President Joe Biden goes into next year’s election with a vexing challenge: Just as the U.S. economy is getting stronger, people are still feeling horrible about it.
Pollsters and economists say there has never been as wide a gap between the underlying health of the economy and public perception. The divergence could be a decisive factor in whether the Democrat secures a second term next year. Republicans are seizing on the dissatisfaction to skewer Biden, while the White House is finding less success as it tries to highlight economic progress.
“Things are getting better and people think things are going to get worse — and that’s the most dangerous piece of this," said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, who has worked with Biden. Lake said voters no longer want to just see inflation rates fall — rather, they want an outright decline in prices, something that last happened on a large scale during the Great Depression.
“Honestly, I’m kind of mystified by it,” she said.
the grocery stores and the rest of the capitalist pigs have yet to stop price gouging
deleted by creator
An element to this is that there are a lot of different statistics that can tell a lot of different stories depending on what bits of data you pick.
For instance, most people would probably say that the average person had less purchasing power in October of this year compared to October of 2022. They would actually be wrong, as inflation-adjusted hourly wages have actually increased slightly in that time period (by ten cents, admittedly, but the fact remains that wage growth has been outpacing inflation).
This does not mean that every person has seen a growth in purchasing power, and my loose understanding is that most of the growth has been occurring at the bottom of the labor market (which is arguably a good thing from an equity standpoint).
And this story makes a claim that purchasing power is greater in October '23 than October '22 while omitting the 6.5% rate for '22 and the 7% rate the year prior. Inflation is down this year, but that doesn’t dig us out of hole created during the two prior years.
If “the economy” doesn’t translate to the purchasing power of our labor, then it’s a useless metric.
it’s about capitalist scum pice gouging the fuck out of people for literally everything. The economy is doing better but we don’t see it directly because we’re still being abused as if the economy hasn’t upturned
“We just don’t get it, our portfolios are performing so well! I just sit here and rake in money how can the
poorspeople not love this economy!?”
Pollsters and economists say there has never been as wide a gap between the underlying health of the economy and public perception.
There’s never been as wide a gap between the rich and the working class, either. Gee, I wonder if that could have something to do with it?!
I assumed that was true. The article, however, claims
Inequality has lessened somewhat in recent years as wage growth has favored poorer workers.
Ed: even if the article is correct, the gap is still massive. And so the increased profits (due to price gouging) may make some numbers look better, I can’t help but think many households are still struggling to catch up?
Supposedly pay has increased across the board but enough to catch us up to, say, 2019 buying power? The article claims households are better off than in 2020.
The article seems to want to blame those with dim views of the economy without a satisfactory explanation of the psychology, just a bunch of guesses that, to me, don’t seem convincing. The supporting evidence seems rather cherry picked.
If food is up 25% since the pandemic, have all wages also gone up that much? Ok, ok, sure, overall cost of living probably hasn’t gone up that much. But my wages most certainly have not even come close to catching up with the current COL.
So maybe it is the middle classes, rather than lowest earners, who are feeling shafted. Maybe those in charge aren’t looking at the right statistics to understand the perceptions.
Inequality has lessened somewhat in recent years as wage growth has favored poorer workers
Also that means pretty much nothing without also looking at how much more money the richest of us have. Their wealth increases by the trillions during covid. To say that inequality is now better because some of the lowest earning workers might be making a few thousand more each year is disingenuous at best.
Never been as wide a gap between pollsters and the public.
Because they’re calling the stock market “the economy” instead of actually looking at the qol of the average American. It’s just more ammo for the government only cares about the rich and corps argument
No, no they aren’t, your comment is simplifying the issues here, not sure if you just don’t know what you’re talking about or what.
Things like record lows for unemployment for example, nothing to do with the stock market. There have been a lot of important wins for Americans.
with that said, the number one reason it hasn’t touched the QoL for the average American is because all of these capitalist pigs refuse to stop price gouging. That is where it hits us, the gas tank the grocery store, etc. they skyrocketed prices while shrinking sizes and all that because fuck you
Open your fucking eyes, the bigger problem is our out of control corporations
Unemployment is a bullshit number. There are a lot of ways you can be uncounted in those numbers.
