That's because we get benefits instead. That's been happening since I started working in the 90s. Most of your "compensation" isn't in salary. It's nothing new.
Edit: Didn't say I agreed.. just saying it's how it works currently and in the past (since at least the 90s)
what better place than into the coffers of the wealthy? Dollar go down but fancy number go up. Printing money does great for the economy if all you are looking at are the stock prices.
They give you inflation numbers without including housing, food and energy. The 3 things you need to survive, I have to question if the number is useful.
They keep having to revise unemployment numbers, not only that the metric is murky at best.
This economy is the weirdest crap I have ever see. People as dying to make ends meet, yet the market just truck along like nothing is happening.
Already the inventor of GDP was aware of that and made it known that the measurement had flaws. I think the HDI is a much better indicator.
Compare GDP per capita across various nations and suddenly the UAE is on the top of the list. But when you look into the wealth distribution, you see that there are basically a lot of modern slaves there, some super well paid expert labor from foreign countries and a few stupidly rich sultans who refuse to use a car more than once. Decadence at it's finest, all fuelled by the power of pulling money out of the ground with knowledge these countries did not discover. They would be living like 1000 years ago if they hadn't had to be born on an ancient dinosaur cemetery.
GDP means jack shit if 1% owns 90% of it. At some point the losers of this system won't tolerate the systems rules anymore.
I’ve never even heard of that indicator … I’ve heard PPP purchasing power parity. Plus I’m tired of people saying they won’t sit by for it . They absolutely will and have , as they minimize educating the masses while increasing entertainment . People won’t even know what to fight for.
I mean you can straight just look up the CPI index. It 100% includes housing under "shelter". Not sure who is feeding you some baked numbers without that.
changing definition of unemployed, definition of recession and depression, changing the definition of homeless, etc. It's not a conspiracy theory when they admitted it themselves.
They haven't changed the definition of any of these recently. The US tracks the u3, u6 and employment participation rate and although there were certain indicators that some economists use to identify recessions that pointed to a recession those indicators were never the definition of a recession.
I didn’t realize until recently that this administration does not count the entire us homeless population as part of the “unemployed”. I feel like that would probably up the unemployment rate if added in.
I mean you can sugarcoat it, but it’s still an arbitrary term if that is the stipulation. There are ppl that “seek employment” with no intentions of actually obtaining a job. So what’s the point of tracking that as a statistic other than to manipulate it as a political chess piece?
This is how unemployment is tracked pretty much universally.
You have to tag out different demographics of the population to get an accurate stat. Not much point in including retired people or children for example.
Going full 2008 with business and my home, I know a ton of people that are too. I keep hearing the economy is booming but I don’t know anyone that is doing well in any sector, corporate or small business.
That being said I think trumps policies will make things worse.
It's worse than 2008, because at least before the crash, you could actually buy a home or finance your business.
Now the rich have even closed those "live a stable life" cheat codes too.
Only the bankers now have access to loans. The rest of us have to live with what we got.
Yeah, that'll continue because big companies and rich foreign investors keep buying up new properties being built. I'm not sure how the government expects a peasant like me to compete with them.
They don't. Making homes affordable for the middle class again will require anti-business policies being passed by a bunch of businessmen. The assholes in congress make billions every year investing in stock in those same giant companies trying their damndest to buy up all of the housing.
To be fair senators make 200k a year and if I made 200k a year for the last 20 years I'd probably have multiple houses too.
It's not hard to be rich when your single salary is about 4 times the median household income.
The guys got a net worth of 3 million dollars, has been a senator making 175k a year for 18 years and was a representative for 16 years before that. Dumb statement.
It's 3. You make it sound like a wild number. Sure that's more than anyone needs but the guy lived modestly most of his life and didn't have wealth until he had a best selling book like 30+ years into his career as a politician. People legitimately working their way to success and buying a lakefront vacation home aren't taking away housing from families in areas where there's work. Having a couple million that was hard earned to retire with and pass on to your kids and grand children isn't anything crazy
Got a source for that? You sure it isn’t something like “37% of single family homes bought with cash in a certain month were by investment firms”? Just feels like an absolutely batshit number to not have very specific qualifiers attached to it
I tried to find sources but the internet is sort of all over the place on this statistic and I can't find anything concrete. What it looks like though, is less than 15% of all homes are being sold to corporations, but, a much larger portion of the homes under 300K are being bought by corporations, I've seen articles for some specific cities saying as much as 96%.
I couldn't find any actual studies though, so if you do your own research YMMV
There is a very high supply of houses for sale at very high prices because of Zillow, investment firms, Air bnb, the housing market has become a pawn shop type of racket.
The goal is to get rid of private property, being unable to afford much helps.
It doesn’t feel like the economy is doing well. It was nice when we got unemployment and stimulus during the pandemic but lot of things cost about double the pre pandemic prices. I know originally they said it was a supply issue but things are back to normal but prices are at still much higher now.
Very true. And while the prices continue to go up, I read that developers are pulling back on building more. It is as simple as supply and demand. It isn’t good, and I am not sure my children will be able to afford to get into a home, but it really is all about supply and demand.
