Rich people’s money is thriving under Biden. So why don’t Americans believe it?
Oh, we do, we just don’t like what’s happening for the rest of us.
Because it’s not true. Wall Street and the wealthy are thriving, the rest of us not so much.
No amount of gaslighting from the government is gonna help pay those bills
Did you read the article? Now, before you reflexively downvote me for saying something you didn’t want to hear, hear me out.
Whether an economy is “good” or “bad” is measured through several metrics. These are—
- Stock index performance
- Unemployment rate
- Inflation rate
- Wage growth
- People’s personal financial situation
Now, stock index performance generally benefits the wealthy more than it benefits the average American, however, the article does note that the number of Americans who own 401(K) investments, which benefit from better stock index performance, has increased significantly in recent years.
The unemployment rate is definitely tied to middle-class wealth. It means that everyone who is looking for a job is eventually able to find a job. Unemployment is low, and this is good for the middle and lower class.
The inflation rate is currently just north of 3%. This is above the target 2% rate but not by much, and certainly less than the 7-9% inflation experienced immediately post-pandemic, and the US cooled inflation down to that level far faster than other Western economies (e.g. the UK and Eurozone). The inflation rate measures the price change of a basket of household goods, and the burden of high inflation is basically borne by the entire middle class. Low inflation is good for the middle and lower class.
I don’t believe the article discussed wage growth, but wage growth has actually outpaced inflation in recent years due to a surge in worker power. This requires little introduction. The problem is that when people’s wages rise, they give all the credit to themselves and think “Well, I’m just one of the hardworking and lucky ones.” This is not true. A lot of people are getting pay raises, and employers are more willing to be generous with pay raises when the economy is good. In short, people credit increases in wages to their own hard work but blame inflation on the Government.
As stated in the article, most of the people surveyed reported that their personal financial situation improved, but they still think the overall US economy is bad. If this isn’t definitive proof of what I’ve said earlier (that the economy is good and people just don’t know it), I don’t know what is
Economists are not stupid. They know that economic growth is driven by the everyday consumer and that a good economy is one that benefits the average American, not just billionaires. Understand that people on the news fixate on stock indexes because it’s a single number that requires little explanation and leaves no room for nuance. When people with decades of education and experience in economics say the economy is good, we’d best listen. Rejecting this conclusion is the same Dunning-Kreuger-laced thinking that causes climate change deniers to deny the existence of that phenomenon.
Sorry, if this feels legit impossible to believe. I live in SoCal and literally everyone I know is struggling or has commented about how much more expensive rent is and how impossible it seems to get by compared to just a few years ago. Lots of people have to live with their parents/families now even though they work full time.
What do you or “economists” call it when no one (exaggerating here in case it’s not obvious) in a city/state can afford rent to live on their own like they used to be able to? Put another way, what do you call it when six figures used to mean stability and now it means paycheck to paycheck for many families?
You’re seriously saying people are just confused about their finances? What about all the articles about people not buying new cars and not buying this or that anymore? Why do economists think that is? That’s just a coincidence?
Rich people are doing good. Poor people are taking on credit card debt to buy basic groceries. People haven’t seen raises in years, or got them only on paper (for example, I got a raise, and then in the next breath got my hours cut to where it was actually a pay cut).
If people are struggling to buy basic necessities, they won’t spend on other things, which will slow the economy.
Most of what you said is false when generalised to the entire economy.
It might be true for you. It’s not true for most other people. You are trying to defeat a statistic with an anecdote.
Did you even read the post you are responding to???
the number of Americans who own 401(K) investments, which benefit from better stock index performance, has increased significantly in recent years
This is the same as saying lots of Americans have bank accounts. The accounts could be empty.
the US cooled inflation down to that level far faster than other Western economies (e.g. the UK and Eurozone)
The US did not experience the same economic effects as the UK. The UK performed Brexit which raised the cost of goods by definition, and had their price of fuel skyrocket due to the effects of the Russia-Ukraine war. The US is not dependent on Russian oil.
wage growth has actually outpaced inflation in recent years
Year. Singular. Wages lagged behind inflation for the 50 years prior, and the gains since March 2023 are not nearly enough to make up for this.