Not saying I am aware of a better number, or if one even exists.
I don’t know either, but it’s absolute bullshit. As far as I know, unemployment only counts only those who are looking for work, but can’t find it. What about those unemployed, want to be employed, couldn’t find a job, and gave up?
Things like record lows for unemployment for example, nothing to do with the stock market. There have been a lot of important wins for Americans.
People are working two and three jobs to get by. And our unemployment figure doesn’t count people who have given up looking for work. Saying “unemployment is low” is not the flex you think it is.
The problem is that employment isn’t enough not that there isn’t enough employment.
You should write speeches for Biden
Just on a tangent here - I agree with everything you said except for the gas price part. Gas prices are at a 3 year low, and when you adjust for inflation we are not that far off from an all time historical low price of gas.
There are cars out there that get insanely good mpg now. 100-200 empg for EVs and even 57 mpg on a Prius. The fact that 90% of the cars on the road in the US are SUVs or trucks just shows how selfish people are. The average US driver drives 37 miles a day, at $3 a gallon & 57mpg that comes to a monthly gas expense of $58. A pretty minor expense when you compare it to rising costs at the grocery store.
Wages have not kept up with inflation. Why is this so hard for the media to understand?
Wages have shot up like crazy over the past few years. But the FTC has not enforced antitrust regulations over the past 30 years which led to everything being owned by megacorps with no competition - so we’re getting the screws turned on us right now. The FTC is finally engaging in some antitrust measures, but it is too little, too late. It’s kind of hard to blame that on the current regime.
My wage has certainly gone up. I also can’t seem to go grocery shopping without spending $400 now. Literally everything is more expensive, bills included.
So if I look at my wage as 100%, rent and groceries and bills all take up a larger percentage of that then just five years ago.
Unless there are enforced laws around consumer pricing, every company on the planet is gonna raise prices when wages go up.
You literally use the term regime to describe yourself.
It really doesn’t help to have snooty liberal assholes telling those of us on fixed incomes that our financial situation is great because their 401k’s are appreciating and we’re just too stupid to realize how great the economy is.
The Hillary Clintonism runs strong. Bill at least pretended to give a fuck about people. The democratic pitch being “hey, at least we’re not doing a Gaza to you! Be happy with your scraps” needs a rework Stat.
Stronger economy for who?
The people selling missiles to Israel
voters no longer want to just see inflation rates fall — rather, they want an outright decline in prices, something that last happened on a large scale during the Great Depression.
“Honestly, I’m kind of mystified by it,” she said.
Why the fuck would anyone be “mystified” by the fact that shit is still way more expensive than it used to be, and we’re still only getting paid what we used to be?
Fucking liberals.
The people who bought homes at 3% interest rates are doing fairly ok. The increases in Healthcare, food, and utilities really suck but are mostly manageable if your housing cost is fixed.
Until we see policy makers talking about how rent prices are outstripping any wage increases, a large portion of the population will continue to feel increasingly crushed and disenfranchised. Averages cease being useful measures when the difference between the budgeting with a fixed mortgage vs variable rent is so significant.
Fortunately, I am in the first group, but had been renting for a long time before that. A lot of people I care about are still renters or stuck living with family. Even though I’m comfortable, I can’t take anyone seriously who says this economy is healthy without addressing the millions of people struggling to make ends meet.
I really wish we’d see policy makers shift to measures of quality of life, including financial security, over raw economic metrics. Those metrics are even sometimes at odds to each other. For example, people fully owning durable homes and cars that don’t need much maintenance would increase their quality of life, but decrease measures of economic activity.
I really wish we’d see policy makers shift to measures of quality of life, including financial security, over raw economic metrics.
Companies make the same mistake all the time: They optimize for the wrong metrics and then wonder why things break.
I don’t know how anyone can call this a strong economy when 20,000 people filed for bankruptcy for medical expenses last year, and twelve million kids face food insecurity.
I agree completely. 1/5 children are food insecure in my area. 20%. That’s insane. We are a wealthy country and I’m in a major metropolitan area and yet, 20% of kids don’t know where their next meal is coming from.
Until we see policy makers talking about how rent prices are outstripping any wage increases, a large portion of the population will continue to feel increasingly crushed and disenfranchised.
