Most Americans have experienced real wage growth in the past couple of years, accounting for price inflation: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/workers-paychecks-are-growing-more-quickly-than-prices/
#sarahnadeau #centerforamericanprogress #cap #bidenomics #economics #wages #inflation #wagegrowth #goodnews #wageinflation #priceinflation #economyoftheunitedstatesofamerica #economyoftheunitedstates #economyoftheus economyoftheusa
@koavf I know. It's just that prices are still bad, and wages are still bad, and for millions of us, the supposed benefits outlined in that article do not appear to exist.
@AskTheDevil But to what extent is that actually true and to what extent is that a perception that is encouraged by right-wing nihilists hoping to harm America? The facts are that 1.) presidents can only do so much to impact an economy (especially positively: they can really wreck things, but are constrained in how much they can build up an entire economy) and 2.) the American economy is _much_ stronger than virtually anywhere, including Europe or East Asia.
@koavf I don't listen to right-wing nihilists, so it's probably not that.
It's because I can see the bills, and the rent, and the housing prices, and the grocery prices, and the wages, when I look them up and speak to the people in my rather considerable tribe. I know from comparison shopping, and from looking at locations in other areas of the country on the same shopping sites. I know it from contacts that still work in the industry.
Nobody is doing better that I know.
The majority are doing better.
Whether you see it or not isn’t the point. Unemployment is at a low.
When people have jobs, things ARE better (having been unemployed before, I know which I will take).
Do people feel it’s worse? Yes. But that is subjective, not objective.
If you don’t have a job, going from $0 income to $45K a year is objectively better.
I’ve been out of work before. If you’ve never been looking for a job for over a year, you don’t know how it blows through savings. I literally spent the last of our savings on a transmission when I got a job the same week.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/09/07/business/us-economy-biden-approval/index.html
Again, this is objectively false.
“If that were not true, we wouldn't need to have it explained to us, because our purchasing power and comfort level would go up.”
When one goes from no job to having a job it really is amazing how much your purchasing power changed.
Objective proof frequently falls to the wayside when it disagrees with subjective feelings.
If it did not, there would have no Jan 6 insurrection.
As for wages, you need to talk to your employer.
@feloneouscat @koavf I am disabled and very old. I do not have an employer.
I suppose I could talk to the 100+ employers of everyone in my personal circle.
For the last 40 years.
It's not good. Pretending it's good won't help. If you're in the 53%, I'm glad for you.
Anyway, I don't wanna fight about it. Either of us could keel over any minute if we get too worked up.
If this is still a "me" problem by next year, I'll be in the newspapers as "worlds oldest" anyway.
; )
@AskTheDevil @feloneouscat What metrics do you use to measure the health of an economy?
I have a couple: inflation, housing costs and investment in vehicles used for shipping.
For example when everyone was predicting a downturn for 2023 I noticed that 18 wheelers sales were up 20%. Shippers are not going to buy $100,000+ vehicles without a good indication things were improving.
Inflation was going up, but we have an entire generation that has become accustomed to 3% inflation which is barely ticking over (making a Great Recession easier).
@feloneouscat @koavf The economy is not doing well, except for the people on the top of it. If that were not true, we wouldn't need to have it explained to us, because our purchasing power and comfort level would go up.