this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 224 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Maybe it’s that the “US economy” and it’s metrics are severely detached from the American people. Unless we’re still on this corporations are people too bullshit

[–] [email protected] 98 points 10 months ago (4 children)

So very much all of this. Just because corpo America, the 1% and the ~~fake numbers~~ stock market are doing good means nothing for the average American.

Our wages are stagnate. Our healthcare either kills you or bankrupts you. Our housing is prohibitively expensive. Our food is to expensive to eat. Our education system doesn't educate and is slowly privatizing. And our police are killing us in lieu of protecting us.

But we've got guns for tot's, piles of dead school children, an insurrectionist running for president, insurrectionists in congress facing zero consequences, a fading separation of church and state. Rising hate crime numbers. And a corrupt Supreme Court openly accepting bribes to destroy democracy.

Yeah Joey everything is sunshine and rainbows.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 10 months ago

Economy Good: The majority of people work their asses off to make a handful even richer.

Economy Bad: The majority of people suffer even more so the handful of people does not have to suffer a bit.

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[–] [email protected] 117 points 10 months ago (10 children)

Because most Americans can’t afford to loose a week of pay?

Because it’s a zero-sum game and most Americans are losing so rich fucks can have their “good economy”.

Biden is so fucking out of touch it’s embarrassing.

[–] [email protected] 67 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

it’s a zero-sum game and most Americans are losing so rich fucks can have their “good economy”.

That does seem to be what his rhetoric is pointing at:

“But for all we’ve done to bring prices down, there are still too many corporations in America ripping people off. Price gouging, junk feeds, greedflation, shrinkflation,” Biden added.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Polling suggests this is not the case. In December there was a poll of swing states that showed the people were split 50/50 on whether what they saw in their own lives, their local or city economy, was heading in the right direction but when asked about the national economy, something they have to rely upon the media for rather than their own experience, only 1 in 4 thought things were heading in the right direction. People are constantly fed negative economic propaganda but don't see it in their own communities so they assume it's happening everywhere else.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Polling is opinion, and they all have varied (and usually terrible) reasons for their opinions. But some telling statistics?

nearly half of Americans have little to no savings , while 89% of Americans save, the average savings is ~1000, and 60% don’t have a retirement account

60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

About 50% of people under 65 have trouble affording healthcare- with insurance

All while corporations are netting record profits despite all this.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I get my credit score up through tricks of the trade, get whatever procedure I need on credit, and then don't pay at all, because I can't afford basic medical even though I work, for above minimum wage no less. They want too much for essential medical treatments, so now I have to do this to survive, I just hope that between every 2 years when my credit tricks work again, that I don't get mysteriously ill with no way to pay. I tried everything. I work 40 hours and live in a very basic tract home built in the 90s with roommates, I sell things on the side, my old man does repairs/handyman services, we don't shop, or go on dates, or get to enjoy life really at all outside the home, hell, I've even tried selling porn; but apparently I'm not hot enough to pull that off either. And to top off this absolutely lack of sundae; I work enough to not qualify for any assistance despite all the above details keeping me stuck renting/working a shit job until something breaks or I get sick or somebody dies. I know some of y'all are gonna hate me for this, but I didn't create this broken economy where $10-$30 a month for insurance is an unaffordable expense on top of copays and deductibles and all the BS to make sure you never use the service they've made you purchase... When is enough gonna be enough? Then our leaders have the balls to ask why we're upset? Give me a damn break.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago

Does anyone under the age of 50 respond to polling calls/emails? Polls are shit for actual representation nowadays and are mainly used as a way to influence rather than gauge.

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[–] [email protected] 83 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

#1 Rent and housing - costs of housing are unsustainable

#2 Affordable transit - prices and sizes of cars are unsustainable

#3 All other cost of living - people buying groceries on emergency funds

Nearly all of this can be pointed at a number of big business cartel-like behavior: Air BNB, Price Fixing, Layoffs, Inexplicably high corporate profits, fraud and abusive behavior by individuals and businesses.

