Sharp and sustained economic criticism from Biden's ostensible allies established a narrative of failure that has proved alarmingly resistant to reality.
Biden doesn’t get the credit because from a purely pocketbook perspective, prices are still going up.
Telling the average citizen “Hey, you know, inflation is only 3%, not 9.9% like it was…”
They’re going “Yeah, but it’s an extra 3% ON TOP of the 9%.”
And yeah, there’s a lot of factors… corporate greed, bird flu raising the price of eggs, etc. etc. The average person doesn’t care about that, all they care is their weekly grocery bill keeps going up and there’s no sign of it coming back down.
“Average annual food-at-home prices were 5.0 percent higher in 2023 than in 2022. For context, the 20-year historical level of retail food price inflation is 2.5 percent per year.”
It’s no surprise Biden doesn’t get credit for “the economy”, it’s because your average American is spending more, getting less, and not seeing the benefit.
You can’t talk about the economy without talking about pocketbook issues and this article bends over backwards to avoid saying anything about that.
The economy currently has an outlier problem where a few very rich people are posting massive gains. As soon as you remove them from the analysis the portrait is a grim picture of austerity and price fixing.
It’s actually the total opposite of that. Inflation-adjusted income is falling for the top 10%, while it’s rising for enough of the lowest-wage earners to boost the overall average picture to inflation-adjusted wage growth every single year, even during monster inflation caused by Covid + supply chain issues + corporate greed.
daily costs for most people have risen and rich people tend to have less of their income spent on the things actually going up in price so my guess is wages are a response.
Now that’s not a fair comparison, because exactly in 2022 was when post-Covid and supply chain and corporate greed fueled inflation to its peak. So, what we do is correct it down to constant dollars, which gives us inflation adjusted income in constant 2015 dollars:
2019: $52,070
2020: $50,024
2021: $53,417
2022: $54,274
… i.e. even after accounting for the factor you’re claiming means we’re making less, we’re making more.
Income for the top 10% of wage earners actually went down by about 5% from 2020 to 2022, and income at the bottom tiers (again inflation adjusted) actually went up by enough to counterbalance it and result still was a net gain.
I’ve actually seen price softening on some of the items that went up the most during last year. I know because they were items I used to be buying and then stopped because of price increase, and then now they’ve dropped. Not quite as low as they used to be, but definitely lower than their wish-flation pricing strategy.
But, if a Republican who encouraged austerity through the pandemic, or a centrist who did not provide as much stimulus were in office, then it would have been more likely a repeat or worse than '08 with 10% unemployment… Which shitty situation would you rather have?
They had to put a sign up at my local grocer in the bacon section “Please note the increased price of bacon” because so many people were gasping at the register and deciding they didn’t want it. Perishable things can’t go back after it’s been in someone’s cart for an unknown amount of time so it was getting thrown out.
Biden doesn’t get the credit because from a purely pocketbook perspective, prices are still going up.
Telling the average citizen “Hey, you know, inflation is only 3%, not 9.9% like it was…”
They’re going “Yeah, but it’s an extra 3% ON TOP of the 9%.”
And yeah, there’s a lot of factors… corporate greed, bird flu raising the price of eggs, etc. etc. The average person doesn’t care about that, all they care is their weekly grocery bill keeps going up and there’s no sign of it coming back down.
https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/food-prices-and-spending/
“Average annual food-at-home prices were 5.0 percent higher in 2023 than in 2022. For context, the 20-year historical level of retail food price inflation is 2.5 percent per year.”
Good time to buy pork though I guess!
I encourage you to read the article
I did, there was zero mention of how food prices went up 9.9% in 2022, another 5% in 2023 and are still going up.
https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-price-outlook/summary-findings/
https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/food-prices-and-spending/
It’s no surprise Biden doesn’t get credit for “the economy”, it’s because your average American is spending more, getting less, and not seeing the benefit.
You can’t talk about the economy without talking about pocketbook issues and this article bends over backwards to avoid saying anything about that.
not to mention housing still is unaffordable.
The economy currently has an outlier problem where a few very rich people are posting massive gains. As soon as you remove them from the analysis the portrait is a grim picture of austerity and price fixing.
It’s actually the total opposite of that. Inflation-adjusted income is falling for the top 10%, while it’s rising for enough of the lowest-wage earners to boost the overall average picture to inflation-adjusted wage growth every single year, even during monster inflation caused by Covid + supply chain issues + corporate greed.
daily costs for most people have risen and rich people tend to have less of their income spent on the things actually going up in price so my guess is wages are a response.
Okay, let me be a little more complete since “inflation adjusted” seems to be confusing and I feel like maybe you’re not the only one.
Per capita income, current dollars:
Now that’s not a fair comparison, because exactly in 2022 was when post-Covid and supply chain and corporate greed fueled inflation to its peak. So, what we do is correct it down to constant dollars, which gives us inflation adjusted income in constant 2015 dollars:
… i.e. even after accounting for the factor you’re claiming means we’re making less, we’re making more.
Income for the top 10% of wage earners actually went down by about 5% from 2020 to 2022, and income at the bottom tiers (again inflation adjusted) actually went up by enough to counterbalance it and result still was a net gain.
Leftists: yeah I’m not gonna read all that. Biden bad! returns to licking walls
At least I haven’t had anyone accuse me of “sealioning” for quite some time. There are some advantages to the main-stream-ification of Lemmy I guess.
I’ve actually seen price softening on some of the items that went up the most during last year. I know because they were items I used to be buying and then stopped because of price increase, and then now they’ve dropped. Not quite as low as they used to be, but definitely lower than their wish-flation pricing strategy.
Luckily for my life expectancy, double stuff Oreos are still sky high, even with shrinkflation
Well it looks like there’s a recent drop for normal Oreos down to $5.49 from $5.99: https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B078PDK5B5
Doesn’t seem to have transferred to Double yet, but there’s hope for your pancreas’s demise yet!
But, if a Republican who encouraged austerity through the pandemic, or a centrist who did not provide as much stimulus were in office, then it would have been more likely a repeat or worse than '08 with 10% unemployment… Which shitty situation would you rather have?
“Losing slowly is the same as winning” -democrats and their useful idiots
I mean, I like pork, but we haven’t been having a lot of bacon. I could go for some beef.
They had to put a sign up at my local grocer in the bacon section “Please note the increased price of bacon” because so many people were gasping at the register and deciding they didn’t want it. Perishable things can’t go back after it’s been in someone’s cart for an unknown amount of time so it was getting thrown out.
That’s 100% on the grocery execs, not “the economy”.