Elitist propaganda. Eat the rich
this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2024
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Our family income only went up because I picked up two (very) part time jobs lol it’s amazing that that is somehow a sign we’re back to normal in their eyes.
The data showed that while the typical American household regained its 2019 purchasing power in 2023, it essentially experienced no rise in living standards over that time.
At least they admit the increase didn't help anyone
Apnews...?
AP Newswire is generally a good source of information yes, and while the person you are responding to is being bombastic, they're not materially wrong.
Everything AP presents here is presented in the tone of "this is the best we can do" and the idea that bringing us barely back to sustenance levels we were at before (there was certainly a big homeless problem in my city before COVID) is a "great" thing to be presenting as a winning campaign issue belies the real suffering many, many US citizens are currently suffering.
It's also choosing to make measurements and metrics that benefit the status quo instead of choosing different metrics that do show the real picture for citizens on the ground in the USA.
Does that mean it's fully propaganda. No, but it's inability to talk about the issue outside the prescribed accepted discourse presents a problem as it does not show the full picture. It's much like the Clinton campaign in 1992 pushing protestors at campaign events outside of the view of the television cameras. As long as it's not in the picture, it effectively doesn't exist.
Chomsky said it best:
The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.
The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion
Case in point for for enforcing the limits - I just heard the head of the corporate landlord association in Canada suggesting that the government buying old buildings instead of them would be Marxist and that would be like East Germany. Keywords strictly outside the acceptable spectrum.
I was wondering when APnews would be suspect in this sub... turns out it's when it veers outside the accepted discourse on lemmy... or doesn't appease them enough.
Status quo, hiding the "real" picture... unreal. All of this while providing absolutely no evidence contrary to anything in the article. Quality discussion.
I think you missed the point. The parent comment explains it well. It's not that AP specifically is suspect. It's a comment on the wider discourse where AP is but one participant. Perhaps one of the best ones. AP is generally a good source. The whole discourse on the topic is propagandist in the way that it works in favour of firms, not labor.
No I understand the point, it's that good news about the economy must be down played because of various unsourced opinion A, B, and C that don't dispute anything in the article but do still manage to accuse AP news of presenting information with an agenda.
This scrutiny is not applied when the reported information is in line with what the community believes. The article even discusses caveats to the good news:
The data showed that while the typical American household regained its 2019 purchasing power in 2023, it essentially experienced no rise in living standards over that time. That is a sharp difference from the preceding four years, when inflation-adjusted median incomes rose 14% from 2015 through 2019.
But that isn't enough. The whole article needs to be cast with doubt, not because contrary evidence was presented, but because users feel AP news is shilling.
Ridiculous.
Edit: It's evident that, once I posted this excerpt, it was clung to like a life raft considering how many times it was spammed, and is somehow self disproving the premise of the article. Kinda sounds like the article wasn't read completely before first (down playing) opinions were cast. But hey, who reads the article? :)
About Manufacturing Consent
A “compelling indictment of the news media’s role in covering up errors and deceptions” (The New York Times Book Review) due to the underlying economics of publishing—from famed scholars Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky. With a new introduction.
In this pathbreaking work, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky show that, contrary to the usual image of the news media as cantankerous, obstinate, and ubiquitous in their search for truth and defense of justice, in their actual practice they defend the economic, social, and political agendas of the privileged groups that dominate domestic society, the state, and the global order.
Based on a series of case studies—including the media’s dichotomous treatment of “worthy” versus “unworthy” victims, “legitimizing” and “meaningless” Third World elections, and devastating critiques of media coverage of the U.S. wars against Indochina—Herman and Chomsky draw on decades of criticism and research to propose a Propaganda Model to explain the media’s behavior and performance.
Their new introduction updates the Propaganda Model and the earlier case studies, and it discusses several other applications. These include the manner in which the media covered the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement and subsequent Mexican financial meltdown of 1994-1995, the media’s handling of the protests against the World Trade Organization, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund in 1999 and 2000, and the media’s treatment of the chemical industry and its regulation. What emerges from this work is a powerful assessment of how propagandistic the U.S. mass media are, how they systematically fail to live up to their self-image as providers of the kind of information that people need to make sense of the world, and how we can understand their function in a radically new way.