Fund the welfare state for god's sake.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Fund the welfare state for god's sake.

Not gonna happen; why do you think they sacked Bernie twice in the primaries?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago (5 children)

It will never happen if people just say “it’ll never happen” instead of joining the voices and being an advocate for that change!

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[–] [email protected] 63 points 10 months ago (2 children)

prices went up, my wages didnt.

Also I'm medically not doing well but I dont make enough money to qualify for financial help with health insurance

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago

Wait until you read about how shitty our tax law is for people spending most of their money on HC costs. sigh

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 10 months ago (4 children)

"The US economy" means "the flow of money for the rich minority of people" that's why. I work at least 50 hours a week and still can't make ends meet because my partner is severely underemployed by a corporation who won't schedule her enough hours for the amount of work she's expected to do, she doesn't have adequate health insurance, I'm watching it destroy her body before my fucking eyes exactly the same way her mother died before her and am stuck at my own shitty job figuring out what the fuck I'm gonna do about it if and the worst comes to pass.

Fuck this economy, burn it to the ground

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 10 months ago (8 children)

IIRC about 2/3rds of americans are living paycheck to paycheck. That is not an economy that is working for the people.

We need dramatic overhauls that Biden, and especially Trump will never deliver. We need employee ownership of companies for starters.

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 10 months ago

Because his economists aren't treating income & wealth disparity as indicators of economic health.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 10 months ago (8 children)

Because the US economy isn't doing well. The metrics that lead to that statement are wholly and completely disconnected from the American people who, except for a very, very select few, are not rich shareholders and really don't care how the S&P is doing if their pockets are constantly empty.

Rents are systematically high. Wages are systematically low. There is no end in sight. It's disconcerting that someone elected to represent me doesn't see that.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 10 months ago (1 children)

“But for all we’ve done to bring prices down, there are still too many corporations in America ripping people off. Price gouging, junk feeds, greedflation, shrinkflation,” Biden added. “America – we’re tired of being played for suckers!”

The headline makes it sound like he doesn't know what's going on. It's rather that he is leveling an accusation and makes the media cover this. But even then this CNN article does it's best to not cover root causes.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Because the people running CNN are part of the root cause, and they'll be damned if their readers figure it out.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Doing well for who? His campaign donors? I'm still going to vote for him because the alternative is worse, but all this talk about how well the economy is supposedly doing seems horribly out of touch.

Edit: I really should read the article or at least pay more attention to what website the article is on.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 10 months ago (2 children)

If he were to do something about corporations or hell even individuals owning multiple rental properties and essentially using software as a virtual oligopoly to systemically raise the cost of living maybe us normal people would notice. Or maybe do something about greedflation sucking every last dime from us.

I make 80% more than I did 20 years ago and I feel poorer now than I did then.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 10 months ago (3 children)

The jobs market is robust

Which is why every big corp is doing layoffs right now, with hire freezes, wage increase freezes, and shoddy layoff schemes designed to avoid having to pay unemployment.

Even ignoring all the insane foreign policy and fake as hell local policy that will never see the light of day much like the Obama administration, exactly what metric are these fools using to evaluate the economy?

Because if it's the Federal Reserve, then of course those banking moguls are having a hell of a time.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Well, over the last four years I've only received a 3-4% annual raise. This means that, because of inflation, I've seen an effective pay cut of ~10%. Meanwhile the CEO of the company I work for just bought his third condo/apartment (or whatever) overlooking Manhattan's Central Park while full on doubling his take-home in 2022. That'd be a huge reason as to why I feel like shit Uncle Joe. Not like Trump and the Republicans would make things any better or do anything about it... they're more on the billionaire take than the Democrats only plus the GOP apparently is just openly talking about wanting to overthrow the government. I'll hold my nose once again to vote for a Democrat, but they've seriously got to pull their heads out of their asses.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 10 months ago (4 children)

What an asshole headline. CNN has become FOX 2

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago

It's literally their goal. The new CEO said as much.

