Ironically I was much better off financially as were millions of others during the Trump years than since he left office. I guess that’s how I judge competency.
I and many millions of others are better off financially now under Biden than we were under Trump’s stagnation and then recession economy. But maybe personal financial anecdotes aren’t the best way to judge presidential competency.
“Recession” is a defined economic term. It began while biden was in office. I also agree on your point about competency but I think we can agree that most people vote with their wallet in mind. I am happy for you personally being better off now financially. You must be during something special to somehow being able to out place inflation.
Very common misconception to say “economy good when one president in office, but when another was in office economy bad”. In reality, we live under the previous administrations policies, as our government cannot make change happen overnight. It takes years to see the impacts of policies put into place. With that being said, the recession economy were in now was caused by a lot of trump era policies, while trump was riding out obama era policies during his term (allowing him to brag about how he was fixing the economy while not lifting a grubby orange finger to do so).
We’re not in a recession. Economic growth last quarter was almost 5% (which is massive) and growth has been positive for the last 4 quarters. The average quarterly growth over the last several decades has been closer to 2%.
The economy is doing just fine. Frankly, most people hear their neighbors complain about the economy, so they think the economy is bad, so they complain about the economy, and the result is everyone thinking the economy is terrible when it objectively isn’t.
Inflation is relatively high by recent historical standards, but it’s really not that high anymore and hasn’t been for most of 2023. People got sticker shock during the height of it last year and haven’t forgotten. But the labor market is still tight, people who gave up trying to find work a long time ago are entering the market and getting jobs again, wages continue to rise, business investment is up, and small businesses are being created at a historically rapid pace.
When pollsters ask people, “how is your personal financial situation?”, most people are answering “good.” When those same people are asked, “how do you think everyone else’s financial situation is?”, they scream “TERRIBLE!” That doesn’t mean there aren’t people suffering, but things aren’t nearly as gloomy as everyone insists they are.
Much like a lot of issues, the state of the economy is a regional phenomenon.
In a Ruby Red middle of nowhere West Virginia, it’s quite poor right now. I was laid off three months ago and cant find a single job outside of retail (not doing that again) or medical care (no qualifications).
I think it would be a mistake to completely discount people’s economic worries.
That’s because you’re in a Ruby Red middle of nowhere West Virginia, where they’ve been fucking over the poor and blaming Democrats for at least two generations. Federal policy can only go so far, when it’s left to the states to determine where the money goes and what public support to offer. If you want to blame anyone for that, look to your state leadership, not Biden.
You’re not going to see me pretend that Republicans aren’t at fault, but I really would like some solutions, and the only people competent enough, to do that are Democrats.
And then they wonder why they’re losing rural America. It’s because they’ve given up on them entirely. I think Democrats would make huge dents in rural America if we had sound economic policy. Instead, we’re just so darn corporatist.
It reminds me of all the fascism going on right now. Why are Democrats not stopping it? Someone has to be in charge, and they’re just dropping the ball. So no wonder they get the image of a spineless party.
I agree, Democrats are not doing enough to end our corporate mindset and push the needle back toward the common good. But that’s not the same as doing nothing. Biden’s policies have been far more progressive than Obama’s, and Obama’s were more progressive than Clinton’s. AOC’s “the Squad” have increased their numbers (they’re still a tiny minority, but they’re growing) and the more we elect people like them the more traction we’ll see for progressive policy.
I’m sorry we can’t just turn the ship around on a dime. Our government wasn’t broken all at once, and it won’t be fixed any quicker. It’s going to take time, patience, and persistence before we see the changes we demand, and undermining the only faction willing to be reformed isn’t going to help those efforts. Criticize, yes, but make those criticisms based on factual, verifiable criticisms. “Biden is old” doesn’t help us, not as long as Biden is still willing to listen to us (and he has!) and adjust his policy for the better.
We’re never going to have the perfect candidate, one we align with 100%. I didn’t think Biden was going to be anything more than a corporate shill when he took office. But he’s pleasantly surprised me, and I think he’s more than earned the benefit of the doubt.
