Sharp and sustained economic criticism from Biden's ostensible allies established a narrative of failure that has proved alarmingly resistant to reality.
…highest rate of economic growth among nations in the G7, the lowest inflation, and the strongest wage growth. The unemployment rate hasn’t been this low for this long in half a century. Even accounting for inflation, wages are higher today than they were before the coronavirus pandemic…
Yo, can some of this wage growth trickle down to me already? Nobody in my circles is even getting standard merit raises, never mind the 6%+ each year we’d need to stay ahead of inflation. Most companies seem to be withholding raises, and enshittifying existing policies, as an underhanded way to get people to quit without doing actual layoffs.
In fact, I suspect slate is just making this up entirely, based on anecdotal experience. They go on to claim that the big recipients of these wage increases are the lowest paid workers. Does that mean minimum wage earners got some 50% increase to now make $12/hr? News flash: that still doesn’t afford you groceries in today’s economy.
There is nothing arrogant about recognizing that your living conditions have regressed over the course of the past 5 years, nor is there anything wrong with basing your decisions around how you percieve things to be.
Its a headline and story that’s been being trotted out for 2, almost 3 years. We keep being told the economy is ‘booming’ and yet the lived experience disagrees. I have the receipts that my live experience isn’t lying (they are quite literally grocery receipts). Our money isn’t going as far and wages have effectively stagnated since 2019. My power bill is twice what it was; no change in consumption. My grocery bill is also basically twice what it was. Again, no heads added or change in consumption. In fact, we cut out things. A couple of years ago, taking a big trip was totally reasonable. I don’t even feel like I can take weekends off any more.
What you’ve got to start realizing is that their economy is not our economy. No one is giving credit because there is no credit to give. The stock market going up and to the right means jack shit when you can’t afford groceries.
No no no things are great please stop saying things aren’t great have you tried picking up another job? We added a record number of new jobs last quarter, maybe you can help us beat it again!
There is nothing arrogant about recognizing that your living conditions have regressed over the course of the past 5 years, nor is there anything wrong with basing your decisions around how you percieve things to be.
There is absolutely something wrong when you decide that your anecdotes trump statistical data, though. That’s just flat-out defective and invalid.
Should I believe ones I can make using my costco receipts or the ones whoever on the whatever show on MSNBC is repeating? What statistics we calculate, how we choose to include or exclude data in their formulation, and what we interpret them to mean are all subjective. Is it any more or less subjective than my lived experience?
You are being obtuse about how people make real decisions about their lives. They don’t and shouldn’t’ base them on statistics because the world is varied and not monolithic in experience. Experience and memory are a form of data, if not a great one. Experience always trumps statistics. People aren’t’ going to be making their decision in November based on statistics. They’ll be making them based on their lived experience.
Here’s Gallup actually asking the people and not an economist quoting the most generalized of statistics to cover up real conditions on the ground. It is entirely possible for the economy to grow, for unemployment to drop, and inflation to be less, while the working class is evicted en masse.
63% of U.S. adults say recent price increases have caused financial hardship for their family. This includes 17% who say it is a severe hardship affecting their ability to maintain their standard of living and 46% who report it is a moderate hardship but does not jeopardize their standard of living. Another 37% of Americans say inflation is not a hardship at all.
The current 63% saying rising prices are a personal hardship reflects a continuation of peak concern on this measure since Gallup started monitoring it in November 2021. In that initial reading, 45% reported a severe or moderate hardship. The rate inched up in 2022 even as inflation ebbed, perhaps reflecting the cumulative effect of higher prices rather than the rate itself.
Those in lower-income households (76%) are more likely than those in middle-income households (64%) and higher-income households (54%) to say price increases are causing them hardship. However, income differences are even more pronounced when looking just at those saying the impact is severe. Lower-income Americans (30%) are three times as likely as high-income adults (10%) and almost twice as likely as middle-income adults (16%) to characterize high prices as a severe hardship.
Thank you, that’s helpful information! And not at all surprising, as those nearest the bottom are usually the last to feel relief from economic downturns.