The inflation rate measures the price change of a basket of household goods
No, it doesn’t. That’s the consumer price index.
employers are more willing to be generous with pay raises when the economy is good. In short, people credit increases in wages to their own hard work but blame inflation on the Government.
No, increased wages are not because bosses decided to be nice. Corporate profits reached records during the pandemic, paying more reduces profits. Unions and displays of labor activism in the US have expanded significantly in the past few years. People are demanding higher wages from their employers. The entire purpose of the Federal Reserve is to combat inflation. Action by the government is the only way to control inflation.
Economists are not stupid.
That’s debatable, but some are certainly self-serving.
Tell me how high interest rates benefits those who have to borrow money for school, medical expenses, a car, or a first home.
It seems like you read but didn’t understand what I said.
When you say that the US “didn’t experience the same economic effects as the UK”, I respond with “it doesn’t matter”. It doesn’t matter why the US didn’t experience a worse economy, just that it didn’t. When you say that wages lagged behind inflation for the 50 years prior, I absolutely dispute that conclusion. It seems like you saw someone else talk about it, thought “this sounds true”, and then didn’t look at the data, which is much more mixed:
You think that the “consumer price index” is different from inflation. The consumer price index is a method for measuring inflation, and you being confused by this honestly makes me want to dismiss all remaining credibility you held. This is like if I said “temperature scales measure how hot or cold something is” and you replied, “no, that’s a thermometer”.
I never claimed that wages increase because employers are “nice”. I assert that employers are more willing to give higher wage increases in good economic conditions, because such conditions give workers more bargaining power. Employers in better economic conditions have more money to give to wage increases, so workers are more able to extract that money through wage negotiations. Compare this to bad economic conditions when employers are going to be much less able to give raises or when the labour force is shrinking, causing supply in the labour market to outpace demand (driving down wages). If the economy is growing, there is more demand for labour, and thus suppliers of labour (workers) are able to demand higher prices (wages). Is this really so hard to grasp?
Wages lagged behind inflation for the 50 years prior, and the gains since March 2023 are not nearly enough to make up for this.
That’s very much not true.
EDIT: I’ll update my previous comment for clarity
I was drafting a response but I see your edit now. This report seems to echo a lot of what you’re saying, but it lays blame with several far more long-term and structural problems. It certainly would be difficult to argue that we’re doing as well as we were doing in the post-war boom of the middle 20th century, but that’s like saying things are not currently good because they were better in the past. While technically true, it kinda misses the point and distorts the definition of “good.”
You’re right, but so are the people saying that things are significantly improving. Coincidentally that’s exactly what the article is talking about.
Groceries. Are. Still. High. Where is the confusion???
Because grocery prices aren’t high because the economy is doing poorly. We are being price gouged by grocery cartels.
You are being fooled into blaming Biden for what CEOs are doing to you.
Pretending that Biden / Democrats don’t have any power to even attempt to address this in even the most mild way is plain stupid.
And please don’t reply with a “you think Biden has the power unilaterally force them to lower their prices?!”
No, I don’t.
But what I DO think is that power of the bully pulpit of the highest office in the land allows the president to openly target and vilify (righteously I might add) companies and even individual CEOs that are doing things like this and turn the public ire against them in a focused manner.
Additionally, Democrats can do things in a Machiavellian manner that would make life a fucking nightmare for some of these people. Just get the IRS to go after some of these CEOs. Investigate them for this price gouging that we know that they’re doing. Suspend their business licenses.
Have the FDA tell them they’re not authorized to sell milk anymore or some shit I don’t fucking care.
Don’t tell me the Supreme Court’s gonna overturn it because I don’t care. In the meantime that they hadn’t overturned it we get wins and even if the Supreme Court does overturn it it’s more ammunition to point and say “look at what they’re taking away from us! We’re trying to fix things, and these Republicans in office keep undoing what would help make your lives better!”
Instead, they do nothing and say “well we couldn’t do that even if we wanted to because the Republicans would stop us” and then when you get angry and complain they say “oh well what do you want Trump to be in office instead?!”
