General Politics Discussion (XI) [ARCHIVED] World • Page 22

Everyone shut up this is actually important news

 

Well you're making too different arguments--inflation is rising higher than wages, which is factually incorrect, and there's a housing shortage causing increased housing prices, which is true!

The problem is with people conflating the two and making it easier for people to blame the very types of policies you support for the rise in home prices. The last thing any left winger should want right now is to give any credence or validation to the idea that Joe Biden created inflation and caused home prices to rise because he spent too much money during the pandemic.

And yes people aren't "feeling it" because of "the vibes". They go home and get online and see post after post after story after CNN news hit about how inflation is still high (it's not!) and so they feel like they can't catch up and don't realize their groceries cost a few bucks less this week because, for example, Pork is actually almost 2% cheaper this year than last! and apples are 5% cheaper, and etc etc etc. Why would you notice that? It's small and builds over time, whereas "Everything more expensive!" is being flashed in your face over and over and over again, even if it's not actually true about everything. ANd that's made the vibes so bad that people are actually saying they want deflation, which would almost certainly mean a recession and people losing jobs, which would REALLY lower their real wages.

 

This made me look up the price of chicken because I remember that spiking up this past year with the bird flu, and wow:

Didn't realiize it was that dramatic of a rise and now fall

 

But you're making a wonk argument about housing prices not being part of inflation, which REAL PEOPLE DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT!!!

Just because the technical definition of inflation doesn't include housing prices doesn't matter one bit, all people care about is that the growth in their actual costs, across the board for everything, are outpacing their actual growth in wages.

 

And the prices of a few groceries dropping by 3-5% doesn't mean much when those same groceries increased in cost by 25-30% last year. A hypothetical head of lettuce that was $1 at the start of 2022 is still $1.20 now, even if it's down from $1.25 at the start of 2023.

 

Yashar is a known scammer lol

 

I didn’t say inflation I said expenses. And I don’t blame Biden for it but I don’t think gaslighting people into thinking he’s done much to address how people are struggling with living expenses is going to win over voters.

 

I'm not even saying that! I'm saying it's not wrong or bad to point out that inflation is down to normal levels, and that wages are rising higher than inflation. And I think people should point out as much as they can that housing prices have nothing to do with Joe Biden's spending policies. And hell, even rent inflation is back down to numbers below wages increases (3.5% year over year for rent vs 5.5% year over year wages for Sept/Oct).

 

Yeah but if in that same time period you were making $1 an hour at the start of 2022, and now you're making $1.25 now, you're literally better off in that situation with the lettuce being $1.20. And of course not everyone has seen their wages go up like that, but the people most likely to have not are the top two quartiles of earners.

 

Everybody deserves to retire

 

Yeah I don't think that pointing out the economic picture isn't nearly as dire as people are saying it is as "gaslighting". And I think what started this similar conversation a couple weeks ago was yet another poll that generally shows American people agree with me lol. It's yet another "yeah it's really bad but I'm doing okay" poll, and something like 65% of Americans are saying that. Pointing that out isn't gaslighting! You don't have to say everything is perfectly fine and there's nothing left to do and accomplish, but you also don't have to pretend everyone is doing terrible, especially since the majority of Americans are literally saying they're doing fine (And who knows how much polarization plays into that, I assume it could be higher but you're always gonna have Republican voters that say it's bad just because it's a Dem in office). And I've mocked and ridiculed the Fed many times in here for raising interest rates when it's clear the money supply isn't the issue or what is/was causing inflation. So I'm not saying go out and say what the Fed is doing is good either.

 

Conversely you don’t have to keep saying everything is roses and sunshine when people can’t retire, buy homes, are living through catastrophic climate events and US-funded genocide.

 

Luckily for us, no one is saying that

 

Why should todays high school kids get to only fill out 18 pages after I did the responsible thing and filled out 100?

 

bin laden would have been a way better hang than you

 

you head over to osama's hideout and you know you're going to have a good time watching cars or the three musketers and playing final fantasy or super mario bros. dave invites you around and you're stuck there with him while he watches bill maher and repeats "people don't update their priors!" at you over and over again all night long. bad vibes

 

But no one got a 25% raise.

 

Question - do you make these posts between classes/how much time do you have between classes, or do you post while the kids are watching Schoolhouse Rock’s “How a bill becomes a law” on VHS from a TV that was rolled into the room? I’ve always been curious about this, hahaha

 

I find it hard to believe that these kids are getting a good education if david is posting this much, but I also half-ass my job, so

 

he turns on west wing and goes back to chorus

 

lol this one is right at the end of class/right after the school day was over and I had to stick around until my contracted time is up. Usually if I’m posting during the school day it’s during planning/lunch/duty or while the kids are doing independent work. Like today they were reading about current/historic 3rd parties and filling out a chart about them, so I posted some then, and then after they were done and we discussed them as a class, they had a paragraph to write during the last 15 minutes of class. Also depends on the class and how many questions they have, how much other shit I gotta do instead like grade/respond to emails/contact parents, etc. I’ve been lucky this year behavior wise, lots of apathetic kids on their phones a lot, but not nearly as many disruptive behavioral issues that I need to write up and shit.

 

yeah but many of the food times that shot up 25% also since shrank back down to normal prices, ie eggs