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Record-Breaking Accomplishments On Jobs And Unemployment Under Biden
(www.forbes.com)
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this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2024
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politics
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Remember when Obama went his entire term just about with positive job numbers and economy? Even till the end he was trashed for the economy by republicans.
Obama walked into office the week that the Great Recession rebounded. And he spent his first 100 days focused on bailing out the banks, propping up private industry, and prosecuting our wars in the Middle East. Of course the on-paper first term looked stellar. We had nowhere to go but up.
And yet... his 60 vote majority Senate dithered on immigration, health care, and climate change because he was so overly invested in "bipartisan" legislation. He didn't close Gitmo, like he campaigned on. He didn't exit Iraq, like he campaigned on. He didn't prosecute any of the banksters. He didn't even route the trillions of dollars in treasure bailouts to homeowners, resulting in some of the highest foreclosure rates of the crisis happening on his watch, while banks recapitalized at record speed (and turned a ton of that cash into campaign ads against him in the following election cycle).
Republicans took advantage of his casual even-handed approach to governance by stabbing him as many times in the back as they could. They fought him in the courts. They fought him in the media. They held up every bill possible in the Senate. They gerrymandered every House seat and state legislative race at their disposal.
And when 2010 came around, they brutalized the Democratic Party, as a result. Obama showed up with a handshake to a knife fight, when he could have been packing heat.
As a liberal, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Obama for many of those reasons. But if you look at the criticism he was receiving from republicans, it was all 100% bullshit. It always is, though. They live and die by the straw man.
Because jobs numbers are meaningless stats to reflect the state of the economy. Doesn't matter if unemployment is at 0% if wages are stagnant and a person can't live off it
If wages are stagnant and unemployment is 0%, there are much more serious atrocities going on.
Yes, there are
Wages aren't stagnant
Closing your mind and making up “alternative facts” to avoid uncomfortable truths is a mental fallacy, and certainly doesn’t help matters.
Wages in the US have been stagnant since the 1970s, while productivity has continued to go up. That is money being stolen from workers, and you are either at the top benefiting from this theft, or more likely a traitor to the working class (perhaps unwittingly), for making such claims.
Here is an interesting article based on EPI studies which illustrates these facts, and 5 reasons why this came to be, if you’d like to learn more.
Your article is from 2015. Things have changed. Wages are increasing.
Here are more recent articles directly from the EPI, if you'd like to learn more:
These reports discuss state-level minimum wage increases, while pointing out that the federal minimum wage is still stuck at 7.25, same as it’s been since 2009.
The reports you linked do highlight a 9% wage growth between 2019-2022 for the lowest earners. I’m glad that they got that bump, but we’re very generously talking $10/hr here, and that is simply not a living wage in any part of America anymore. When factoring in change over time since the 70s, this is drops in the bucket and wages are still comparatively stagnant vs productivity in that time frame.
Also, this was during a time when companies were absolutely desperate to employ “essential workers” to keep operations going during the pandemic. I’d argue that was a much bigger motivating factor for this meager gains in the lowest wage brackets, and it had little or nothing to do with Biden’s policies.
Ok, so like I said wages are increasing, not stagnating. I never said wages shouldn't increase even more.
And wages are increasing even now, several years beyond post-pandemic reopening / return to work. So it's not just due to "essential workers". Wage increases are helping all types of workers.
Economists generally predicted that the pandemic would spark a recession. If a recession had occurred, unemployment would have skyrocketed and erased any gains made by workers.
But a recession never materialized, partly due to Biden's economic policies. So Biden's policies are in part responsible for today's wage gains.
That’s really interesting you bring this up, I was already thinking about mentioning this factor. The reason a recession never materialized is because the Biden admin literally changed the formula for calculating inflation. Since he took office, real inflation (CPI) has risen anywhere between 15 and 20%.
These cost of living increases are not sustainable for America’s working class, especially considering 40% of Americans cannot afford so much as an emergency $400 expense, as they’re literally working paycheck to paycheck.
I absolutely agree with you - we should keep going with wage increases for all workers, and they this should be incentivized by changes to federal policy. But instead of this, Biden seems to be blind to the realities many Americans are facing. So much so, that instead of addressing the recession head-on his admin simply changed the formula for how we calculate it so that we didn’t technically have one per the new formula. This isn’t helping the working class, it’s covering for irresponsible business practices of the ruling class (the corporate oligarchy), and that’s a huge problem that isn’t being addressed in any meaningful way. Do this, and we will see some real benefits to the workers, like what is happening thanks to organized labor efforts such as UAW pushing back on corporations trying to pay bottom dollar.
A recession is not affected by the formula for inflation. In fact, there have been recessions with high inflation (the 1980 recession) and recessions with low inflation (the 2007 recession). There have even been recessions with negative inflation (the Great Depression).
A recession occurs when the total income of a country decreases. This leads to a vicious cycle of less spending, which causes more unemployment, which causes further decreases in total income.
Inflation measures change in prices, not income. When incomes increase along with prices, there is no vicious cycle and no recession. And as we know, incomes are increasing.
Yes, increasing prices are bad. But increasing unemployment is far worse, especially if you want to advance the rights of workers. And unemployment is the bullet that Biden helped us dodge.
They have no idea what they’re talking about.
People still can't live off them, they are stagnant.
That's not what that word means.
Stagnant refers to something that is not moving, moving slowly, declining. Which perfectly describes wages.
Wages are neither still nor declining. They are increasing.
If they're not increasing at an equal or greater rate than inflation then they're not really increasing.
Real wages are increasing, and real wages are adjusted for inflation.
Until people can live in those wages it's irrelevant.
Wage increases are relevant to almost everyone.
In fact, if a wage increase is not relevant to you then you are quite privileged.
Privileged is settling for table scraps and calling it good.
No one is settling.
We used to be starving.
Now we get table scraps. This is progress.
Eventually, we'll get our own meals.
Then, we'll be able to take food from the fat cats who were starving us before.
Vote blue. You won't immediately realize all your wildest dreams, but you'll be moving in that direction.
78% of people now view fast food as a luxury. We are not getting table scraps. McD customer median income has gone from $45k to $75k because we have no money.
Blue has contributed to the starvation
You were the one who said we were getting table scraps dude 🤣
Can't even keep your own propaganda straight
Nobody said anything about settling.
Have you ever said to someone, "Every little bit helps"?
If not, then congratulations. You are very fortunate.
That's a made-up quote.
People can't live off what they're making because corporations are cranking up the prices for record profits and blaming inflation. Food is one of the biggest offenders, and then thanks to all the corporations buying up all the single family homes, it's driving rent through the roof with no chance for the average person to buy a house. It doesn't matter how much you make when the rich just raise the bar for no other reason than greed.
Wages are not stagnant, around here 5 years ago it paid 8 bucks an hour to work at a fast food restaurant, now they start at 15. I make three times as much as I did 4 years ago doing the same thing I was doing. It might be a you problem if you think wages are stagnant, or you're just a mouthpiece for fox "news"
It doesnt matter what it was 5 years ago, or what it is now. Its still not a livable wage. $15hr was the right number 20 years ago, not last week.
Source? fox "news" doesn't count though.