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.”
Back when Joe was a kid he had to walk to school shootings and it was uphill, both ways!
No snow? No hot potato to keep the frostbite at bay? No hail? No wonder he is such a wuss!
*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.
Maybe is Maybeline
Or
Maybe is that the wealthiest 10% of Americans own 89% of all U.S. stocks
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.
#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.
Government officials better hope I am not able to retire. Between catching up on the video games I’ve missed out on I’ll be parking my ass at the court house with a protest sign. Give me unlimited free time, I dare you.
Unfortunately, a small handful of voices with large pocketbooks are the only ones they listen to.
You mean I actually have to DO something instead of just sharing my opinion on the internet?!?
#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.
“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)
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.
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?
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 stock market is a measure of how much wealth has been taken from workers.
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.
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.
“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.
Maybe in a few decades people will feel better about it.
How is the economy doing well when the majority of people are broke?
Politicians: Record economy!
Businesses: Welp, time for layoffs! We were always at war with Eurasia.
Citizens: Do I vote for the status quo, ear plugged, blindfolded, ancient politician… or do I vote for a literal dictator, dumb as bricks, ancient “politician.” Hmmm… Options options.
Think of it this way:
You are on a sinking cruise ship with the rest of the country and are headed to one of two islands. Sadly, these are the only islands available, and you’re going to land on one no matter what. Both of them are toxic wastelands, but one island is attempting to clean up (though, slowly and poorly) while the other island is fully leaning into the toxicity because the people controlling the island are safe in their bunkers. Everyone on the ship has an oar good for one stroke.Do you give up and throw your oar in the water leaving everyone else to decide your fate? Do you use your oar to paddle toward the island you want and call it good enough? Do you try to get more people to paddle your direction?
We’re all along for the ride regardless of how we feel about it and the options for destinations, at least we can try to influence the direction we’re going.
I think it’d be wise to either take over the boat or jump ship at that point.
Look at it this way unless America has a massive come to Jesus moment culturally we will have an authoritarian in office in the next 8 years.
That authoritarian can be an out of shape dementia ridden thug likely to die in office OR we can get whatever ghoul the republicans conjure up to replace him…
I’m not one for accelerationism, but I’m becoming more convinced we need a controlled burn. If America can’t defeat the fascist bullshit trump promises, then we will fall to any other half competent wannabe dictator…
It’s doing well for people who drive a beater car, don’t buy a new phone every year, avoid eating out, etc. People who have money invested are earning returns in this economy. Ya’ll don’t have 401k’s or investments?
because my rent got raised over $1200 in the past two years
I managed to not get a raise on rent because my landlord forgot that he’s raising the prices. Last year he told me that he’s raising the price. But when he sent me the invoice for this year, it’s still last year’s amount. Well, I’m not going to be the one who reminds him.
hell yeah never tell him
Jesus!!! I was bitching because mine went up 1000 over the last 10 years. Luckily my wife and were able to buy for what we were paying in rent. Hopefully nothing breaks though. 😕
Homeowner protip: everything will break
So true!
I was annoyed mine went up $550 in the last 10 years even though it’s a great price for the area still
Yep the joys of living in a ‘high COL’ area
We need a new New Deal.
It’s not working for the middle class. It’s working for another class.
Let’s see… how much do I pay for in Health insurance each month? How much do houses cost now? How much am I paying in taxes?
Taxes arent the problem.
sure they are. the administration (all of them) are using our tax dollars for things that do not benefit us. they benefit the administration.
Well more specifically, it’s who the taxes are coming from and what they are being used on that’s (part of) the problem.
