289
submitted 6 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

Nearly three in five Americans wrongly believe the US is in an economic recession, and the majority blame the Biden administration, according to a Harris poll conducted exclusively for the Guardian. The survey found persistent pessimism about the economy as election day draws closer.

The poll highlighted many misconceptions people have about the economy, including:

  • 55% believe the economy is shrinking, and 56% think the US is experiencing a recession, though the broadest measure of the economy, gross domestic product (GDP), has been growing.

  • 49% believe the S&P 500 stock market index is down for the year, though the index went up about 24% in 2023 and is up more than 12% this year.

  • 49% believe that unemployment is at a 50-year high, though the unemployment rate has been under 4%, a near 50-year low.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] visiting2440@lemmynsfw.com 5 points 6 months ago

To be fair, in the second article you linked it actually indicates that post-tax inequality increased due to specific COVID era tax breaks expiring, while pre-tax inequality decreased. I think most middle to lower income people are not going to care that their pre-tax inequality is getting better because that doesn't result in a feeling of the boot easing up.

I also think that when many people speak colloquially about wealth inequality they're thinking more in terms of "1% vs 99%" mentality rather than racial income inequality. Not to say that it's not an important metric to monitor, but I think the class divide is more useful to focus on when talking about general income disparities and is what most people mean when they say wealth inequality.

Could Biden do more to help with income inequality? For sure. Will he? Probably not that much. Will he be better for it than Trump? 10000% yes.

[-] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

To be fair, in the second article you linked it actually indicates that post-tax inequality increased due to specific COVID era tax breaks expiring

Yeah. Hard to say that's Biden's fault though. He was handed an economy that was in the throes of a catastrophe (literally still in the middle, with almost half the country still on Covid assistance to some extent), and he managed to actually recover it and make some small amount of positive progress even with more than half the existing system being against the idea (like rabidly against it). And then people are throwing that positive progress back in his face like "THIS ISN'T ANYWHERE NEAR ENOUGH, I'M STILL STRUGGLING, SO FUCK YOU." Like yeah... it's not enough. You are correct. Your solution for that problem seems kinda counterproductive though, my guy.

I also think that when many people speak colloquially about wealth inequality they're thinking more in terms of "1% vs 99%" mentality rather than racial income inequality.

Agree. It's just for some reason hard to find a version of that chart that shows particular quartile lines or something, and I was more or less assuming that racial inequality trends would match up with non-racial inequality trends.

Also side note, WTF is up with the Asians, those guys are killing it.

[-] visiting2440@lemmynsfw.com 2 points 6 months ago

Yeah. Hard to say that's Biden's fault though. He was handed an economy that was in the throes of a catastrophe (literally still in the middle, with almost half the country still on Covid assistance to some extent), and he managed to actually recover it and make some small amount of positive progress even with more than half the existing system being against the idea (like rabidly against it).

Definitely agree it's not really Biden's fault. I think people in general attribute way too much of the state of the economy to the president when it's Congress that is passing the laws that are affecting the most change. Although presidential appointments to regulatory bodies do play a big role and that is something I think Biden has mostly done a good job with and deserves credit for.

this post was submitted on 22 May 2024
289 points (88.9% liked)

politics

19144 readers
1836 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