Fox cable hosts are doing the job of the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Jared Bernstein, by admitting that the economy under President Biden is strong. Bernstein joins MSNBC’s Ali Velshi to discuss the latest “expectation-busting” jobs report.
Gas prices are down. General cost of living is stabilized. Unemployment is extremely low and the percentage of eligible workers on the sidelines is dropping. Wages are up for the lowest income levels and continue to climb despite slowing inflation. Black households, in particular, have seen a significant narrowing of the income gap, more so than they’ve seen in many many years. The percentage of women in the workforce is up and salaries are climbing for them as well. In fact, the post-COVID recovery has been wildly successful when you compare it to post-2008 with respect to the improvements for the poorest among us, which is precisely the opposite of what you’re claiming.
Yours is purely an appeal to anecdote. The data is clear. Unfortunately, as study after study has shown, data can’t compete with vibes, and we just spent the last two years with the MSM (not to mention social media…) telling everyone a recession was around the corner.
Housing costs are sky-high. Rent is ridiculous. Good luck ever trying to own a house. And yeah, cost of living went way way up and now it’s “stabilized” there.
And to say wages are up is just laughable. I mean, yeah people are now being paid $15 an hour instead of $10, but what does that matter when food and housing costs increased more than that?
The data is skewed by the people that benefited from raising the price of everything during COVID-19 and then never brought the prices down.
The rich are richer and they are the measuring stick for the economy because they own all the news sources. It is dramatically worse for the poor now than it was 5 years ago.
Don’t let bullshit propaganda fool you.
I feel like this CONSTANTLY happens and people just eat it. Prices skyrocket. Then they stop rising or maybe even dip a little but still remain way higher than they originally were and… Problem solved! It’s stabilized! In fact prices are DROPPING! huzzah!
Makes me wonder if people are really this easily fooled or are they all just being ignored? Lol
Literally yes. Prices go up, wages go up, that’s a healthy economy. Take an economics class.
If prices ever start broadly going down, prepare for a massive economic ass fucking the likes of which you’ve never seen and clearly can’t imagine.
Yeah the economy is healthy, just not for 90% of the country.
Line go up is just a cult, nothing else.
Ideally the economy is just something you need to plan, to stay stable and anticipate environmental and population concerns. It shouldn’t need to go up or down to maintain production.
This “homelessness goes up but so does GDP so it’s okay” shit is unworkable, cruel and unsustainable and only benefits bezos et al
Christ alive you have no idea what you’re talking about. Have you ever studied economics? At all? Or are you just posting your fee fees?
Would you go into a hospital and start lecturing doctors on how their practice is bullshit? Sure, there are probably a lot of things that could be improved, but you don’t have the knowledge to speak about them. Take some courses, then come back and speak from an informed perspective.
“Planned economy” is a 12 year old’s idea of how things should be.
You’re on serious damage control and spouting derivative drivel. “Take an economics class” meanwhile people who did found that set of nomics to be non sensical, because “economics” at its core isn’t about what most people think it is. Cost and worth are two separate things, and the whims of our livelihoods is decided emotionally. Not logically.
Answer my question. Have you ever studied economics in any fashion?
Yes I absolutely have. Would you care to say anything other than “study economics”? Would you care to support your bullshit or explain for those who haven’t?
For the benefit of those who haven’t studied carpentry, it’s not out of line for a carpenter to explain the trade a little.
DOES IT FUCKING MATTER IF THEY CANT AFFORD FOOD AND RENT?!
You might want to tell that to Walmart:
https://youtu.be/xuBrGaVhjcI
I don’t watch youtube videos linked by people arguing in favor of something dumb. It’s a good way to waste my time and ruin my algorithm.
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out sweetie
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The economy is booming, but not in all sectors. Housing is the biggest notable exception. Inflation was bad, but it’s gotten better. Pretty much everything else is doing great. Even car prices are coming down.
Lmao. Yeah the economy is great if you don’t need a place to live 🤡
Biden has done great. But capitalism is EOL and needs deprecating.
Let me know when you find a better system.
Edit: Not Russia, not China. Fuck off, tankies.
Worker-owner cooperative market economy for non-essential goods and services, planned economy for essentials and infrastructure (water, shelter, food, broadband, energy, roads, transport…)
Yeah seconded though tankies fuck off.
Socialism. Workers should collectively own the Means of Production, not just petite dictators.
Secondly, Russia is absolutely Capitalist, lmao. It’s the same system, broadly.
We know that. Tankies do not.
Isn’t that communism, not socialism?
First off, I am not a tankie. I want to make that clear so that the following statement is not misunderstood. Tankies do not think current Russia is somehow still Socialist. Instead, they believe that the Russian Federation is a Capitalist dictatorship over a populace that expresses Communist sympathies and stands against NATO. The hope that tankies have (naively) is that after Putin falls, hopefully a more leftist president can restore the USSR and fight against American Imperialism.
