General Politics Discussion (XI) [ARCHIVED] World • Page 21

Wow I’m stunned Israeli military so far “found” weapons in the hospital they raided that had no ammo and they haven’t found a single tunnel despite Hamas apparently having such a sophisticated subterranean bunker system below the hospital.

 

Our company claimed the overall healthcare costs went up 8% for 2024 but they were able to negotiate so that we only saw a 3% increase

 

But some liberal wonk found a number that showed a huge decrease in cost, doesn’t that make you feel great about how much health care cost even though you don’t see any of that in reality? /s seriously the way liberals present economic data right now feels like gaslighting. There has to be a way to present it while recognizing that day to day costs for most people have risen while their wages haven’t in proportion. Like why the hell should I care that the cost of apples has gone down 4% in some kind of data I don’t feel at the grocery store overall when I can’t afford to finance anything I need because interest rates are out of control.

 

Individual grocery prices going down is a big deal for people though. That's also why food prices aren't included in the inflation number that we use, because they vary from food to food and are extremely volatile.

And I do believe wages have risen and have been rising, that's pretty important data to push+not ignore!

 

David everyday in this thread

 

Eggs lowering is price is helpful, but doesn't matter a big dent in a grocery bill accounting for how expensive all other fucking items are.

 

A little positivity every now and then is good to have

 

You don’t think Trump saying “things are bad” (in blatantly the wrong way) and Clinton arguing “no, actually everything’s in fact good” was part of why 2016 ended up how it did?

 

but is anyone actually feeling the effects of this “positivity”? healthcare prices definitely aren’t down so what’s the point in false positivity about that?

 

Wages aren’t rising at anywhere near the level that prices are increasing, especially housing prices, for lower class people. Like that’s what I mean I wish they would just put these numbers out in some context, say something like hey look things are better but we need to focus on labor and wage equality so all Americans can benefit. Or look prices are lowering and here’s how you can take advantage or here’s why you don’t feel it and we can address that with xyz. Instead it’s always hey I know things feel like you’re struggling a bit and expenses have increased but here’s why you’re wrong and everything is good! Thank us!

 

If I could ever actually land a new job and not just get endlessly ghosted by every stupid, POS company in existence, I might be more inclined to feel any sense of optimism in the world. Even as everything else burns around us.

 

No I just think people get caught up in narratives and don't update their priors when conditions change. For example, I heard/saw people complaining about the price of eggs months after egg prices returned to normal.

And yes different foods prices rise and fall, some foods are still more expensive than they were, some aren't. That's not a bad thing to point out! In fact it's really important to point out because it helps people understand oh so the government isn't simply pushing the More Expensive Food button and someone else must be going on if bananas are 10% more expensive than they were but apples are 5% cheaper. Maybe Joe Biden spending government money on poor people isn't causing mass inflation after all.

 

David was advocating for Reagan-era monetary policy in here last week that was when i stopped reading these posts

 

But that isn't true and/or hasn't been true for months, and that's my point! People don't update their priors! Wages have been higher than inflation since May for everyone, AND during the worst parts of the inflation, it was actually the lower class people that were doing the best in terms of real wages:


They didn't start losing real wages until late 2022/early 2023 and recovered back to positive wages pretty quickly. 2nd quartile got hit harder sooner but then they recovered even faster than the bottom.

 

You gonna explain to them what you mean by that or just gonna do the quick hit and just let people think I support Reagan economic policies? lol

 

sure, you advocated for Volkerism which skyrocketed interest rates and directly and purposely caused a recession lol

and yes undeniably was a big part of reaganism overall

 

I heard that story a long, long time ago. Urban legend or stolen story?

 

It's social media, so 100% stolen

 

Reagan more or less accepted it because he got his tax cuts and knew it was going to make inflation worse if Volker didn't do what he did lol.

But yeah I believe I said politically it probably would have been better overall to spike interest rates higher faster and then draw them back down. Didn't say it was a better idea haha. But easier to sell a political message about falling interest rates and a growing economy than the message Biden currently has to sell.

 

This is actually my point! People are not feeling this, you just don’t believe people when they say their expenses are outpacing their income. And of course there’s always other data Home prices are rising faster than wages
Like you show all the graphs you want, there’s a housing crisis in the city I live. Evictions and homelessness are up even higher than pre pandemic rates. It’s just insulting to come here and say actually you’re wrong look at this graph on real wage growth.

 

I think pushing that data has the chance to backfire though, because for voters whose wages haven't risen they're going to then see that as a failure of the government to ensure that wages rise for everyone, and for those whose wages have risen they generally attribute that to their own achievement rather than some broad accomplishment of "the economy".