I think a lot of what helped us rebuild the economy is that during covid a ton of people completed their education and were ready to move up. Those who weren’t able to do that are still suffering and left behind to an extent.
Yeah. But the problem here is the Biden campaign cannot fathom why their messaging is making people mad. And of course they’re going to be mad if they’re still hurting and he refuses to believe it.
What are they supposed to do? They improved the economy. People refuse to believe it.
I’ll give you a moment to rage.
Okay, now that’s done, consider it from their perspective. The data tells them they have succeeded. People refuse to believe it. What are they supposed to do? Succeed again? People will just reject it again.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they just did a heel turn and said, welp, guess who isn’t a bunch of ungrateful fucks? Wealthy people. Tax cuts ahoy! Found a new voter base!
I refuse to believe they are that dense. The first thing you learn in economics class is that the top level statistics like GDP, Unemployment, Median Wage, and Inflation are too broad to tell the whole story. That’s why we have the surveys. When the top level numbers are good and people are still complaining it’s not just PR or ungratefulness. There’s really something wrong. And at the end of the day if things are normal, then you’re losing the messaging battle. These guys are completely detached from reality in one way or another. But considering the survey results I’m pretty sure it’s actually hard to put a monthly budget together for 63% of Americans right now.
suspect slate is just making this up entirely, based on anecdotal experience. They go on to claim that the big recipients of these wage increases are the lowest paid workers. Does that mean minimum wage earners got some 50% increase to now make $12/hr? News flash: that still doesn’t afford you groceries in today’s economy.
I mean they “aren’t” in that they’ve got citations, but its important to dig into that.
President Joe Biden spent most of his recent State of the Union address celebrating his economic record, with good reason. There is no denying the numbers: The United States currently enjoys the highest rate of economic growth among nations in the G7, the lowest inflation, and the strongest wage growth. The unemployment rate hasn’t been this low for this long in half a century. Even accounting for inflation, wages are higher today than they were before the coronavirus pandemic, and the biggest wage gains have accrued among the lowest-paid workers, resulting in a dramatic reduction in overall wage inequality. The economy is even outperforming among communities that are often excluded from boom-time gains. Biden has overseen the lowest Black unemployment rate on record and the lowest ever unemployment rate for workers with disabilities. The American economy isn’t perfect, but by any historical standard it is very, very good.
Salon is treating these metrics as fixed objects with some magical immutable definition. But the reality is that we’ve simply redefined what these tools mean, and then accepted the redefinition as if it always meant that. But quite literally, the way these numbers are calculated have been redefined to be basically useless. Look at inflation and CPI: http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts. I can go backwards from my grocery receipts and look at what individual items cost me. We’ve seen at LEAST 10% annual inflation on basically every item on our grocery bill since 2019-2020. Almost every item is 40% more expensive than it was with some items being almost doubled in price.
Look at unemployment, where the Fed conveniently just ignore long term unemployment: https://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts. We lost union jobs for 401ks, then we lost full time jobs with benefits for the gig economy. Shits fucked and we’ve got the Feds and Salon blowing sunshine up our asses.
I think I’m just echoing your points, but I wanted to add that ‘inflation’ or ‘CPI’ aren’t immutable mathematical constructs. The statistics the article is citing have taken on more convenient to the status quo interpretations over time, to the point of being kind of devoid of meaning.
For example, real unemployment having gone up and never really down after every major financial crisis, yet we’re being told ‘unemployment is at its lowest point ever’.
Right, these record unemployment and CPI numbers are derived by changing the calculations, it’s amazing how quickly that’s been forgotten. This is the true power of controlling the narrative of the American propaganda machine.
For those “enjoying” this record employment, it still means busting ass working 2-3 low paying jobs just to barely make ends meet. Those same jobs won’t let you get above 32 hours either, so forget about benefits afforded to full time employees, such as marginally more affordable healthcare. And over 62% of Americans are literally living paycheck to paycheck, unable to afford an emergency $400 expense. Good thing they have backup financing available at payday lenders on every street corner I suppose…
It’s really sad how brutal America is to its own citizens. And mind boggling how twisted Americans are to deny this is happening at all until they’re blue in the face. Open your eyes and your ears people, think for yourself, and question authority.