This fucking handwaving shit has got to stop or Trump is going to fucking win again. Jesus Christ. Fucking forgive medical debt. Fucking forgive student loans. Just do some sweeping shit. I don’t care if everyone’s going to complain about the legality of it. Push the limits of your power. Trump did it and got away with it and it was evil shit like the Muslim travel ban.
AT LEAST ATTEMPT TO DO SOME GOOD WITH THE POWER YOU HAVE TO SHOW US THAT YOU ARE TRYING!
Agreed.
It is, in fact, time to stop being the bigger person and start being the more effective person. I don’t care if we set an example, let’s get some shit done.
Democrats are already moving in the direction you want them to, but I’m sure you have a great excuse as to why they aren’t doing enough.
https://time.com/6977026/democrats-biden-executive-authority-grocery-prices/
They could address stagnant wages in the midst of record inflation. What’s minimum wage again?
Furthermore, wage growth has been beating inflation for the most recent 12 months.
Man, the way they calculated this statistic is so misleading, and counter intuitive to the claim it’s ridiculous.
The only reason for “real wage growth” is shown as outpacing inflation is because they aren’t counting people who lost their job because of COVID as a loss of income, but as someone exiting the job market.
Basically “wages” increased because the majority of people who lost their jobs were low income earners, leaving more white collar jobs to represent wage earnings.
Source?
Doing enough should be dragging price gouging executives through the street. But I guess wagging a finger at them will definitely make my grocery bill go down🤷🏼♂️
Bidens only response is asking them to stop price gouging then doing nothing when they don’t stop screwing Americans
why do people think nothing has been done?
Right. Fuck, better go back to trump because Biden didn’t solve it.
Get the Mexicages back out, remove presidential term limits, let’s do a day ™ of fascism and put anyone who trump owes money back in charge!
I’m not saying this is your perspective but this is the kind of stupid in reading here that starts from the same perspective.
They’re asking the wrong question. The question should be who the economy is thriving for? The answer to that question will tell you everything you need to know.
s/the economy/rich people's money/iMy wife and I are making more money than we ever have before. I got a raise and she got a new job that pays more than her old one. We’re solidly on the high side of middle class. Sure, inflation pinched a bit of those gains, and it sucks that new and used cars are so ridiculously expensive, but both of ours are paid off so we’ll just keep driving them. It’s not all doom and gloom out there right now.
Counter argument. I have also never made this much money. Neither has my boyfriend. We work at a hospital and make decent money. In Oct 2020 we were finally able to get our own apartment. We then moved back in with our old roommate last year. Because we were getting close to being homeless.
People were warning up about the disappearing middle class decades ago. I remember hearing about it in the 90s. And here we are. The wage gap between the top and the bottom has only widened.
How is that in any way a counter argument?
Person 1: Here’s a thing about the economy
Person 2: My argument is that I am doing fine, so it is fine
Person 3: I would counter that by saying I am not doing fine, so by Person 2’s logic, it is not doing fine, this proving it is not a good argument
Adult conversations aren’t for everyone
Amazing that you couldn’t even paraphrase two of three arguments correctly.
Is English not your first language?
Sorry you can’t read
Removed, civility.
Good one! You really got me there!
🙄🥱
You’re reinforcing my point. The economy has improved for people who were already well off. The people on the low side are getting pinched even harder.
No, I’m not. You have no idea what our finances looked like just a year ago, but it’s clear you also don’t care. You’ve decided you only want evidence that agrees with you.
You’ve decided you only want evidence that agrees with you.
A single anecdote is not evidence.
The statistics of this very article are the evidence. It’s right there in black and white!
A majority of Americans say that their own personal finances are doing well, and even when the question is expanded to their whole state, voters say the economy has improved.
You countered by dismissing it, so I met you where you wanted to be. But even that wasn’t enough to dig you out of your preconceived belief. Carry on with your circle jerk.
Because everything costs so fucking much that the “economy” doesn’t represent their daily experience
Depends on what you mean by “the economy”.