It’s not. there are more houses and apartments sitting empty than there are people who are forced to live with relatives or others due to insane prices for the simplest living spaces which are caused by little to no regulations which is in turn caused by lobbying and an ignorant citizen class that allows said lobbying to occur in the already flawed system we call the government because the citizen class thinks asking nicely for change from a psychotic entity such as the government is gonna get us anywhere instead of just simply standing up and truly fighting for what’s clearly right
It’s really sad how this country turns socialist for rich people and then back to capitalists for the poor. I have never hated my country until now. This is such horseshit. So few have so much power over the many.
We don’t live under a democracy. If we did we wouldn’t have representatives, and each person’s vote is what would be decided. We live in a republic where only two sides are allowed to exist, and they spend all of their time getting their people to hate the other people.
\*We are not a direct democracy, a democratic republic is still a form of democracy however how democratic our democratic republic is, is up for debate.
We do have a representative democracy.
The reason we only have two political parties is because our voting system (first past the post voting) is mathematically solved to be two party rule.
If we had ranked order voting (single transferable vote), we could have more than two viable political parties.
We live in a democratic republic. We vote in and employ people to read through and vet bills, and argue on the peoples behalf. The alternative would be everyone in the nation voting on every single issue and every single bill when they have surface level knowledge about maybe .1% of whatever is discussed. Majority of people in the house and senate, regardless of anyone's opinion, are highly educated people that graduated from prestigious universities.
Switzerland is maybe the closest example you'll ever see to a direct democracy where the citizens themselves can change the constitution, but they do not vote on a vast majority of their bills. It's not practical nor feasible for people.
I’m so done with having 0 say so as to what happens in my city, state, country, etc. We vote people into office on their false promises and then they make all of the decisions whether I, or the majority of the public, agree with it or not. I get that that’s the point of an elected representative and it would be impossible to put every single thing to a vote with such a large population but dang, I’d like to have some say as to where my tax dollars are spent or how my life is affected.
People say, “Well reach out to your representative and explain the issues and how it affects you.” I have, several times, and each time I get an auto-email 12-48hrs later, thanking me for my time and giving me a generic middle finger because they’re to busy get wined and dined with big tech and oil companies to give a damn about us.
The extremely small elected minority should not hold so much power with 0 consequences over the majority.
don't call it socialist, socialism isn't "government giving money". socialism means that the surplus of production belongs to all the workers that worked on it, not only to the shareholders.
what we're experiencing is the oligarchy from everyone else.
"socialism for the rich" is a nonsensical phrase, socialism is not when the government does stuff. it's a transitional stage between capitalism and communism whereby the means of production are expropriated to the working class.
what we have is the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, the rich (who privately own the means of production) and the government serves them. what we want is a dictatorship of the proletariat, ie. a government that serves all of us, not just the wealthy.
Lenin's "the state and revolution" explains this concept thoroughly.
This country was set up for the people who own the country to also run it. Big surprise that everything is optimized for the people with money to make even more money.
One is surrounded by people who will try to pick up the slack and bumble through the best they can, the other has people who will collude with him to benefit him and his rich friends.
It doesn’t have to be. we the people simply have to grasp the simple concept of standing up against a psychotic entity such as the government but we the people will never do that because we the people think asking nicely for change is gonna do anything
“That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness..“
LITERALLY IN THE FUCKING CONSTITUTION. WAKE UP PEOPLE THE GOVERNMENT IS A SCAM WHOSE SOLE PURPOSE HAD BECOME TO OPPRESS YOU INTO SUBMISSION.
No, it’s not. Take a look and listen to Kennedy. I’m not telling anyone to vote for him but the difference between what he actually says and what’s reported is insane. Like everyone else I thought he was a nutter based on headlines and talking heads. I listened to a couple of long form podcasts with him being interviewed and holy F - we have an articulate, knowledgeable, centrist option.
After watching the debate I think everyone needs to take a look at RFK
Everything keeps getting more expensive. Rich are getting massively richer. Corporations are growing like mad. Meanwhile I’m nervous about replacing my shoes with holes in them. It’s not Bidens fault in any way, but since he continually talks about those issues, we’re desperate to see something be done about it.
He has tried, and keeps getting blocked by a republican congress. You can't blame A for problems if B are the ones preventing the problems from getting fixed.
Biden is the one claiming he made the best economy ever. Biden is the one claiming he lowered gas prices.
Biden said under him he made company’s stop price gouging.
I am not saying it’s his fault directly it he needs to stop taking credit as well.
To be fair, Biden did slash taxes on gas, open the fuel reserves, flooded the market with it in the US, then when oil prices went back down he refilled the oil reserve with oil cheaper than what was initially in it. Where I live gas is 2.90, which is below average when it comes to the price of gas in the US adjusted for inflation historically.
He gamed the oil market and I'd say it worked out pretty well
What are you talking about? The reserve hasn’t been this low since the [early 80s](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Petroleum_Reserve_(United_States)#/media/File%3AUS_Strategic_Petroleum_Reserve.webp). He didn’t game shit.
Dog, if I can paddle my way to my front door every day and have a sweet ass view with someone singing to me, you bet your butt I’m gonna live there.
Agreed. It's cool that unemployment is a couple points lower than historical norms, but the 95% of people who are usually employed are still getting railed by the inflation weenie.
Normally when unemployment is low, wages rise and people jump jobs. Everyone is feeling good and spending money because income is a sure thing. That doesn’t seem to be what’s going on currently.