There's a quote that I have to paraphrase because I can't find it again, but he basically said "Fox news is actually a wonderful model to emulate, they have actual news (I'm going to vomit) surrounded by opinion shows."

They want the same exact thing... To hide the journalism, and cater to the infotainment crowd that just want their confirmation bias drip... Now will it be catering to the right, the so-called center, or ...well not the left we know that much.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 10 months ago

The stock market is a measure of how much wealth has been taken from workers.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Because prices are still jacked up from inflation? Seems like they go up but never come back down?

Gee, ya think?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago (3 children)

The article makes a misleading statement about inflation right off the bat. That it's at a three year low and that's a sign of good things.

But inflation doesn't work like that. This just means prices are increasing at a slower rate. Not that prices have gone down.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 10 months ago (2 children)

How is the economy doing well when the majority of people are broke?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Politicians: Record economy!

Businesses: Welp, time for layoffs! We were always at war with Eurasia.

Citizens: Do I vote for the status quo, ear plugged, blindfolded, ancient politician... or do I vote for a literal dictator, dumb as bricks, ancient "politician." Hmmm... Options options.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Think of it this way:
You are on a sinking cruise ship with the rest of the country and are headed to one of two islands. Sadly, these are the only islands available, and you're going to land on one no matter what. Both of them are toxic wastelands, but one island is attempting to clean up (though, slowly and poorly) while the other island is fully leaning into the toxicity because the people controlling the island are safe in their bunkers. Everyone on the ship has an oar good for one stroke.

Do you give up and throw your oar in the water leaving everyone else to decide your fate? Do you use your oar to paddle toward the island you want and call it good enough? Do you try to get more people to paddle your direction?

We're all along for the ride regardless of how we feel about it and the options for destinations, at least we can try to influence the direction we're going.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (7 children)

Because rent is $2000/month and most places require proof that you make 3 times that amount.

I've never met any motherfucker that makes $6k a month, Joe. Most of us are living paycheck to paycheck.

It's getting increasingly more difficult to give a shit about the social contract when people like Elon Musk have all the fucking money and the rest of us would starve if we got sick.

Fuck.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago

But the ~~the rich people's yacht money~~ economy is doing well!

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

shareholders raking in more money

Prices are still ass for the average American expenses

"The economy is doing great why you feel bad?"

EDIT: This is actually the media screwing us over here, Biden actually touches on why, bad headline

[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago (8 children)

because my rent got raised over $1200 in the past two years

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Because COVID let everyone see what live would be like without having to work shitty jobs, and Biden got everyone back to those shitty jobs. It is like that Greek myth of the person in hell that is surrounded by undrinkable water that gets a drip of water on his tongue as mercy, only to have that memory be even more tourturios.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago (60 children)

Let's see this fucker live on minimum wage and try to afford an apartment.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Well. It's almost like wages haven't kept up with inflation for decades and this last sprint broke something. Just because we're not seeing 20% food price inflation now does not mean the prices magically dropped. They're still high, and wages still aren't enough to make up that difference.

A good job market is great news because you need 3 jobs just to have a place to live.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago

We need a new New Deal.

It's not working for the middle class. It's working for another class.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Let’s see… how much do I pay for in Health insurance each month? How much do houses cost now? How much am I paying in taxes?

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago

Because the wealth gap still grows.

It’s not rocket science Joe.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Hmm , in 2020 the interest rates for buying a house was around 3.1%, now it's around 6.8%. When we're pricing people out of the ability to afford housing (interest rates going up affects rent prices too, who knew) people will be rather upset... especially given that they see little to no benefit from this "good economy" given the layoffs in certain sectors, the gas prices being over 9000, and not one, but two wars abroad where at least one of the parties in each is perfectly fine targeting civilians.

But hey, at least Google and Amazon are raking in the profits, I guess.

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