- cross-posted to:
- politics@beehaw.org
- cross-posted to:
- politics@beehaw.org
[P]erhaps the voters are sensible and the economists are obtuse. And perhaps the indicators on which economists rely no longer mean what economists suppose them to mean.
[P]erhaps the voters are sensible and the economists are obtuse. And perhaps the indicators on which economists rely no longer mean what economists suppose them to mean.
I am instantly suspicious. If the thesis is “the experts think things are good, but the non-experts don’t agree, I’m on team non expert” then that’s instantly a little weird.
Bro what the fuck
Those first few things sound pretty good
Right? Is there a reason to disagree with the idea that they’re good things, and if someone “feels” things aren’t good, then maybe the issue is their feelings and perception and not the economic reality?
Yes, it can. Is it? In this case?
Well, by all means, if we’re looking for an accurate picture, let’s focus in on the metric that includes people who worked 1 hour a week or people who gave up looking for work in “employed.” Let’s not address anything related to the actual results that are being shown by other metrics, but merely point out that in a theoretical sense they could potentially be misleading, in some scenarios, whether or not that’s the current scenario.
Dude. This next piece is even worse. It’s a fucking masterclass in misleading. It’s honestly impressive.
Okay, so first, the reality:
So with that reality in mind, let’s look at how they try to spin it into something bad:
Accurate (the numbers are up above, but they do not attempt to present them, for obvious reasons – they just explain what they are, in a way that strongly implies that they would show a bad picture if they decided to show them)
Accurate, he did
Accurate. There are 336 million people in the United States. If 1.25 percent of them are worse off, then millions of Americans are worse off than they were in 2020.
Accurate. Again, the majority of Americans have had their income rise faster than inflation. And yet, by making the completely true statement that “millions” of people have had their income fall, they make a little trickiness that sounds like the typical person has had their income fall.
Median income is actually pretty steady (-1%). The average increase stems from growth at the bottom, no change in the middle, and loss at the top. I.e. reduced inequality. That’s very unusual for a challenging economic time.
Yes, according to them and many other experts Biden-friendly and not. But this framing makes it sound like only the Biden friendly people say this.
So we’re winning, but it could be a “sawtooth,” so it doesn’t count. Got it.