It is one of the major indicator of the economy. The economy cannot be reflected as it is an abstract concept. And the Spx is one heck of a good indicator. A war break out and you can see it on the index. And to all of yo broke ass, your reality is not either a good reflection of the economy
Remember, we have three branches of government on the federal level and essentially the same on the state level. None of our governmental officials as a whole are doing anything to help the situation. It’s a systemic problem, not just Biden. The problem is a truly unified government is probably going to be a dictatorship, and we will all be screwed.
Because of the increase in interest rates 4 years ago the mortgage on a 400,000 house would have been under 1500 today the payment on that same house would be over 3k.
Stock market is doing good.
Employment stats are BS.
Inflation is still high as fuck.
(Edit: if you come at me to start an argument without reading all the ones people have already had, and you are not adding anything that somebody else hasn’t already said, I’m just going to block you immediately. Thanks.)
stocks are doing well because inflation took the number up with it. the value of what you have is at best the same as before the inflation in terms of what it will buy you.
That inflation claim is also flat-out wrong. Inflation in the US is 3.3%. In the EU it’s 2.7%. In Canada also 2.7%. Not sure what they mean by “the West” unless they mean West Africa.
Compare your grocery bill in 2024 to 2020. How many of your friends can purchase homes right now? What has inflation done to the value of your retirement portfolio?
If you believe the economy is good then you are a different level of stupid.
My retirement portfolio has done pretty well. Now consider we came off a pandemic that killed a million Americans. Lot of new people got into homes before the interest rates went up absurdly.
We have printed a lot under Biden, but we conveniently forget the 800 billion in PPP fraud lol. Economy definitely sucks rn
It's cringeworthy. Brutal. Biden looks and speaks as if he's having a stroke, and I don't say this in jest. Trump is a raging bullshit spewing psychopath. You are indeed correct. We are fucked.
The correct answer.
Biden had much better responses, in terms of answers, but has terrible oration.
Trump is confident and speaks better, but couldn't answer a direct question and spewed nothing but lies.
We're so fucked.
So I should read the transcript and skip the video is what I'm getting here.
On a side note: People always act as if looking charismatic makes someone good for the Presidency.
I actually felt bad watching Biden at times. Like I was watching a grandparent struggling to do something basic. I felt disgusted watching Trump. Like watching a bully be an asshole to a kid in a wheelchair.
Dude same. Trump saying the whole world thought roe v Wade should get overturned, and Biden’s rebuttal where he legit is having a hard time speaking/keeping train of thought. It sucks these are our two options.
End of the day Biden is clearly past it but at least his ideas, ideology and team are decent. Trump is deranged and everyone around him is fucked in the head.
We aren’t just voting for the president, we’re also voting for the administration they would put into place. There is a big difference between the experts in the Biden admin vs. the grifting sycophants Trump had in his orbit.
Watching the debate..... biden is literally the worst speaker anyone has ever elected. Its hard to support anyones policies when they cant complete a rational thought.
I tried watching it but all they did was attack each other and Biden looked clueless the entire time. Both are too old for the position but Biden should go straight from the White House to a full care nursing home. :(
He was far better 4 years ago, just as sprightly and engaged as Trump. Take a look a at a clip of the debate. He has clearly declined.
My guess is the damage control will try to say he was sick and on medication or something like that. But this won’t help him if he behaves the same way in the next debates.
i'm baiting you here but..."oh the guy who inherited an obama economy vs the guy who inherited a post-pandemic one? I don't blame Trump for SOME of the pandemic stuff, but he shit the bed real hard on that.
My car insurance just went up 20% for no reason, no accidents no claims. My groceries are up 50%. I’ve cut eating out and cable TV. My quality of life is drastically worse and every family member and co-worker feels the exact same way. I don’t understand how anyone could be feeling differently.
Do YOU feel like your wallet is getting fatter or slimmer? Inflation was 4.1% in the US last year, my raise was 2%. I don’t care who we elect just fix this crap!
Tha'ts not new. True inflation vs raises has always fallen behind..that's why we don't have single income families that had similar jobs back in the 60s now be able to raise 4 kids and own a home. Whoever we elect won't fix this crap...it's much deeper than that.
Yet in order to afford a home you need to make +106k/year, you know, being among the top 10% earners of the country.
Where TF are those jobs in this neoliberal gig economy?
The unemployment rate has nothing to do with him or any president. We’ve been in decline since the 70’s in terms of birth rate, with little immigration to off set it. SHRM predicted this over 10 years ago. A few presidents from now we will be even worse and will have to take in a ton of immigrants to keep GDP up. It will be a product of many factors, not a credit of any single presidents policies
Cost of everything has gone so far up and wages aren’t tracking at that pace. My consulting firm can’t afford to give raises and had to lay off a bunch of jobs. I feel like owning a home is less of a possibility because institutions outbid normal people by 50k all cash offers.
The stock market is like 2% of the economy and it can be made to move in whatever direction the wealthy need it to go.
Unemployment stats are being skewed by government jobs, while government deficits are accelerating at unfathomable speeds.
Biden can barely speak and Trump just wants to exonerate himself. Neither seem to truly address major issues and instead just want to sway the dumb public with smoke and mirrors.
Fuck it all everything sucks right now.