I recently got dumped on for suggesting that budgeting is smart. Lemmy is disappointing, sometimes.
"just budget better bro" isn't a response to a systemic criticism.
Are these elitists in the room with you right now....?
…which still weren’t sufficient for the working class.
Meanwhile prices did not.
Well, that's the "inflation" part, isn't it?
Not really. Inflation is an average across the board but a lot of things that were affected by price gouging went up much higher. I'm not sure specifically how it's all calculated but last time I mathed it out my expenses went up much higher than what inflation said they should have.
my wages have not kept up with inflation since 2020. I don't know whos wages have but its not the case for me. granted I wfh now so that is nice buy the most I have made so far is in 2020 in relation to inflation.
I've never had a job where my wage kept up with inflation. My annual raise was always below inflation, and I felt lucky to get annual adjustments at all.
I suspect this is simply an artifact of math. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and as long as the average of the two looks good then the people in charge can nod their heads, say "good good," then go spend a week on their yacht.
you know this is by and large true of me but my pay increased with every job change, which did happen in 2020. I wish I could change my job more often but im single income and I have to maintain healthcare.
I'm sorry that this doesn't apply to you, but does that make it wrong?
no idea but its not just me but my locality. I have done better than most. This makes me suspicious any time I see stuff like this.
It's all averages and statistics can always be spun however you want, but hopefully there's some truth to it. I don't even know what "household income" is limited to. If more people are moving in as roommates, for example, that's not a good thing, but does it raise the household average? I'm too lazy to look it up haha.
I mean im single income to so you know double income if one had lost a job for awhile and got it back. I could see that but as someone who has been (thankfully) steadily working. I don't see it. Don't get me wrong I recognize the interest rate changes since 2010 and what caused the inflation.
Mine do but that’s because I got a new job, which is about the only way to get a raise that beats inflation these days.
Printing it doesn't make it true. Smells of propaganda. How many people do you know who got a raise over 7%?
This was for 2023 and the job market was hot that year. If you switched jobs you probably got a double digit pay rise, and many people were doing it. That's what drove the number.
However, the job market is kinda crashing right now in 2024. So I don't think it's a trend that will continue.
Idk how it could. Haven't tons of companies been announcing layoffs for like tens of thousands of workers for a few years now?
Hundreds of thousands each year for 3 years now, theres websites tracking
So... Still unacceptably low. Got it.
Still unemployed here, applying for jobs that I’m well-qualified for, being rejected without an interview and watching those listing reappear on job sites on a weekly basis.
Til...
If were true wouldn't that mean deflation as wages haven't actually kept up?
No. This is saying that wages have outpaced inflation, which would be disinflation rather than deflation. It's confusing but they are not actually the same thing even though it sounds like they should be.
No it's saying some have.
The latest data came Tuesday in an annual report from the Census Bureau, which said the median household income, adjusted for inflation, rose 4% to $80,610 in 2023, up from $77,450 in 2022. It was the first increase since 2019, and is essentially unchanged from that year’s figure of $81,210, officials said. (The median income figure is the point at which half the population is above and half below and is less distorted by extreme incomes than the average.)
It's not even a good metric to try and say income is getting better
Some have what? I'm not following what you mean.
I do agree its not the greatest metric for a variety of reasons but its still indicative of improvements to the economy. If the opposite was happening it would mean things are getting worse instead of better.
The data showed that while the typical American household regained its 2019 purchasing power in 2023, it essentially experienced no rise in living standards over that time.
Yes, we are finally back to 2019 levels. I still don't understand what point you are making.
The point is its a meaningless stat to try an make it look like it's getting better for workers.
This article talks about income (wages, salary etc).
Right, it leaves out a significant detail while focusing on the least important part.
The data showed that while the typical American household regained its 2019 purchasing power in 2023, it essentially experienced no rise in living standards over that time.
Idk, included it but completely ignored gaining anything from the data :(
But the (clickbait) title got people to (click) talk about it so... it accomplished its publishers' goal, nonetheless.
Poorly, but not like you're great at discussion or reading comprehension
The data showed that while the typical American household regained its 2019 purchasing power in 2023, it essentially experienced no rise in living standards over that time.