President Joe Biden goes into next year’s election with a vexing challenge: Just as the U.S. economy is getting stronger, people are still feeling horrible about it.

Pollsters and economists say there has never been as wide a gap between the underlying health of the economy and public perception. The divergence could be a decisive factor in whether the Democrat secures a second term next year. Republicans are seizing on the dissatisfaction to skewer Biden, while the White House is finding less success as it tries to highlight economic progress.

“Things are getting better and people think things are going to get worse — and that’s the most dangerous piece of this," said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, who has worked with Biden. Lake said voters no longer want to just see inflation rates fall — rather, they want an outright decline in prices, something that last happened on a large scale during the Great Depression.

“Honestly, I’m kind of mystified by it,” she said.

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

    Lake said voters no longer want to just see inflation rates fall — rather, they want an outright decline in prices, something that last happened on a large scale during the Great Depression.

    “Honestly, I’m kind of mystified by it,” she said.

    My dad told me once: “never trust the words that come out after the ‘honestly’ or before the ‘but’.”

  • TheBananaKing@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Whenever anyone says “the economy”, you can and should mentally substitute it with “rich people’s yacht money”.

    Rich people’s yacht money doing well doesn’t do shit for 90% of the population. It doesn’t pay the rent, put food on the table or clothes on their back. They can’t afford to see a doctor or ride the damn bus.

    And you want them to be happy because some stockbroker is getting a second holiday in the Maldives this year?

    Stupid arrogant fucks.

    • Fades@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Not at all. You’re missing the forest for the trees lmao

      The problem is that no matter how much inflation goes down, if the price gouging capitalists that own the grocery stores, the gas stations, and so on don’t stop.

      It’s not about rich people’s yacht it’s about the American people being taken advantage of simply because they can. The economy is doing a lot better, record low unemployment for example is a huge metric here but what difference does that make when the grocery stores are selling less for more money?

      You’re crying about rich people’s yachts when you should be crying about record price gouging without any cause. Those yachts don’t have impact on the average American’s QoL but price gouging absolutely does.

    • iopq@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Median income is up since before the pandemic, even when adjusting for inflation. The average person is better off.

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

      When people say they’re not happy about the economy, this is the shit they’re talking about, not statistics.

      Ordinary people get fucked in this economy, and there isn’t any party that can do anything about it.

    • WetBeardHairs@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      Wages have shot up like crazy over the past few years. But the FTC has not enforced antitrust regulations over the past 30 years which led to everything being owned by megacorps with no competition - so we’re getting the screws turned on us right now. The FTC is finally engaging in some antitrust measures, but it is too little, too late. It’s kind of hard to blame that on the current regime.