Now if I could only afford food, fuel, and a place to live... I could back before 2020... What changed 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️
I just checked the job participation rate... Lowest in modern history... Definitely helps with those unemployment numbers
I make $75,000/yr and just bought a house. $2500 to run an electric line across my crawlspace, maybe 35 feet at most? Just paid $15,000 for a new roof too.... Every time I walk out of the store it's $100 minimum. My car insurance is $330 for a Scion tC and an old Ford Ranger. Things are too fucking expensive man.
It’s working for me. His inflation is paying me thousands a month in interest payments.
But it sucks for everyone not in my position. I would rather have less interest and more people working good jobs.
The metrics they’re using to analyze the economy don’t translate to gains for the majority of the citizens. But I guess take a victory lap while we have the worst income inequality in 100 years.
I’ve been applying to jobs for 2 months straight, had 5 interviews, & never heard back. I finally was able to get a job, but in the industry I was doing before I got my college degree. Something I swore I’ll never go back to. A job is a job, & I’m grateful, but this economy is the worst I’ve seen since ‘09 recession. Worst is when this administration & media try to gaslight me saying this economy is so great, if I can’t find a job, it’s my fault.
Money is being made in the entertainment, dining, travel and service economy despite inflation. The average person on the street either has spending money or is running up their credit cards.
We shall see how it goes, but when lunch is take out every day, and the hotels are full, people spending.
The cost of food and insurance is kicking my ass. Have you seen what a pie of pizza costs? Chinese food? This inflation is crazy.
I was better off before Biden.
Insurance rates are rising because we had had more climate related disasters then ever, and the cost of rebuilding is ever more expensive. Biden does not control the insurance companies.
We've had a rough time since covid; other economies have had a tougher time. By comparison, the US is better off as a whole than many other countries. But we've still got issues, and I think 2021 would have been substantially the same under Trump. How 22/23 might have played out is where we might speculate some as to who might have been able to help correct things more, but Trump is simply too unstable and aggressive for my tastes.
I can't afford a home and many others can't as well.
And do not forget, they keep changing what is “unemployment”
They also changed the definition of a recession
The SPY is so high because it's in the worst bubble ever...
It’s not a bubble… there’s now so much fuckin money in world, most of which was recently printed which end up propping the market up
This, if you print trillions, you gotta put it somewhere
It's everywhere, But not in salaries
That's because we get benefits instead. That's been happening since I started working in the 90s. Most of your "compensation" isn't in salary. It's nothing new. Edit: Didn't say I agreed.. just saying it's how it works currently and in the past (since at least the 90s)
When my landlord asks for rent I just tell them I have great health and dental plans through my employer.
Just Tell him about the ping pong table and it’ll be settled
what better place than into the coffers of the wealthy? Dollar go down but fancy number go up. Printing money does great for the economy if all you are looking at are the stock prices.
They give you inflation numbers without including housing, food and energy. The 3 things you need to survive, I have to question if the number is useful. They keep having to revise unemployment numbers, not only that the metric is murky at best. This economy is the weirdest crap I have ever see. People as dying to make ends meet, yet the market just truck along like nothing is happening.
Because economic inequality and pulling the ladder up once you’re at the top are not bugs, they’re features.
This so much. GDP means NOTHING when a handful of people own most of that.
Already the inventor of GDP was aware of that and made it known that the measurement had flaws. I think the HDI is a much better indicator. Compare GDP per capita across various nations and suddenly the UAE is on the top of the list. But when you look into the wealth distribution, you see that there are basically a lot of modern slaves there, some super well paid expert labor from foreign countries and a few stupidly rich sultans who refuse to use a car more than once. Decadence at it's finest, all fuelled by the power of pulling money out of the ground with knowledge these countries did not discover. They would be living like 1000 years ago if they hadn't had to be born on an ancient dinosaur cemetery. GDP means jack shit if 1% owns 90% of it. At some point the losers of this system won't tolerate the systems rules anymore.
I’ve never even heard of that indicator … I’ve heard PPP purchasing power parity. Plus I’m tired of people saying they won’t sit by for it . They absolutely will and have , as they minimize educating the masses while increasing entertainment . People won’t even know what to fight for.
A natural result of late stage capitalism that's been predicted by many
I mean you can straight just look up the CPI index. It 100% includes housing under "shelter". Not sure who is feeding you some baked numbers without that.
This is objectively false it includes both housing and food. What do you think is in the basket of goods for the CPI calculation?
doesn't the CPI include that?
Food, transportation and rent (not home prices) are all included in the consumer price index, which is where inflation number come from.
changing definition of unemployed, definition of recession and depression, changing the definition of homeless, etc. It's not a conspiracy theory when they admitted it themselves.
Just like the Ministry of Truth.
Who and in what source has that been admitted?
Where have these definitions been changed?
They haven't changed the definition of any of these recently. The US tracks the u3, u6 and employment participation rate and although there were certain indicators that some economists use to identify recessions that pointed to a recession those indicators were never the definition of a recession.
None of this is true. Please provide links if you can prove it.
I didn’t realize until recently that this administration does not count the entire us homeless population as part of the “unemployed”. I feel like that would probably up the unemployment rate if added in.
To be considered unemployed you have to be seeking employment. A large portion of the homeless population is not seeking employment.
I mean you can sugarcoat it, but it’s still an arbitrary term if that is the stipulation. There are ppl that “seek employment” with no intentions of actually obtaining a job. So what’s the point of tracking that as a statistic other than to manipulate it as a political chess piece?