I knew there had to be something fishy considering the video game industry alone has laid off 30,000 people in the past 2 years - 20,000 last year and a further 10,000 in January and February alone of this year.
Imo this is the heart of the problem. The economy is getting better for poor people. But middle class people complain the loudest. And middle class people don’t interact with poor people, so they don’t see any improvement.
I think this is where Biden messed up. Helping the poor is the right thing to do, but politicians have ignored the poor for generations for a reason: the middle class is what wins or loses elections. You need to keep the middle class happy. The middle class owns the social media airwaves. The poor have no voice.
Yo, can some of this wage growth trickle down to me already? Nobody in my circles is even getting standard merit raises, never mind the 6%+ each year we’d need to stay ahead of inflation. Most companies seem to be withholding raises, and enshittifying existing policies, as an underhanded way to get people to quit without doing actual layoffs.
In fact, I suspect slate is just making this up entirely, based on anecdotal experience. They go on to claim that the big recipients of these wage increases are the lowest paid workers. Does that mean minimum wage earners got some 50% increase to now make $12/hr? News flash: that still doesn’t afford you groceries in today’s economy.
They’re citing statistics.
YOU have the anecdotal evidence.
I’m sorry shit isn’t going so well for you and yes, it sucks to be kept down without much hope. I have been there - under Bush.
But it’s really fucking arrogant to say that because YOUR experience sucks the data is false and the press is lying.
There is nothing arrogant about recognizing that your living conditions have regressed over the course of the past 5 years, nor is there anything wrong with basing your decisions around how you percieve things to be.
Its a headline and story that’s been being trotted out for 2, almost 3 years. We keep being told the economy is ‘booming’ and yet the lived experience disagrees. I have the receipts that my live experience isn’t lying (they are quite literally grocery receipts). Our money isn’t going as far and wages have effectively stagnated since 2019. My power bill is twice what it was; no change in consumption. My grocery bill is also basically twice what it was. Again, no heads added or change in consumption. In fact, we cut out things. A couple of years ago, taking a big trip was totally reasonable. I don’t even feel like I can take weekends off any more.
What you’ve got to start realizing is that their economy is not our economy. No one is giving credit because there is no credit to give. The stock market going up and to the right means jack shit when you can’t afford groceries.
No no no things are great please stop saying things aren’t great have you tried picking up another job? We added a record number of new jobs last quarter, maybe you can help us beat it again!
Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
There is absolutely something wrong when you decide that your anecdotes trump statistical data, though. That’s just flat-out defective and invalid.
But which statistics?
The 1980 ones?
The 1990 ones?
The 2010 ones?
The ones I have in my budgeting software?
Should I believe ones I can make using my costco receipts or the ones whoever on the whatever show on MSNBC is repeating? What statistics we calculate, how we choose to include or exclude data in their formulation, and what we interpret them to mean are all subjective. Is it any more or less subjective than my lived experience?
You are being obtuse about how people make real decisions about their lives. They don’t and shouldn’t’ base them on statistics because the world is varied and not monolithic in experience. Experience and memory are a form of data, if not a great one. Experience always trumps statistics. People aren’t’ going to be making their decision in November based on statistics. They’ll be making them based on their lived experience.
Here’s Gallup actually asking the people and not an economist quoting the most generalized of statistics to cover up real conditions on the ground. It is entirely possible for the economy to grow, for unemployment to drop, and inflation to be less, while the working class is evicted en masse.
Thank you, that’s helpful information! And not at all surprising, as those nearest the bottom are usually the last to feel relief from economic downturns.
I think a lot of what helped us rebuild the economy is that during covid a ton of people completed their education and were ready to move up. Those who weren’t able to do that are still suffering and left behind to an extent.
Yeah. But the problem here is the Biden campaign cannot fathom why their messaging is making people mad. And of course they’re going to be mad if they’re still hurting and he refuses to believe it.
What are they supposed to do? They improved the economy. People refuse to believe it.
I’ll give you a moment to rage.