What exactly do you recommend to strengthen the economy in rural West Virginia? There’s no return on investment in an area with negative population growth, just as there aren’t enough rate payers to justify millions of dollars in broadband infrastructure to service half a dozen 20-acre homesites. Businesses are moving to areas with a positive ROI where labor is widely available (and educated), houses are available for that labor, and economic synergy is magnified due to proximity with supporting industries. The reason the economy boomed in WV in the first place was extractive industries who knew they could make bank by paying no-education rural residents next to no money to shovel coal out of open pits. If that’s not a viable industry anymore, then what’s left? Tourism? Hospitality? Retail? The government can’t force businesses to set up shop where they’ll lose money.
That’s fair, but if you’re pointing to middle of nowhere West Virginia it’s nearly policy irrelevant. I understand that it’s absolutely brutal for y’all right now and has been for a long time but your economy is built on an outdated fuel source, the mining of which is so much easier now that it doesn’t need the population it used to. You’re geographically terrible to build manufacturing.
This is how little people actually understand about West Virginia. Coal is not nearly as dominating of a force as it used to be. It’s all natural gas now, and even that’s going to dry up eventually.
It’s why now more than ever we need Democrats to focus on it and have strong progressive economics to back it up. You can’t just let a state wither because it’s politically irrelevant, that just leads to it forever being politically irrelevant.
It’s also worth noting that Democrats have a mandate to do the right thing, whether it’s politically relevant or not.
Where’s your causality? You’re basically arguing that since B happened at the same time as A, therefore B happened because of A, which may be true, but can’t simply be assumed.
I would be much better off financially too if someone were willing to pay me 2-3x my annual salary to sit home for a year and a half, without the slightest concern for the impact pumping that much money into the economy all at once would cause.
Ironically I was much better off financially as were millions of others during the Trump years than since he left office. I guess that’s how I judge competency.
Which ironically was the work of Obama and not Trump.
It’s well known there is a considerable lag-time between policies implemented and effects.
Much of current struggles is a remnant of the pandemic which Trump handled disastrously in his final year.
That combined with global crises, notably Ukraine-Russia.
I hope you thanked Obama for that, since that was his doing.
I and many millions of others are better off financially now under Biden than we were under Trump’s stagnation and then recession economy. But maybe personal financial anecdotes aren’t the best way to judge presidential competency.
“Recession” is a defined economic term. It began while biden was in office. I also agree on your point about competency but I think we can agree that most people vote with their wallet in mind. I am happy for you personally being better off now financially. You must be during something special to somehow being able to out place inflation.
Very common misconception to say “economy good when one president in office, but when another was in office economy bad”. In reality, we live under the previous administrations policies, as our government cannot make change happen overnight. It takes years to see the impacts of policies put into place. With that being said, the recession economy were in now was caused by a lot of trump era policies, while trump was riding out obama era policies during his term (allowing him to brag about how he was fixing the economy while not lifting a grubby orange finger to do so).
We’re not in a recession. Economic growth last quarter was almost 5% (which is massive) and growth has been positive for the last 4 quarters. The average quarterly growth over the last several decades has been closer to 2%.
The economy is doing just fine. Frankly, most people hear their neighbors complain about the economy, so they think the economy is bad, so they complain about the economy, and the result is everyone thinking the economy is terrible when it objectively isn’t.
Inflation is relatively high by recent historical standards, but it’s really not that high anymore and hasn’t been for most of 2023. People got sticker shock during the height of it last year and haven’t forgotten. But the labor market is still tight, people who gave up trying to find work a long time ago are entering the market and getting jobs again, wages continue to rise, business investment is up, and small businesses are being created at a historically rapid pace.
When pollsters ask people, “how is your personal financial situation?”, most people are answering “good.” When those same people are asked, “how do you think everyone else’s financial situation is?”, they scream “TERRIBLE!” That doesn’t mean there aren’t people suffering, but things aren’t nearly as gloomy as everyone insists they are.
Much like a lot of issues, the state of the economy is a regional phenomenon.