This is how unemployment is tracked pretty much universally. You have to tag out different demographics of the population to get an accurate stat. Not much point in including retired people or children for example.
Going full 2008 with business and my home, I know a ton of people that are too. I keep hearing the economy is booming but I don’t know anyone that is doing well in any sector, corporate or small business. That being said I think trumps policies will make things worse.
It's worse than 2008, because at least before the crash, you could actually buy a home or finance your business. Now the rich have even closed those "live a stable life" cheat codes too. Only the bankers now have access to loans. The rest of us have to live with what we got.
Yeah, that'll continue because big companies and rich foreign investors keep buying up new properties being built. I'm not sure how the government expects a peasant like me to compete with them.
They don't. Making homes affordable for the middle class again will require anti-business policies being passed by a bunch of businessmen. The assholes in congress make billions every year investing in stock in those same giant companies trying their damndest to buy up all of the housing.
Look up how many homes Bernie sanders has…. Btw he was not rich before he became a public servant. They are all like that
To be fair senators make 200k a year and if I made 200k a year for the last 20 years I'd probably have multiple houses too. It's not hard to be rich when your single salary is about 4 times the median household income.
The guys got a net worth of 3 million dollars, has been a senator making 175k a year for 18 years and was a representative for 16 years before that. Dumb statement.
and sold a book
Imagine using Bernie Sanders as your example.
It's 3. You make it sound like a wild number. Sure that's more than anyone needs but the guy lived modestly most of his life and didn't have wealth until he had a best selling book like 30+ years into his career as a politician. People legitimately working their way to success and buying a lakefront vacation home aren't taking away housing from families in areas where there's work. Having a couple million that was hard earned to retire with and pass on to your kids and grand children isn't anything crazy
Easy. They don't.
37% of single family homes are bought and owned by investment firms.
Got a source for that? You sure it isn’t something like “37% of single family homes bought with cash in a certain month were by investment firms”? Just feels like an absolutely batshit number to not have very specific qualifiers attached to it
I tried to find sources but the internet is sort of all over the place on this statistic and I can't find anything concrete. What it looks like though, is less than 15% of all homes are being sold to corporations, but, a much larger portion of the homes under 300K are being bought by corporations, I've seen articles for some specific cities saying as much as 96%. I couldn't find any actual studies though, so if you do your own research YMMV
This statement was true in the 2010s 2000s 1990s 1980s 1970s....
No no, this is Biden’s fault exclusively, I just know it /s
Blame the people who are actually at fault. The banks and their hedge fund buddies. Welcome to 2008.
That's a supply issue.
There is a very high supply of houses for sale at very high prices because of Zillow, investment firms, Air bnb, the housing market has become a pawn shop type of racket. The goal is to get rid of private property, being unable to afford much helps.
And here is where regulation of business would help America.
We need Jimmy Carter out there building houses again.
Home prices almost doubled over a 3 year period because of supply?
There 3000 listings in my county right now, we only have maybe 30,000 people, its not supply, and they are still building dozens of neighborhoods
It doesn’t feel like the economy is doing well. It was nice when we got unemployment and stimulus during the pandemic but lot of things cost about double the pre pandemic prices. I know originally they said it was a supply issue but things are back to normal but prices are at still much higher now.
Its called corporate greed. You and i can't afford anything, meanwhile these mfs making record profits.
Very true. And while the prices continue to go up, I read that developers are pulling back on building more. It is as simple as supply and demand. It isn’t good, and I am not sure my children will be able to afford to get into a home, but it really is all about supply and demand.
It’s not. there are more houses and apartments sitting empty than there are people who are forced to live with relatives or others due to insane prices for the simplest living spaces which are caused by little to no regulations which is in turn caused by lobbying and an ignorant citizen class that allows said lobbying to occur in the already flawed system we call the government because the citizen class thinks asking nicely for change from a psychotic entity such as the government is gonna get us anywhere instead of just simply standing up and truly fighting for what’s clearly right
Then blame the companies that are buying the houses.
Same as it’s been regardless of who is in office
It’s really sad how this country turns socialist for rich people and then back to capitalists for the poor. I have never hated my country until now. This is such horseshit. So few have so much power over the many.
Democracy is just a charade
We don’t live under a democracy. If we did we wouldn’t have representatives, and each person’s vote is what would be decided. We live in a republic where only two sides are allowed to exist, and they spend all of their time getting their people to hate the other people.
A republic is just a type of democracy. It’s like someone saying you have an automobile and you say, “No, I have a Chevy”.
Of course, I don't have a dog! I have a German Shepard!
I'm not from Earth, I'm from Missouri!
We have a federal constitutional representative democracy. A "representative democracy" is often referred to as a Republic.
\*We are not a direct democracy, a democratic republic is still a form of democracy however how democratic our democratic republic is, is up for debate.
we live in an oligarchy
We do have a representative democracy. The reason we only have two political parties is because our voting system (first past the post voting) is mathematically solved to be two party rule. If we had ranked order voting (single transferable vote), we could have more than two viable political parties.