Okay, now that’s done, consider it from their perspective. The data tells them they have succeeded. People refuse to believe it. What are they supposed to do? Succeed again? People will just reject it again.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they just did a heel turn and said, welp, guess who isn’t a bunch of ungrateful fucks? Wealthy people. Tax cuts ahoy! Found a new voter base!
I refuse to believe they are that dense. The first thing you learn in economics class is that the top level statistics like GDP, Unemployment, Median Wage, and Inflation are too broad to tell the whole story. That’s why we have the surveys. When the top level numbers are good and people are still complaining it’s not just PR or ungratefulness. There’s really something wrong. And at the end of the day if things are normal, then you’re losing the messaging battle. These guys are completely detached from reality in one way or another. But considering the survey results I’m pretty sure it’s actually hard to put a monthly budget together for 63% of Americans right now.
This is it. Facts don’t matter, only perception. We’re in a post-truth era.
I mean they “aren’t” in that they’ve got citations, but its important to dig into that.
Salon is treating these metrics as fixed objects with some magical immutable definition. But the reality is that we’ve simply redefined what these tools mean, and then accepted the redefinition as if it always meant that. But quite literally, the way these numbers are calculated have been redefined to be basically useless. Look at inflation and CPI: http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts. I can go backwards from my grocery receipts and look at what individual items cost me. We’ve seen at LEAST 10% annual inflation on basically every item on our grocery bill since 2019-2020. Almost every item is 40% more expensive than it was with some items being almost doubled in price.
Look at unemployment, where the Fed conveniently just ignore long term unemployment: https://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts. We lost union jobs for 401ks, then we lost full time jobs with benefits for the gig economy. Shits fucked and we’ve got the Feds and Salon blowing sunshine up our asses.
Thanks for these helpful links, but I don’t see any problem with the inflation chart. The claim of lowest in half a century is false either way.
I think I’m just echoing your points, but I wanted to add that ‘inflation’ or ‘CPI’ aren’t immutable mathematical constructs. The statistics the article is citing have taken on more convenient to the status quo interpretations over time, to the point of being kind of devoid of meaning.
For example, real unemployment having gone up and never really down after every major financial crisis, yet we’re being told ‘unemployment is at its lowest point ever’.
Right, these record unemployment and CPI numbers are derived by changing the calculations, it’s amazing how quickly that’s been forgotten. This is the true power of controlling the narrative of the American propaganda machine.
For those “enjoying” this record employment, it still means busting ass working 2-3 low paying jobs just to barely make ends meet. Those same jobs won’t let you get above 32 hours either, so forget about benefits afforded to full time employees, such as marginally more affordable healthcare. And over 62% of Americans are literally living paycheck to paycheck, unable to afford an emergency $400 expense. Good thing they have backup financing available at payday lenders on every street corner I suppose…
It’s really sad how brutal America is to its own citizens. And mind boggling how twisted Americans are to deny this is happening at all until they’re blue in the face. Open your eyes and your ears people, think for yourself, and question authority.
P-Hacking?
P-hacking is adjusting your data, but the formulation of the P-value statistic doesn’t change.
Here they just straight up changed the recipe.
I knew there had to be something fishy considering the video game industry alone has laid off 30,000 people in the past 2 years - 20,000 last year and a further 10,000 in January and February alone of this year.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1175322/video-game-employment/
https://www.wired.com/story/the-video-game-industry-is-just-starting-to-feel-the-impacts-of-2023s-layoffs/
https://www.polygon.com/23964448/video-game-industry-layoffs-crisis-2023
https://publish.obsidian.md/vg-layoffs/Archive/2024
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/25/business/microsoft-layoffs-video-games.html
https://www.polygon.com/gaming/24074767/video-game-industry-layoffs-explainer
Imo this is the heart of the problem. The economy is getting better for poor people. But middle class people complain the loudest. And middle class people don’t interact with poor people, so they don’t see any improvement.
I think this is where Biden messed up. Helping the poor is the right thing to do, but politicians have ignored the poor for generations for a reason: the middle class is what wins or loses elections. You need to keep the middle class happy. The middle class owns the social media airwaves. The poor have no voice.