Yeah, the NPVIC is… I mean, let’s be honest here. It’s not great. It’s better than our current system, absolutely. But it’s far, far inferior than rank choice.
Yeah, the NPVIC is… I mean, let’s be honest here. It’s not great. It’s better than our current system, absolutely.
Agreed.
But it’s far, far inferior than rank choice.
I’d say it goes like
Approval >>> Ranked >>>>>>>>>>>>> FPTP (popular vote) >>> FPTP (electoral college)
I don’t think that’s a starter. I think that’s a grand paradigm shift that while it would no doubt be a great boon would not be easy or quick to implement.
Universal Healthcare, UBI, climate resolutions, voting reform, SNAP expansion, increases to minimum wage, etc. would be easier, quicker, and compound with the improvements of employee ownership. So I’d call those starters, even if they’re not as effective.
I don’t think that’s a starter.
I wasn’t being literal. There are a million things that need fixed, a few of them you’ve listed and I 100% agree with. The one I named was just one of them.
Doing well for who? His campaign donors? I’m still going to vote for him because the alternative is worse, but all this talk about how well the economy is supposedly doing seems horribly out of touch.
Edit: I really should read the article or at least pay more attention to what website the article is on.
Edit: I really should read the article or at least pay more attention to what website the article is on.
I can’t access articles on CNN.com because they block me for blocking ads. I’m over here commenting as though I know what the content says but I bet I’m right in my assumption.
“But for all we’ve done to bring prices down, there are still too many corporations in America ripping people off. Price gouging, junk feeds, greedflation, shrinkflation,” Biden added. “America – we’re tired of being played for suckers!”
The headline makes it sound like he doesn’t know what’s going on. It’s rather that he is leveling an accusation and makes the media cover this. But even then this CNN article does it’s best to not cover root causes.
Because the people running CNN are part of the root cause, and they’ll be damned if their readers figure it out.
“Our friends at CNN are here… you guys love breaking news. And you did it. You broke it. Great work.” -Michelle Wolf (2018 White House Correspondents Dinner)
What an asshole headline. CNN has become FOX 2
It’s literally their goal. The new CEO said as much.
There’s a quote that I have to paraphrase because I can’t find it again, but he basically said “Fox news is actually a wonderful model to emulate, they have actual news (I’m going to vomit) surrounded by opinion shows.”
They want the same exact thing… To hide the journalism, and cater to the infotainment crowd that just want their confirmation bias drip… Now will it be catering to the right, the so-called center, or …well not the left we know that much.
“Things are great and Biden is awesome. What’s your problem?” — CNN
For a bit now it seems they are trying to cater a bit more to a wider audience, casting articles critical of current administration. Not that they should not criticize, but some articles have been as you said Fox2
They were literally bought out by fox news 2
The jobs market is robust
Which is why every big corp is doing layoffs right now, with hire freezes, wage increase freezes, and shoddy layoff schemes designed to avoid having to pay unemployment.
Even ignoring all the insane foreign policy and fake as hell local policy that will never see the light of day much like the Obama administration, exactly what metric are these fools using to evaluate the economy?
Because if it’s the Federal Reserve, then of course those banking moguls are having a hell of a time.
There’s always layoffs going on to some extent, overall the labor market has been great though. Unemployment has been consistently low, something like 14 million new jobs have been added over the past few years. The tight labor market has been pushing up the median wage, which is exactly what you want to see. We’re basically at full employment and people are finally starting to see real wage growth that beats inflation. The layoffs recently get disproportionate media coverage because of who they impact (and for political reasons) rather their overall economic significance.
“Jobs” might be the worst metric to look at overall. How many of those jobs are part-time? How many of those jobs include health insurance? How many of those jobs pay a living wage? How many people have to have two or more of those jobs out of necessity?
Hell, how many of those “jobs” are listings that companies never intend to fill? I’ve seen countless listings for high qualification jobs offering poverty wages with no benefits.
The way they calculate the unemployment number makes that metric even worse. If everyone looking for a job gave up the unemployment rate would fall to 0, because it only counts people who are looking for work.
If he were to do something about corporations or hell even individuals owning multiple rental properties and essentially using software as a virtual oligopoly to systemically raise the cost of living maybe us normal people would notice. Or maybe do something about greedflation sucking every last dime from us.
I make 80% more than I did 20 years ago and I feel poorer now than I did then.
I was getting by paycheck-to-paycheck-ish at my last job, worked on some skills, learned some new things, and got a new job that pays a whole lot more. That was 3 years ago, and inflation has put me right back where I was. I heard all these things over the years about “climbing the ladder” but this feels more like trying to climb the down escalator. I’m putting in the work, and doing everything I’m supposed to do, but I’m not getting anywhere.
I make less than I did 20 years ago plus now I have three kids. I can barely afford to eat.
Well, over the last four years I’ve only received a 3-4% annual raise. This means that, because of inflation, I’ve seen an effective pay cut of ~10%. Meanwhile the CEO of the company I work for just bought his third condo/apartment (or whatever) overlooking Manhattan’s Central Park while full on doubling his take-home in 2022. That’d be a huge reason as to why I feel like shit Uncle Joe. Not like Trump and the Republicans would make things any better or do anything about it… they’re more on the billionaire take than the Democrats only plus the GOP apparently is just openly talking about wanting to overthrow the government. I’ll hold my nose once again to vote for a Democrat, but they’ve seriously got to pull their heads out of their asses.
When they said “wants to know” what they really mean is “want them to shut the fuck up about it so we can continue to fuck them harder next time!”
How many times have you job hopped in the last four years?