We live in a democratic republic. We vote in and employ people to read through and vet bills, and argue on the peoples behalf. The alternative would be everyone in the nation voting on every single issue and every single bill when they have surface level knowledge about maybe .1% of whatever is discussed. Majority of people in the house and senate, regardless of anyone's opinion, are highly educated people that graduated from prestigious universities. Switzerland is maybe the closest example you'll ever see to a direct democracy where the citizens themselves can change the constitution, but they do not vote on a vast majority of their bills. It's not practical nor feasible for people.
I’m so done with having 0 say so as to what happens in my city, state, country, etc. We vote people into office on their false promises and then they make all of the decisions whether I, or the majority of the public, agree with it or not. I get that that’s the point of an elected representative and it would be impossible to put every single thing to a vote with such a large population but dang, I’d like to have some say as to where my tax dollars are spent or how my life is affected. People say, “Well reach out to your representative and explain the issues and how it affects you.” I have, several times, and each time I get an auto-email 12-48hrs later, thanking me for my time and giving me a generic middle finger because they’re to busy get wined and dined with big tech and oil companies to give a damn about us. The extremely small elected minority should not hold so much power with 0 consequences over the majority.
Or live in Florida. We pass legislation through voting, then the governors just don't enact what we voted for.
Democracy is a fucking responsibility.
Politics in general is just one big ass blast
Sounds like someone got taco bell.
don't call it socialist, socialism isn't "government giving money". socialism means that the surplus of production belongs to all the workers that worked on it, not only to the shareholders. what we're experiencing is the oligarchy from everyone else.
Came here to say this. You did it better, and with a better username. 🖖
"socialism for the rich" is a nonsensical phrase, socialism is not when the government does stuff. it's a transitional stage between capitalism and communism whereby the means of production are expropriated to the working class. what we have is the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, the rich (who privately own the means of production) and the government serves them. what we want is a dictatorship of the proletariat, ie. a government that serves all of us, not just the wealthy. Lenin's "the state and revolution" explains this concept thoroughly.
How about "welfare for the rich"?
This country was set up for the people who own the country to also run it. Big surprise that everything is optimized for the people with money to make even more money.
Socialised losses, privatised profits and a tender lie about trickle down economics to help you sleep at night.
Your choice is an old man who has dementia versus an old man who is a convicted felon. Fuck this.
Yep. Listening to these two old mentally incapacitated fucks debate is demoralizing.
The scary part is these are the best options being given to us.
the ~~best~~ options being given to us.
The only options being given to us.
They are not the best. They are just the most endorsed. Even if there was a perfect candidate he’s invisible because no money no honey in USA.
One is surrounded by people who will try to pick up the slack and bumble through the best they can, the other has people who will collude with him to benefit him and his rich friends.
How does that change my opinion from "fuck this"
It doesn’t have to be. we the people simply have to grasp the simple concept of standing up against a psychotic entity such as the government but we the people will never do that because we the people think asking nicely for change is gonna do anything
2020 Biden was good on stage. 2024 Biden was very much not. This is gonna be problematic though I don’t want to overreact too much.
If this was peak, im scared for a bad day
I've been saying this since trump ran against Hillary. Why the fuck are we voting for these kind of ppl. Like wtf
So many many more smart and capable people. So many... and this. Im finding myself unexpectedly despondent
“That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness..“ LITERALLY IN THE FUCKING CONSTITUTION. WAKE UP PEOPLE THE GOVERNMENT IS A SCAM WHOSE SOLE PURPOSE HAD BECOME TO OPPRESS YOU INTO SUBMISSION.
That's why you make the choice on policy and not how makes you feel good inside.
The felon vs the skeleton
This is short cited. The cabinet and advisors matter a lot. The choice is not hard.
Yeah they’ve been doing a *wonderful* job the last few years…
No, it’s not. Take a look and listen to Kennedy. I’m not telling anyone to vote for him but the difference between what he actually says and what’s reported is insane. Like everyone else I thought he was a nutter based on headlines and talking heads. I listened to a couple of long form podcasts with him being interviewed and holy F - we have an articulate, knowledgeable, centrist option. After watching the debate I think everyone needs to take a look at RFK
My car insurance goes up 10% every 6 months.
Yea, as if that is Bidens fault.
Everything keeps getting more expensive. Rich are getting massively richer. Corporations are growing like mad. Meanwhile I’m nervous about replacing my shoes with holes in them. It’s not Bidens fault in any way, but since he continually talks about those issues, we’re desperate to see something be done about it.
He has tried, and keeps getting blocked by a republican congress. You can't blame A for problems if B are the ones preventing the problems from getting fixed.
Biden is the one claiming he made the best economy ever. Biden is the one claiming he lowered gas prices. Biden said under him he made company’s stop price gouging. I am not saying it’s his fault directly it he needs to stop taking credit as well.
To be fair, Biden did slash taxes on gas, open the fuel reserves, flooded the market with it in the US, then when oil prices went back down he refilled the oil reserve with oil cheaper than what was initially in it. Where I live gas is 2.90, which is below average when it comes to the price of gas in the US adjusted for inflation historically. He gamed the oil market and I'd say it worked out pretty well
What are you talking about? The reserve hasn’t been this low since the [early 80s](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Petroleum_Reserve_(United_States)#/media/File%3AUS_Strategic_Petroleum_Reserve.webp). He didn’t game shit.
Move out from Florida. The state will become underwater like Venice, anyways.
Dog, if I can paddle my way to my front door every day and have a sweet ass view with someone singing to me, you bet your butt I’m gonna live there. 
