CNN's Burnett asks Biden how he is going to turn the economy around. He said he already has.

return2ozma@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 216 points –
Burnett asks Biden how he is going to turn the economy around. He said he already has | CNN Politics
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People are (sometimes willfully) confusing "the current status quo is fucked" with "there is no improvement resulting from the measures taken by the administration". The former is true - the latter is not.

Current status quo is the economy that's better than ever

Aren't you asking for too much? Take a small win

Bollocks.

That entire political propaganda point is based on grabbing a nominal salary growth in 2023 that is trying to catch up to the inflation of 2021/22 (and the salary growth is already starting to tailing off) and adjusting to make a "real" salary growth using present day inflation which is half as much the one in 2021/2022.

It's all based on a mathematical artifact that salary growth reflects inflation with a delay of about 2 years and just so happens last quarter of 2023 and first of 2024 are a sweet spot were 2y delayed inflation minus present day inflation yields the maximum value.

Extend those maths back 3 or 4 years and the picture is much worse but that can be "safelly" argued away by propagandists as being due to Trump. Well if that is due to Trump then so is the recent spike in salary growth since it's pretty much a perfect match to the inflation of 2 years ago that was supposedly due to Trump.

Going back a few years just proves my point

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Before COVID salaries were much worse than today when adjusting for inflation

It's funny because the two charts I've linked, from the Fed, one for median wages and the other for inflation, together add up to quite a different image, leaving us with 3 possible explanations:

  • that chart your provided is bullshit
  • it's the Fed's own data that's bullshit and your chart is right
  • they're both right, and yours being average and the Fed's being median, neatly proves the point I've been making that average wage figures are unrepresentative of the experience of most people because slary growth for top wage earners pulls the average up even whilst most people don't see any of that wage "growth"

Curiously the comment on your chart about the values around the Covid period reinforce my 3rd point: the chart got a massive jump then because low earners lost their jobs much more than high earners, not because salaries actually went up.

Median wage reflects the wage of one person who's exactly in the middle. The average of the middle quantile also adds ten million people on the left and right side

It's actually not very different from the median real wages

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You legit have no idea why rural Americans are so damn upset, do you?

Sure, fascism. But why fascism?

Breaks my heart to think of how Dems and Reps have completely abandoned so many of our fellow Americans, despite how deplorable and insufferable some/many may be

What? I don't understand this post at all

Let me try and breakdown my thought.

If you consider the conditions that led to fascism in Germany before the 2nd world war, you learn that there were significant economic worries that affected the average German.

When you look at what is leading to fascism in middle/rural America, you will find very similar, significant economic concerns.

Filmmaker Michael Moore was criticized for saying Trump had a very good chance of winning in rural areas because of how angry and desperate the average American living in those areas is, and yet he was right about Trump's chances of winning and about the reasons why.

Fascism doesn't spring out of nowhere. There are conditions that make it more likely to spread. Those conditions are greatly affected by domestic policy.

Lastly, it's worth knowing that famous quote by JFK saying his family didn't experienced any significant struggle during the great depression, which is infamous for being absolutely devastating for many Americans. That disconnect is likely happening again, except this time our leaders are either gaslighting us or are actively unaware of the problem. I'm not sure which is worse, or if it makes a difference.

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Current status quo is the economy that’s better than ever

Every time I challenge this nonsense, that people are pushing that the economy is better than ever, they never back it up with anything. I don't expect this to be any different. We're kind of in uncharted territory and there is plenty of mixed emotion about the outlook for the economy.

I can back it up

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Puts a graph of just the middle quintile, since 2019, and a quote from god knows when, of the super majority of people saying their finances are good or better..to prove that people are claiming the economy is better than ever.

Lol I can see why you provided just pictures rather than links because this seems blatantly deceptive.

Your twitter link is a picture of two people saying opposing things, one that it's getting tight and another pointing out that the data doesn't really support their claim. Neither is saying the economy is the best it's ever been, and if we are reading into both of them, then it's showing the "status quo" is a mixed bag.

From your axios link (which you took a picture of, conveniently leaving out the context) (bolding is mine):

By the numbers: 63% of Americans rate their current financial situation as being "good," including 19% of us who say it's "very good."

Neither number is particularly low: They're both entirely in line with the average result the past 20 times Harris Poll has asked this question.

Literally outright saying that this is an average result. And you posted it as proof that they are saying the economy "is better than it's ever been." lol

Your final twitter link links to an economist article for the data, which is about how gen z is doing better than earlier generations at the same time in their life. It doesn't say anything about the economy as a whole, however, it does note that people complain because the numbers do not account for the exploding cost of college and housing. After all, global house prices are close to all-time highs, and graduates have more debt than before."

It seems to me that you're equating not being 100% pessimistic and point out anything positive as a claim that the economy is "better than ever."

I appreciate you trying, but just like every time in the past I've seen this claim, you've not provided anything. Although "there's plenty more" which probably means some more gish gallop coming.

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