comment: >
  
  For the middle class maybe.
  It’s really time to throw the poor a bone here.
  I appreciate that he tried with loan forgiveness, and he’s extended the stay in response to republican judges blocking it, but we need more.  My cost of living went way up this year and my wages stagnated.
  I can probably find a better job eventually, as I have some education and experience, but many are not so lucky.
  Every time I hear about how strong the economy is I look around and see the same poverty I’ve always faced.  We desperately need to work on helping the poor, not JUST the middle class.
context: My entire adult life I have watched democrats dig us out of the shit with economic policies that I now understand and are actually quite intuitive and then republicans take of and just absolutely fuck everything up. 
  It's quite honestly impressive at this point for them to remain a force to reckon with, and has taught me so many things about human psychology >
  
  So whats your explanation for what is going on with country now, why did the country sink further down when biden got in? >
  
  What's going on now is that the country is recovering. The only thing that "got worse" in Biden's first two years was inflation (because jobs were steadily recovered and now are at a higher level than before the pandemic), and that happened because of Trump's tax cuts and PPP handouts raising the national debt so much more that they had to resort to printin more money to be able to honor the debts. Since the economy was going through a period of contraction before, inflation didn't hit until it started expanding again, which is a very well known phenomenon in economics when you print money during a recession. In the particular case of gas, there was price gouging going on by companies and OPEC, and even then the gas prices were lower than in the entirety of the developed world.
  How do you explain Trump fucking up so much though? He literally got an economy booming from Obama in which millions of jobs were created every year, managed to create less jobs in his first three years of government, managed to raise the national debt further thanks to tax cuts and handouts to big companies, mishandled a pandemic horribly and then caused a delayed inflation crisis subsequently that Biden and the FED had to clean up. >
  
  Oh we’ll recover strong just like every time a democrat is in leadership. Then in 2-6 years a Republican will come in. Take credit and wreck us again >
  
  Yet somehow every voter poll says they trust Republicans more to run the economy.  
  We know Dems suck at messaging, but this is something they should hammer into the public consciousness every chance they get. >
  
  But do voters go to dems for messaging or media for messaging?  Because I always see dems hammer Keynesian economics and I see quite a few clueless people.  I kind of think people look through a lense that skips dem messaging. >
  
  The problem is Democrats don’t play dirty politics quite like Republicans. Republicans flat out lie to constituents. They know most constituents don’t understand data or politics even and so they pretend like they’re responsible for the economy from the previous administration, and then do all they can to enrich themselves while they have power because they know eventually democrats will fix it again and the cycle continues. Except it’s getting worse each time. >
  
  And reason number 99944 of how democrats help clean the mess of republican’s messing up the economy >
  
  The unemployment rate is remarkably low and wealth creation is pretty solid. It’s not the usual environment for a recession. Perhaps Dark Brandon is more powerful than the Fed. >
  
  I own a restaurant and in my town I know a half dozen other restaurant owners. None of us can find employees and have even given up trying. All are offering $15 to start and even more for kitchen staff. Almost every service job that I have coming in to my store (pest control, hood cleaning, etc) same issue, they can’t find people to work even with double the minimum wage to start. I’m legitimately curious where everyone is working that unemployment is so low but every business I know or talk to the other owners about are having the same issue. Is everyone working for Amazon and Walmart or seriously where are the workers? I’m just wondering if it’s the same issue as a decade ago when they said unemployment was low because they removed people who stopped looking off the “roster”. >
  
  The recession reset a lot of long-held beliefs about jobs and life. Service industry people especially were treated like absolute shit, and in turn, when the economic climate cleaned up, went to better, more fulfilling jobs. Like, if I can’t afford rent or a house or any of that anyway ever, I’m not spending my time working for a restaurant lol. And I’m not gonna participate in a system that largely doesn’t care about me, and make no mistake, if you’re not a wealthy individual, the system doesn’t care about you, so fuck it. I’ll do the bare ass minimum and spend more time doing things I want-and that doesn’t include working in the service industry. >
  
  Yea I get that. I have been wanting out of this life for a decade but been stuck in it and not sure what else I could do. Plus I cant walk away my life was invested in this business so I’d have to try and sell before venturing out into a whole new life in my 40s. >
  
  I don’t know that struggle, and that sounds like an unintentional trap tbh. I feel for you man, I really do. I would only dissent and say that it’s never too late to start over with something new. But the again, it doesn’t always feel like that, and especially if you have a partner? Or kids? Yeah you’re kinda trapped. Hopefully help comes your way soon. >
  
  Been with same girl for 18 years but no kids. Became slaves to our restaurant and never had time to take off to raise children or afford them anyway lol. But yea I’m going to take the plunge this year or next I swore I wouldnt do this my whole life like my father who still works in his store at 70. >
  
  That’s a very long time to be doing the same thing. I bet every week has been long too. When’s the last time you took a month off and just saw a bit of the world? >
  
  Oh good god I would kill to afford a whole month off! No we take one week off a year for our sanity and to actually work towards something so we don’t lose our minds lol. >
  
  Wait, do republicans call him “sleepy joe” because he can Out-President trump in his sleep? >
  
  I thought it was because most of us sleep better with Joe in the Whitehouse. >
  
  Weird recession >
  
  I don't even get what metric people are using to justify calling it a recession.  There was solid GDP growth last quarter, this quarter looks like its going to top 3.5%. Unemployment is the lowest its ever been, and gas prices are fine now.  Corporate profits are still pretty damn good and inflation is slowing. >
  
  It’s not going to happen overnight. What you see on the stock market. Smart money pulling out is the first step. Growth is stalling, after there is no more growth than the cuts happen. After cuts, less spending, less consumer spending and higher unemployment equal recession >
  
  Growth is not stalling though, it's accelerating over the last quarter. They're trying to scare a recession into existence. The stock market isn't even down that much anymore, and the stock market isn't the economy anyways. >
  
  The fact that you are using GDP when they changed how it’s calculated following the big housing crash says that you aren’t big on following trends in the market. Globally we are entering a recession and it’s not being scared down it’s common sense. We had over a decade of record low interest rates, that’s not sustainable long term. 0-3% interest rates are insane and lead to massive growth due to basically free money in rotation. As the fed continue to increase interest rates, you shall see what’s going to happen. >
  
  It's honestly wild how little credit Biden and his Administration get. The entire world is dealing with the same precarious economic situation and the United States has thus far navigated it better than just about any other developed economy. 
  In terms of sheer agenda and legislative advancement, Biden has had the most consequential presidency since George W. Bush (not that I thought GWB was a good president or anything, but you can't deny his tenure got a lot done) >
  
  There are some interesting contradictions. We want the president to create jobs but the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to cause unemployment as it works to keep wages down; and, we believe in the supply and demand model when workers are paying more for goods but we move to active interference to prevent wages from keeping up with the cost of those goods. 
  Let's not expect the system to work.
  So it is said: Fed chairman aims to cool job market >
  
  Yep, and last week I saw a headline along the lines of, "Strong Jobs Report Worries Wall Street." Basically all the fat cats think the good jobs numbers will lead the Fed to raise rates again, which would be bad for their ability to access credit needed to make bazillions of dollars appear out of thin air. >
  
  Boomers went through this. Some lost their homes and savings but others survived and did well. 
  It isn't a bad design. It's working perfectly but not for everyone.