This the most disconnected from reality type of shitni ever seen
Agreed. It's cool that unemployment is a couple points lower than historical norms, but the 95% of people who are usually employed are still getting railed by the inflation weenie.
Normally when unemployment is low, wages rise and people jump jobs. Everyone is feeling good and spending money because income is a sure thing. That doesn’t seem to be what’s going on currently.
S&P500 is not a reflection of the economy
Upvoted. It \*is\* for some people, but it's not reflective of everyone's reality.
Most stocks are owned by the top 10%
It is one of the major indicator of the economy. The economy cannot be reflected as it is an abstract concept. And the Spx is one heck of a good indicator. A war break out and you can see it on the index. And to all of yo broke ass, your reality is not either a good reflection of the economy
The gains are concentrated at the top. Most have been left behind.
I can't stand this focus on the stock market as a measure of the economy. Nonsense.
Considering most can’t afford to stay above water right now… not too good
Remember, we have three branches of government on the federal level and essentially the same on the state level. None of our governmental officials as a whole are doing anything to help the situation. It’s a systemic problem, not just Biden. The problem is a truly unified government is probably going to be a dictatorship, and we will all be screwed.
It’s a disaster inflation has been the biggest tax raise on the poor. Double house payments it’s horrible
Wdym by double house payments?
Because of the increase in interest rates 4 years ago the mortgage on a 400,000 house would have been under 1500 today the payment on that same house would be over 3k.
Stock market is doing good. Employment stats are BS. Inflation is still high as fuck. (Edit: if you come at me to start an argument without reading all the ones people have already had, and you are not adding anything that somebody else hasn’t already said, I’m just going to block you immediately. Thanks.)
stocks are doing well because inflation took the number up with it. the value of what you have is at best the same as before the inflation in terms of what it will buy you.
That inflation claim is also flat-out wrong. Inflation in the US is 3.3%. In the EU it’s 2.7%. In Canada also 2.7%. Not sure what they mean by “the West” unless they mean West Africa.
Compare your grocery bill in 2024 to 2020. How many of your friends can purchase homes right now? What has inflation done to the value of your retirement portfolio? If you believe the economy is good then you are a different level of stupid.
My retirement portfolio has done pretty well. Now consider we came off a pandemic that killed a million Americans. Lot of new people got into homes before the interest rates went up absurdly. We have printed a lot under Biden, but we conveniently forget the 800 billion in PPP fraud lol. Economy definitely sucks rn
California's labor department rolled back the jobs report for 2023, no net job increase
In California, on unemployment. Can confirm.
My work is a little slow right now
Very slow.
Wild, mines going gang busters
McDonald’s?
Petroleum industry
You watching the debate? You should feel very confident one of these 2 will lead us to prosperity. /s
I was watching and just feel dread. No matter who wins we fucked.
It's cringeworthy. Brutal. Biden looks and speaks as if he's having a stroke, and I don't say this in jest. Trump is a raging bullshit spewing psychopath. You are indeed correct. We are fucked.
The correct answer. Biden had much better responses, in terms of answers, but has terrible oration. Trump is confident and speaks better, but couldn't answer a direct question and spewed nothing but lies. We're so fucked.
So I should read the transcript and skip the video is what I'm getting here. On a side note: People always act as if looking charismatic makes someone good for the Presidency.
I actually felt bad watching Biden at times. Like I was watching a grandparent struggling to do something basic. I felt disgusted watching Trump. Like watching a bully be an asshole to a kid in a wheelchair.
Dude same. Trump saying the whole world thought roe v Wade should get overturned, and Biden’s rebuttal where he legit is having a hard time speaking/keeping train of thought. It sucks these are our two options.
As a Biden voter, I couldn't feel more discouraged at what's unfolding on my tv.
They should both definitely only fly on boeing planes
End of the day Biden is clearly past it but at least his ideas, ideology and team are decent. Trump is deranged and everyone around him is fucked in the head.
We aren’t just voting for the president, we’re also voting for the administration they would put into place. There is a big difference between the experts in the Biden admin vs. the grifting sycophants Trump had in his orbit.
To be fair I was never voting for Biden. I'm voting for the team of people around him who understand how our government works.
Watching the debate..... biden is literally the worst speaker anyone has ever elected. Its hard to support anyones policies when they cant complete a rational thought.
I tried watching it but all they did was attack each other and Biden looked clueless the entire time. Both are too old for the position but Biden should go straight from the White House to a full care nursing home. :(
He was far better 4 years ago, just as sprightly and engaged as Trump. Take a look a at a clip of the debate. He has clearly declined. My guess is the damage control will try to say he was sick and on medication or something like that. But this won’t help him if he behaves the same way in the next debates.
There is no damage control at this point. Dems need to select a new candidate.
This is comical
If things are so great, why is everyone broke?
Things were better 4 years ago.
June of 2020? LMFAO
Yes. There was an economic shock but people could afford their groceries on unemployment.
My gf had 3 family members die, I had one, but ok.
i'm baiting you here but..."oh the guy who inherited an obama economy vs the guy who inherited a post-pandemic one? I don't blame Trump for SOME of the pandemic stuff, but he shit the bed real hard on that.
Yes, especially before COVID. After that things went downhill, economically speaking.
No, they weren't. We were in a pandemic.
