Whenever I want to break out of my echo chamber I head over to Politico (among other sites) to get a taste of how the other half thinks.
I read this article yesterday:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/02/16/democrats-economy-inflation-column-00141816
The focus is general surprise that US voters aren't happier about Biden's economic miracle:
For years, economic thinkers on the left pushed for more government spending and urged the Federal Reserve to be less paranoid about inflation, with the goal of driving down unemployment as low as possible.
The ultimate goal?
Higher wages, higher growth, higher productivity. Win-win-win.
They are succeeding, and yet the unappreciative masses don't seem happy:
There’s a chance we’re headed down that exact path, and yet, Americans don’t seem very enthused.
“There’s a healthy amount of fear and introspection happening among the architects of these efforts that folks aren’t necessarily buying what we’re selling,” one prominent progressive policy advocate told me. “And folks are under some pressure about it, too.”
The "folks" aren't happy!
“What are we doing here if we’re not building an economy that people like?”
That's what I'm wondering too.
Privately, some administration officials worry that it’s not just reelection that’s at stake, but also the possibility that policymakers won’t be as forceful whenever the next recession comes, for fear of stoking prices. That’s even as officials have become more confident that their approach was the right one.
So, they are gaining confidence in their policies?
Perhaps a dose of reality?
And Americans’ skepticism about the economy is reasonable. Rent and grocery prices are both up roughly 20 percent in the last three years. Electricity is up more than 25 percent. While wage hikes have been outpacing cost increases for the past year and a half, they still fall short over the course of Biden’s presidency. And the lack of affordable housing in particular looms as a painful reality for millions of Americans.
I'll conclude with my favorite passage:
So, as the election looms in November, the Biden administration and its allies hope that people get used to the new higher price levels and that positive economic trends, like wages growing faster than prices, last long enough to win over voters.
So that's why I rarely read this shit.
Its quite jarring that people can be so blind and uncritical of their own side. I think they look at the other side and think well they can't be right so we must be. I dunno.
I drive around and see the homeless and think who in their right mind would buy these numbers ? But then I know the books are cooked. These people believe their own bullshit. They think the red team is the opposite instead of the truth. The "opposition" is just driving the speed limit off the cliff. Not going in the opposite direction.
Its jarring to listen to these people. Its a huge reason why I don't think we win with reason alone. You have to have a better system. A system that they don't vote for. It just wins. It just works. These people are blind in many ways.
This is such an important insight and I think it's hard for our side (whatever that is exactly) to understand it.
Most people are more about their feelings and fitting in, than adhering to the most rigorous philosophical system. If we want to succeed, we have to meet them where they are, somehow.
Fight fire with fire.
The right believes we can win in the market place of ideas.
That market no longer exists.
We win by selecting the right people: judges, political operatives, candidates, etc.
By right candidates I mean populists and outsiders and effective governors like Abbott and DeSantis.
Real judges like Alito , Thomas , Scalia, Gorsuch, federalist society members.
Congratulations on overturning Roe and affirmative action
For the most part, I'd say that's just not going to get us very far. "The right people" seem to be, at best, unreliably willing to stand up to the worst excesses of the state.
Recall that the great hero of the Covid tyranny, Ron DeSantis, still put 20 million people on something like house arrest for several weeks without even a whiff of due process. I do applaud him for reaching the right conclusion quicker than his peers and holding his ground in the face of the biggest propaganda campaign I've ever seen, but a principled defender of human rights he is not.
We can do a lot worse than Governor Ron
He is also a smart lawyer
We don’t have human rights in USA.
We have property rights, bill of rights and civil rights.
Human rights are the mantra of homeless activists and undocumented immigrants
The right people will never be perfect.
The perfect person doesn’t exist
What DeSantis incident are you referring to? Do you have a link?
Can you elaborate?
Meet them? Who is them?
Where they are?
A better system of government?
Can you elaborate on what you mean by system ?
The left says they are the party of truth and science and any one who disagrees is anti science and anti truth.
Even here on SN, leftists start their comments with you have been duped by propaganda
In other words you are gullible and stupid and anti science
I unfortunately know a lot of people in the DC Bubble.
You just get inundated with yuppie bullshit. Pretty much everyone there is making 200k+ doing some fake government/NGO job and they're really proud of it and think it makes them better than you.
My favorite line from your quotes is this:
Think about the immense about of hubris tacit in this one sentence. We are building the economy. We're not participating in it. We're not contributing to it. We're building it from our central plan.
Excellent analysis
NGO are money laundering operations like some charities.
How can we convince people to accept higher prices?
Elitist cunts
Very true. I went to school in DC, and lived there off and on after school. I still have friends there with whom I don't talk politics. Good call- "building an economy" says it all.
"For years, economic thinkers on the left pushed for more government spending and urged the Federal Reserve to be less paranoid about inflation, with the goal of driving down unemployment as low as possible."
I read this as: We created tens of millions of minimum wage jobs in our "service" economy while filtering trillions of new money into the hands of the rich, why are the commoners so ungrateful?
Precisely. Trying to pay higher prices for everything with a low wage job.
Illegal immigration will help you hire cheap labor.
Undocumented immigrants are great people who need a translator and welfare
Powell is a hack and has been captured by the left.
Modern monetary theory is based on a lie.
Inflation target is 2 percent. I wonder if FOMC increases it.
Real clear politics does a good job of presenting both views on the issues of the day.
Left right and center but no center lol
Recently there has been a tremendous push for this on r/economics, too.
Just yesterday for example we had the gem "The Economy Is Thriving. Why Are Americans Feeling So Sour About It?":
https://www.reddit.com/r/Economics/comments/1asxktt/the_economy_is_thriving_why_are_americans_feeling/
Economic miracle?
What miracle?
I vote for more of this Mystery Theater 3000 style of reading articles!
Well, our economy is doing so well, it's on a secret mission to discover the bottom of the charts.
This really reinforces for me to either vote orange or go home.
That's why it's important to distinguish WHAT about the economy developed in which direction and not just that GDP is a higher number.
Government spending inflates GDP.
So cynical and condescending to voters with real concerns and anxiety.
Written by people who would never sacrifice a lower standard of living
They're the people who thought lockdowns were kind of nice because you get to stay home and just get food delivered by the Ubereats and Doordash peasants. And they never missed a paycheck, just working in PJs.
Truth
Maybe they'll give up on Keynesian economics now that they know the people would rather have food and a home.
Its not exactly 3D chess to see that housing price increases are a result of capital looking for protection from inflation.
When bitcoin becomes that safer haven, we can buy houses again as capital leaves the inefficient real estate market. I'm hopeful for my kids' generation. Bitcoin gave me that hope.
Seeing everything thru lefty eyes on SN:
MSNBC is neutral
Same user blamed border crisis on Trump not Biden
Another user said climate activists will be debanked like truckers in Canada