In a Ruby Red middle of nowhere West Virginia, it’s quite poor right now. I was laid off three months ago and cant find a single job outside of retail (not doing that again) or medical care (no qualifications).
I think it would be a mistake to completely discount people’s economic worries.
That’s because you’re in a Ruby Red middle of nowhere West Virginia, where they’ve been fucking over the poor and blaming Democrats for at least two generations. Federal policy can only go so far, when it’s left to the states to determine where the money goes and what public support to offer. If you want to blame anyone for that, look to your state leadership, not Biden.
You’re not going to see me pretend that Republicans aren’t at fault, but I really would like some solutions, and the only people competent enough, to do that are Democrats.
And then they wonder why they’re losing rural America. It’s because they’ve given up on them entirely. I think Democrats would make huge dents in rural America if we had sound economic policy. Instead, we’re just so darn corporatist.
It reminds me of all the fascism going on right now. Why are Democrats not stopping it? Someone has to be in charge, and they’re just dropping the ball. So no wonder they get the image of a spineless party.
I agree, Democrats are not doing enough to end our corporate mindset and push the needle back toward the common good. But that’s not the same as doing nothing. Biden’s policies have been far more progressive than Obama’s, and Obama’s were more progressive than Clinton’s. AOC’s “the Squad” have increased their numbers (they’re still a tiny minority, but they’re growing) and the more we elect people like them the more traction we’ll see for progressive policy.
I’m sorry we can’t just turn the ship around on a dime. Our government wasn’t broken all at once, and it won’t be fixed any quicker. It’s going to take time, patience, and persistence before we see the changes we demand, and undermining the only faction willing to be reformed isn’t going to help those efforts. Criticize, yes, but make those criticisms based on factual, verifiable criticisms. “Biden is old” doesn’t help us, not as long as Biden is still willing to listen to us (and he has!) and adjust his policy for the better.
We’re never going to have the perfect candidate, one we align with 100%. I didn’t think Biden was going to be anything more than a corporate shill when he took office. But he’s pleasantly surprised me, and I think he’s more than earned the benefit of the doubt.
What exactly do you recommend to strengthen the economy in rural West Virginia? There’s no return on investment in an area with negative population growth, just as there aren’t enough rate payers to justify millions of dollars in broadband infrastructure to service half a dozen 20-acre homesites. Businesses are moving to areas with a positive ROI where labor is widely available (and educated), houses are available for that labor, and economic synergy is magnified due to proximity with supporting industries. The reason the economy boomed in WV in the first place was extractive industries who knew they could make bank by paying no-education rural residents next to no money to shovel coal out of open pits. If that’s not a viable industry anymore, then what’s left? Tourism? Hospitality? Retail? The government can’t force businesses to set up shop where they’ll lose money.
deleted by creator
That’s fair, but if you’re pointing to middle of nowhere West Virginia it’s nearly policy irrelevant. I understand that it’s absolutely brutal for y’all right now and has been for a long time but your economy is built on an outdated fuel source, the mining of which is so much easier now that it doesn’t need the population it used to. You’re geographically terrible to build manufacturing.
This is how little people actually understand about West Virginia. Coal is not nearly as dominating of a force as it used to be. It’s all natural gas now, and even that’s going to dry up eventually.
It’s why now more than ever we need Democrats to focus on it and have strong progressive economics to back it up. You can’t just let a state wither because it’s politically irrelevant, that just leads to it forever being politically irrelevant.
It’s also worth noting that Democrats have a mandate to do the right thing, whether it’s politically relevant or not.
No, the two most recent NBER-dated recessions occurred under Republicans. Including this one, which Trump made worse.
They had to turn the money machine off because of inflation. Money machine on does feel good tho.
Actually their needless spending “the money machine” is what caused inflation
Where’s your causality? You’re basically arguing that since B happened at the same time as A, therefore B happened because of A, which may be true, but can’t simply be assumed.
I would be much better off financially too if someone were willing to pay me 2-3x my annual salary to sit home for a year and a half, without the slightest concern for the impact pumping that much money into the economy all at once would cause.
Totally agree.