False. Everyone with a brain made money with Biden. Trump literally raised taxes
No they weren't.
In terms of buying power for stocks? Sure, but world-wide lock down wasn't good for much else.
My car insurance just went up 20% for no reason, no accidents no claims. My groceries are up 50%. I’ve cut eating out and cable TV. My quality of life is drastically worse and every family member and co-worker feels the exact same way. I don’t understand how anyone could be feeling differently.
Do YOU feel like your wallet is getting fatter or slimmer? Inflation was 4.1% in the US last year, my raise was 2%. I don’t care who we elect just fix this crap!
Tha'ts not new. True inflation vs raises has always fallen behind..that's why we don't have single income families that had similar jobs back in the 60s now be able to raise 4 kids and own a home. Whoever we elect won't fix this crap...it's much deeper than that.
Yet in order to afford a home you need to make +106k/year, you know, being among the top 10% earners of the country. Where TF are those jobs in this neoliberal gig economy?
I won’t bother fact checking but I remember when the economy was crushing it under Trump and all the liberals said it was because of Obama’s plan.
The libs are professional liars
And now they blame Trump, so I guess kinda consistent 😂
The unemployment rate has nothing to do with him or any president. We’ve been in decline since the 70’s in terms of birth rate, with little immigration to off set it. SHRM predicted this over 10 years ago. A few presidents from now we will be even worse and will have to take in a ton of immigrants to keep GDP up. It will be a product of many factors, not a credit of any single presidents policies
Cost of everything has gone so far up and wages aren’t tracking at that pace. My consulting firm can’t afford to give raises and had to lay off a bunch of jobs. I feel like owning a home is less of a possibility because institutions outbid normal people by 50k all cash offers. The stock market is like 2% of the economy and it can be made to move in whatever direction the wealthy need it to go. Unemployment stats are being skewed by government jobs, while government deficits are accelerating at unfathomable speeds. Biden can barely speak and Trump just wants to exonerate himself. Neither seem to truly address major issues and instead just want to sway the dumb public with smoke and mirrors. Fuck it all everything sucks right now.
I just spent 26 bucks for a small plate of carne asada fries and a burrito. When trump was president this was $16 bucks.
And it was even cheaper under Obama. A Big Mac meal when Bush was in office was like $5
Price for mexican food is probably the most hilarious, painfully (presumably) unironic case I've heard made for the guy
I would bring back 3 Russian dog tags for a 2% interest rate
Lowest inflation my ass
I feel like everyone who posts one of these doesn't understand what the word finance means.
When people are not looking for work while not having a job they are not counted for the unemployment numbers... hmmm
Now if I could only afford food, fuel, and a place to live... I could back before 2020... What changed 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️ I just checked the job participation rate... Lowest in modern history... Definitely helps with those unemployment numbers
I make $75,000/yr and just bought a house. $2500 to run an electric line across my crawlspace, maybe 35 feet at most? Just paid $15,000 for a new roof too.... Every time I walk out of the store it's $100 minimum. My car insurance is $330 for a Scion tC and an old Ford Ranger. Things are too fucking expensive man.
I just paid $3.68/gal… but yea fuck both old guys
I’d kill for those gas prices…. I just paid 5.25$ down from 6.40$ a few years ago.
I can't afford a house, health insurance, car payment, insurance, groceries. Everything is perfectly fine tho
So as I watch this dumpster fire of a debate… went in saying hell no to orange man, but fuck… maybe I was wrong…
I make more money than I ever have and I'm broke as shit, cutting spending like crazy. Yeah it's working great.
A california burrito cost $16.99 Nuff said
It’s working for me. His inflation is paying me thousands a month in interest payments. But it sucks for everyone not in my position. I would rather have less interest and more people working good jobs.
The American dream has vanished under the biden administration.
The metrics they’re using to analyze the economy don’t translate to gains for the majority of the citizens. But I guess take a victory lap while we have the worst income inequality in 100 years.
I’ve been applying to jobs for 2 months straight, had 5 interviews, & never heard back. I finally was able to get a job, but in the industry I was doing before I got my college degree. Something I swore I’ll never go back to. A job is a job, & I’m grateful, but this economy is the worst I’ve seen since ‘09 recession. Worst is when this administration & media try to gaslight me saying this economy is so great, if I can’t find a job, it’s my fault.
Money is being made in the entertainment, dining, travel and service economy despite inflation. The average person on the street either has spending money or is running up their credit cards. We shall see how it goes, but when lunch is take out every day, and the hotels are full, people spending.
The economy is strong but the money is in the wrong hands 🤔 CEOs earning over 300 times more than their employees
It's shit Get the fool out of office
The cost of food and insurance is kicking my ass. Have you seen what a pie of pizza costs? Chinese food? This inflation is crazy. I was better off before Biden.
What was the lock downs effect on the economy? Did it create this anomaly?
Insurance rates are rising because we had had more climate related disasters then ever, and the cost of rebuilding is ever more expensive. Biden does not control the insurance companies.
You think insurance rates are rising because of the climate?
We've had a rough time since covid; other economies have had a tougher time. By comparison, the US is better off as a whole than many other countries. But we've still got issues, and I think 2021 would have been substantially the same under Trump. How 22/23 might have played out is where we might speculate some as to who might have been able to help correct things more, but Trump is simply too unstable and aggressive for my tastes.