this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2024
762 points (94.6% liked)

politics

19107 readers
2966 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] zaphod@lemmy.ca 18 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (6 children)

Gas prices are down. General cost of living is stabilized. Unemployment is extremely low and the percentage of eligible workers on the sidelines is dropping. Wages are up for the lowest income levels and continue to climb despite slowing inflation. Black households, in particular, have seen a significant narrowing of the income gap, more so than they've seen in many many years. The percentage of women in the workforce is up and salaries are climbing for them as well. In fact, the post-COVID recovery has been wildly successful when you compare it to post-2008 with respect to the improvements for the poorest among us, which is precisely the opposite of what you're claiming.

Yours is purely an appeal to anecdote. The data is clear. Unfortunately, as study after study has shown, data can't compete with vibes, and we just spent the last two years with the MSM (not to mention social media...) telling everyone a recession was around the corner.

[–] abracaDavid@lemmy.world 26 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Housing costs are sky-high. Rent is ridiculous. Good luck ever trying to own a house. And yeah, cost of living went way way up and now it's "stabilized" there.

And to say wages are up is just laughable. I mean, yeah people are now being paid $15 an hour instead of $10, but what does that matter when food and housing costs increased more than that?

The data is skewed by the people that benefited from raising the price of everything during COVID-19 and then never brought the prices down.

The rich are richer and they are the measuring stick for the economy because they own all the news sources. It is dramatically worse for the poor now than it was 5 years ago.

Don't let bullshit propaganda fool you.

[–] Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world 13 points 9 months ago (18 children)

I feel like this CONSTANTLY happens and people just eat it. Prices skyrocket. Then they stop rising or maybe even dip a little but still remain way higher than they originally were and... Problem solved! It's stabilized! In fact prices are DROPPING! huzzah!

Makes me wonder if people are really this easily fooled or are they all just being ignored? Lol

load more comments (18 replies)
[–] KredeSeraf@lemmy.world 13 points 9 months ago

I'll tell that to the out of control housing, rising food costs and the worsening healthcare coverage and quality. Man! So glad these few things you mentioned are superficially better. There's no problems now!

/s because you know someone is gonna take it literally.

[–] TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

If his is purely anctedote, then yours is decontextualized.

Gas prices are down.

Sure. Since a high in June of 2022. The last time gas prices were at this level was June 2021. And the time before that was October 2014. Which is to say, for about 6 years, gas prices were lower than today. And just looking at the graph, they were significantly below today's level. Just to note, they have yet to return to the levels before the precipitous rise stating in December 2020.

There maybe, as you noted, vibes, but they ain't wrong.

Unemployment should be looked at with, of course participation rate which has held even for the last year, and how long people have been unemployed which has been growing slightly for those unemployed for 27 weeks or more. This also doesn't address underemployment which disporporstely effects the young and poor. Underemployment colors one's outlook for stability in the present and future.

Thankfully, Biden and others in the administration have managed this far better than 2008 for the average citizen. Not having a recession is a good thing. I've lived through several. But that doesn't mean there isn't looming concerns. Inflation is still higher than the target and instigating further disinflation is uncharted territory.

Data, in of itself, is not enough. It needs to be contextualized to develop political and social narratives. Addressing people with condescension and dismissing their anxieties as mere vibes fails politically.

[–] trafficnab@lemmy.ca -3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I think people are expecting all the prices to return to "normal" when that's probably never going to happen, as a good chunk of the price increases are due to post-covid inflation

[–] jpreston2005@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

the largest driver of inflation during and after the pandemic is companies raising prices, and turning record profits.

[–] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

Living is more unaffordable than ever. What even is your comment

[–] K1nsey6@lemmy.world 0 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I stopped reading at gas prices are down. They are up .40 the last week.

The data is clear

The gaslighting is all thats clear. All the data conflicts with your claim. Homelessness up to the highest level ever recorded, housing is unaffordable, food is unaffordable, wages are stagnant, income inequality is the widest ever recorded.

[–] capital@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Looking pretty low to me. Speaking in terms of this week makes no sense to me.

https://www.gasbuddy.com/charts

[–] zaphod@lemmy.ca 9 points 9 months ago

It's almost like they cherry pick data that fits their preconceived notions...

[–] Cryophilia@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I stopped reading at gas prices are down. They are up .40 the last week.

This is just as stupid as saying because it snowed, global warning isn't real.