This is obviously a lot of copium, but it absolutely helps to understand what tankies actually are arguing so that you may counter their naive points more effectively. As it stands, you’re just strawmanning them, rather than actually taking down their worldview, which just gives them ammunition to perpetuate their worldview.
Either way, to answer your second question, no. All Communism is Socialist, but not all Socialism is Communist. Socialism is when Workers collectively own the Means of Production, while Communism is a Stateless, Classless, Moneyless society meant to take place after Socialism (or directly after Capitalism if you lean Anarcho-Communist).
Socialism can be expressed in many ways, from Anarcho-Syndicalism, to Libertarian Socialism, to Democratic Socialism (note: all Socialism is democratic, but Democratic Socialism recreates Liberal Democracy a la America, the EU states, etc with a Socialist Mode of Production), to Market Socialism, to Marxism-Leninism, to Council Communism, to Maoism, and more.
Communism is that specific post-Socialist goal of eventual eradication of class divides, market economies, and the violent repression of states, in one world Communist society.
You could have stopped there.
The extent of what tankies believe is that “US Bad”. All other facts and beliefs are completely malleable as long as they support this one, central, defining ideal.
And I believe that making fun of them is the best way to keep them irrelevant. Don’t get suckered into a debate about the finer points of their ideology. Their ideology is stupid, and those finer points are subject to change at any time when they get new orders from Beijing so don’t bother engaging with it.
Thank you for the explanation of socialism vs communism. Others have tried to do it but usually reference a bunch of jargon that only someone already deeply in communist thought circles would know. You did it very clearly and succinctly using everyday terminology.
So what does owning the means of production look like to you?
Socialism with Chinese characteristics seems to have no shortage of houses
Or organs.
Mysteriously.
I mean, that’s if you believe the Epoch times
Falun Gong and the CCP can both eat shit.
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Where though? If you’re in a historically HCOL area, then that’s hardly surprising.
I’m in an easily commutable suburb of one of the largest metro areas in the country and there are 1br apartments available in decent areas for $1000-1200ish. Not what I’d call “cheap” but a far cry from what you’re claiming.
I’ll tell that to the out of control housing, rising food costs and the worsening healthcare coverage and quality. Man! So glad these few things you mentioned are superficially better. There’s no problems now!
/s because you know someone is gonna take it literally.
If his is purely anctedote, then yours is decontextualized.
Sure. Since a high in June of 2022. The last time gas prices were at this level was June 2021. And the time before that was October 2014. Which is to say, for about 6 years, gas prices were lower than today. And just looking at the graph, they were significantly below today’s level. Just to note, they have yet to return to the levels before the precipitous rise stating in December 2020.
There maybe, as you noted, vibes, but they ain’t wrong.
Unemployment should be looked at with, of course participation rate which has held even for the last year, and how long people have been unemployed which has been growing slightly for those unemployed for 27 weeks or more. This also doesn’t address underemployment which disporporstely effects the young and poor. Underemployment colors one’s outlook for stability in the present and future.
Thankfully, Biden and others in the administration have managed this far better than 2008 for the average citizen. Not having a recession is a good thing. I’ve lived through several. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t looming concerns. Inflation is still higher than the target and instigating further disinflation is uncharted territory.
Data, in of itself, is not enough. It needs to be contextualized to develop political and social narratives. Addressing people with condescension and dismissing their anxieties as mere vibes fails politically.
I think people are expecting all the prices to return to “normal” when that’s probably never going to happen, as a good chunk of the price increases are due to post-covid inflation
the largest driver of inflation during and after the pandemic is companies raising prices, and turning record profits.
Living is more unaffordable than ever. What even is your comment
I stopped reading at gas prices are down. They are up .40 the last week.
The gaslighting is all thats clear. All the data conflicts with your claim. Homelessness up to the highest level ever recorded, housing is unaffordable, food is unaffordable, wages are stagnant, income inequality is the widest ever recorded.
Looking pretty low to me. Speaking in terms of this week makes no sense to me.
https://www.gasbuddy.com/charts
It’s almost like they cherry pick data that fits their preconceived notions…
This is just as stupid as saying because it snowed, global warning isn’t real.
No if you’re going to get the first fact blatantly wrong odds are the rest is going to be bunch of bullshit too
Gas prices are down in my area, so you’re blatantly wrong.
Checkmate, dumbass.
Good thing your area is the entire world. Oh wait. Turns out, on balance gas prices are not down. But you go ahead and live in that bubble of yours and pretend your name calling is doing something.
OH MY GOD HE FINALLY GETS IT LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!
Apparently you don’t though. Jesus, the willful ignorance is strong.