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With democracy on the ballot, the mainstream press must change its ways
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2023
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politics
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Inflation is low, unemployment is low and there’s virtually no hint of a recession. But many Americans, according to surveys, are convinced the economy is terrible.
In the last 3 years, The cost of virtually everything went up. food, clothes, building materials, transportation, housing, real estate, and anything else people need not want. Wages didn’t rise to meet them. Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining, Margaret.
Straight up gaslighting. Inflation is low? We just got battered by rising inflation for two straight years. That doesn't go away because a month turned over. Everyone's dollar devalued hard and prices aren't coming back down again now that they're standard. You could only believe this if your job depends on believing it.
Inflation is low now. Cost of living went up by like 25% over the last 3 years. Not to mention, I still have pretty slim prospects of owning a house in a convenient and desirable location, and I’m on a software engineering salary. So yeah, economists, you can absolutely shut the fuck up about the economy being so “fantastic”.
And hey, you know, maybe maybe Democrats shouldn’t campaign on how “great” the economy is if nobody who actually works for a fucking living is seeing in real life how “great” it is.
Yeah like I vote dem because the alternative pretty explicitly wants me dead, but I’m an engineer who is still struggling in a medium cost of living area.
It’s like the Dems are afraid to acknowledge their strengths. Your opponents are committing crimes against democracy and promising brutal oppression of women and minorities as well as their political opponents. I think that the only major issue with their financial strategy right now is that it’s too far right, but don’t fucking run on it. Run on the fact that your opponents are fighting for unpopular opinions
Inflation is a rate of change.
If prices went up a lot last year, but they're not going up much now, inflation now is low.
"Low inflation" doesn't mean prices going down or the value of the dollar going up relative to a basket of goods. That would be "deflation".
My bad, am I mixing up inflation and cost-of-living? I'm trying to understand the economy jargon better.
The point still stands that the rate of inflation is down but we still have to deal with that long period of time AKA 2022 where it didn't dip below 7.5%.
Nothing any government can do will undo the high inflation of 2022. Deflation must be avoided, because while consumer prices would go back down, the main effect of long-term deflation is that everybody stops investing and starts saving. Why would I buy new tools now when I can wait for tomorrow and get them cheaper then? When the entire economy does that, it shrinks. Catastrophic for capitalism. Prices are what they are, they've stopped going up, can't realistically wish for more.
Furthermore to blame high inflation on the Biden administration shows a complete lack of journalistic integrity. Like blaming the '08 crisis on Obama. Both were worldwide events which, if the US weren't so god-damn self-centered, anyone could realize were just as bad or even worse in other developed countries. In 2022 most of the Eurozone was well above US inflation levels (without going too technical, the US Fed had more leeway to much more aggressively raise interest rates to reign in inflation, which it did successfully).
Now there is plenty of blame to be passed around for a lot of specific economic policy items that impact cost-of-living (wages, housing, student debt, etc.). Inflation isn't one of them.
Alright, you burned most of the money. In other terms, you defaulted on most of your debts to reset the economy.
No foreigner is willing to loan you any money any more. Global trade with the US collapses. Fertilizer, semiconductors, cars, fuel, etc. Domestic investment collapses as well, so does GDP, tax revenue, and therefore public services.
Historically, countries implementing these bright ideas ended up with a crisis so bad it brought on widespread famines and food/fuel rationing. 5c fuel is great and all except when you can only get one gallon a week.
Oh, and that "one million remaining" dollars? Guess who gets 99% of it? The army and the generals, that's who. What are you gonna do, not pay the guys with the guns?
The US economy is doing just fine, save for the wealth inequality. You don't need to "reset" anything, just redistribute that wealth. Maybe start implementing proper taxation of the ultra-rich and of big corporations, see where that leads you, no need to collapse the economy to get there.
Yeah, that was a bit of an insidious statement. Month over month or year over year inflation may be manageable now, but that does nothing to reverse the price spikes over the last two years. And the vast majority of us did not see pay raises to match them.
When media and government talk about "the economy", they mean rich people's stock prices, not working people's ability to afford food and shelter.
Where do you think all that extra money we're paying to live is going? To "the economy" of course! Rich donors to politicians are doing better than ever, so the system is working as intended.
My theory is the buoyed perception of the economy is because there are still surplus jobs available in many middle-class industries. IT workers may be getting laid off en masse by several large companies but (for now) they've been able to get jobs elsewhere.
In reality the average person or middle class family is suffering though and it isn't perception. I literally went through grocery and consumables receipts and many categories of items cost 1.5 to 2x what they cost 18 months ago.
I get really sick of being told by douchey think pieces that things that are happening aren't happening, and vice versa. Fuck whoevers poll numbers they are trying to boost.
I agree with the article on reporting accurately about the threat and illegitimacy of the Right.
I started walking away when it got lumped in with this bullshit.
Don't look at your shit wages and blame inflation, Kevin.
Dope
My wages weren't shit before the inflation hit, Cletus.
Right but your wages are shit now because they didn’t keep track with corporate profits. Inflation is only bad for you because it somehow didn’t cause any inflation in labor costs. So the question you should be asking is, why is everything but your labor costing more?
The problem is the wealthy. And it will be, if history is any guide, until the only thing left for people to eat that aren’t wealthy, is the wealthy.
This guy gets it.
Yes they were...if the inflation of the past 3 years broke you you were fucked anyway before.