Wall Street is striving, GDP is striving, but average people struggle to make rent.Thriving is the word you’re looking for
sorry, English isn’t my first language.
You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.
Because it costs me $60 to walk into the fucking grocery store.
Well, buy less than 4 things next time. Sheesh
Two less avocado toasts
2Avacados2 furious.
Coming this summer
I looked over the metrics in the article and none of them approximate what percentage of Americans are struggling to pay their bills. That number probably closely approximates the percentage who think the economy isn’t doing well. This is a different situation from people wrongly believing crime rates are high.
How many billions did Kroger make this quarter???
The economy is doing good for what the president can do.
But the old metrics are not good. It used to just be employment rate that mattered. You know if people were employed that was sufficient. Now it’s wages that have not kept up.
“Please, I can’t afford food or housing”
Media outlets:
Economy doing great!!! Inflation down and stocks up!!!
“Okay, I guess I’ll just fucking die then”
I share their opinion but also wish more people would care about metrics other than gdp and stock market indexes when a Republican is in office.
The news babbles about the real economy and how we’re on the brink of a recession tirelessly whenever a Democrat is in the presidency, then magically when a Republican is even just elected (not even in office yet) all of those “meaningless” numbers are suddenly meaningful, and it turns out there’s actually nothing wrong with using unemployment numbers, the GDP, and the Dow Jones index to determine economic health, even as more go homeless.
The only well-known politician I’ve seen talk consistently about this regardless of the party in the white house is Bernie.
As long as private shareholders are having record quarterly earnings, almost all economists, hired by wealthy organizations largely to push the narrative that benefits those organizations, will of course declare victory.
Economists also generally defend our “free market” rigged crony capitalism as the only way too. They’re literally the priesthood of this grift.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rent-homelessness-harvard-report-center-for-housing-studies/
The homelessness epidemic is getting worse. Our people are dying in the streets in record numbers, please, go down to your nearest homeless tent city in every major population center in the US and tell them they’re being dramatic.
This economy no longer cares about customers or employees. The Reagan/Kemp grift eviscerated the customers first, employees second, investors last model. Now it’s private shareholders first and only demanding companies sabotage their long term future to goose their next quarter with layoffs, anticompetitive behaviors, and tax cheats.
Capitalism is eating its own tail having conquered the monopoly board and having no more meaningful new markets left to metastasize/exploit.
There needs to be laws passed that change the structure of “fiduciaries”
Companies should exist for their employees first, customers second, and then shareholders, in that order. Pay the people creating the product/service as much as possible, put out the best possible product/service at the most competitive rate possible, and if there’s anything left over the shareholders get their cut.
Ironically, if corporations actually did this, they’d likely have plenty of success. It’s just mind boggling that the lazy fuckers pushing numbers around on a computer screen are the ones considered fiduciaries
There is such a business structure. It’s called a worker co-operative. They’re pretty common in some areas (e.g. grocery) where they are able to compete with and even win against traditionally-owned grocery store chains. For example, one of the largest grocery co-operatives in the US, WinCo foods, competes with and actually beats the likes of Walmart and Kroger (called Fred Meyer here) in the price department. They do have some outside investment (IIRC), but the stores are mostly owned by the employees that work there.
I think we ought to encourage these types of businesses through extremely favourable tax treatment. I’m talking a 0% tax rate on dividends paid by co-operatives to workers. At the same time, it’s understandable that most people start businesses for personal profit, which drives the creation of most businesses, so I think a hybrid system wherein the owner starts with a maximum of 50% equity in the company is fair, and the rest is owned by the workers. Imposing an expiration on the owner’s shares (say, 50 years?) would mean that after the founders die, the entire company will be owned by the workers, while not extinguishing the motivation for people to establish businesses in the first place.
Because everyone except the wealthy are struggling to pay their bills bootlicker
And obviously trump is the better solution, crayon eater? Two things can be true at the same time: it sucks for regular people but it sucks less now than in 2019.
No one can undo years of economic turbulence in three years. Everyone feels like they’re being gaslit because they are. The patient will bleed out before you finish applying the first bandaid.