Need to bring back the mustache mayoral candidate guy.
“Things are getting better and people think things are going to get worse …
Because they are worse … because many people don’t have a well-paying job as a pollster … and it’s expected that the price of groceries will still rise in 2024 … and rent will still go up … and fires/droughts/storms/heatwaves will get worse … and electricity/water bills will still go up …
It always surprises me when otherwise intelligent people seem to set aside their critical thinking skills.
The problem is that lots of people think Trump will fix all of that rather than make it far worse.
He bullied the Feds into lowering the interest rates low for so long and extended the pandemic, so I content a lot of this is his fault to begin with.
Have you considered how much the green bar went up by paying you less? Please consider the poor corprate shareholders who will need to skimp on their mega yacht this year.
Not going to disagree, however, do you think adding 7 trillion dollars to the economy, avoiding any climate change action or corporate price gouging has had any effect on workers frustrations? It takes time to resolve these problems. We have been digging this hole ever since Reagan. Do we want to elect the alternative to dig faster?
If the message was “things are slowly getting better, but there’s a ways to go, and we’ll keep pushing if you elect us” it would be one thing.
But when the message is “What’s wrong with you ungrateful plebs?!” it tends to piss people off.
Second, Biden recently started to blame inflation on corporations that hiked prices when they saw an opportunity to improve their profits, bringing more prominence to an argument first used when gasoline prices spiked. The president’s argument is suspicious to many economists, yet the intended message to voters is that Biden is fighting for them against those he blames for fueling inflation.
“Let me be clear: Any corporation that is not passing these savings on to the consumers needs to stop their price gouging,” Biden said recently in Pueblo, Colorado. “The American people are tired of being played for suckers.”
Wow. There’s no question who’s side the reporter is on.
“Let me be clear: Any corporation that is not passing these savings on to the consumers needs to stop their price gouging,” Biden said recently in Pueblo, Colorado. “The American people are tired of being played for suckers.”
Then do something about it.
He isn’t a dictator. He needs at least another branch of government to get the most effective solutions in place.
He has been insanely effective despite having a broken Congress and brazenly corrupt Supreme Court.
If he can’t do anything but he shouldn’t be running his mouth. It just makes him look weak when he says this shit, corporations keep price gouging, and nothing happens to them. He needs to back it with force.
Why would he do anything about it if all he has to say are words, and people would still vote for him? As long as the Republicans are hard-fascists, the blue fascists can’t lose!
One party is actually running on getting rid of undesirables, the other is milquetoast supporters of regulated capitalism with no real changes in personal freedoms. It’s ridiculous to call both fascists.
Capitalism is fascism.
You help nobody but fascists with that statement. Capitalism hurts and kills yes, but in capitalism it’s a consequence as opposed to the point like it is in fascism
You don’t understand how capitalism was designed to work. Thats obvious.
The oligarch-owned media shouts that everything is terrible when the only thing they care about, the interest rates that impacts their cost to borrow capital, is going up because that limits their ability to run their VC Ponzi schemes. The far-left media and far-right media shout that everything is terrible all the time because they both start from wanting a revolution that tears everything down and won’t ever let reality get in the way of that being the proper solution; things must always be bad and getting worse to justify their revolution. And that’s basically of all of our media.
What far-left media??
PBS.
LOL!!
I came in here to try to explain it again and find post after post of people explaining it for me. I am so proud of you guys.
Now, somebody tell the DNC that…
Remember kids, ‘the economy’ means ‘rich people’s portfolios’.
I swear this is like the 5th “Economy is great but people are suffering for some weird reason” article on this community lmao
And every single time without fail everyone in the comments is showing a big middle finger to these awful pieces lol
It always feels like a conservative saying something about “states rights.”
Sure the economy is good. But good for whom?
Lake said voters no longer want to just see inflation rates fall — rather, they want an outright decline in prices, something that last happened on a large scale during the Great Depression.
“Honestly, I’m kind of mystified by it,” she said.
My dad told me once: “never trust the words that come out after the ‘honestly’ or before the ‘but’.”
it’s not his ‘fault’.
if you want someone, anyone, to blame, it’s the republican clowns in congress and the greedy af CEOs.
