Whatever happened to the Misery Index? We need to maybe start up an American Happiness Index because international things (like the OECD better life index) are not trusted by the magabrainz and so we’ll have to stamp something highly performative of their identity politics on it…
The economy being strong was only ever a commentary on the foundation. The economy is stable and people are still struggling, which is what Biden has said.
Even that’s a terrible argument. If the economy is stable and people are still struggling then the economy isn’t working for normal people, and normal people will want it to change.
Avoiding a recession was a good thing. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still problems. Sorry if you’d be happier with a job market crash or a housing market crash. But that would be even worse for people.
It’s a terrible argument to get people to vote for the incumbent party.
Yes, avoiding a recession was a good thing. Yes, a job market crash would be bad. But telling people “yes, it’s bad, but it could be worse” isn’t going to get them to the polls.
It’s a terrible position to be in to argue that you are the right person to continue making things better. You have to argue that you’ve done a good job while also acknowledging that more needs to be done.
And the economy doesn’t just change overnight. Trump inherited a strong economy and over his term lined us up for a serious recession. Biden inherited that economy and mitigated that damage. It’s like Trump was driving us straight toward a cliff, Biden swerved to avoid plummeting to our death, and now people are mad that we’ve spun out on the shoulder.
I don’t disagree with that assessment, but the voters didn’t seem to care and that’s what matters. Unless theyre able to make a compelling argument they’re going to lose and we’ll go off the cliff anyway.
This does a good job of pointing out how the economic models that show things are going well are outdated and inaccurate.
All the folks who claimed that statistics should be enough to convince people the economy is good should read it to see how wrong they are.
Whatever happened to the Misery Index? We need to maybe start up an American Happiness Index because international things (like the OECD better life index) are not trusted by the magabrainz and so we’ll have to stamp something highly performative of their identity politics on it…
The economy being strong was only ever a commentary on the foundation. The economy is stable and people are still struggling, which is what Biden has said.
Even that’s a terrible argument. If the economy is stable and people are still struggling then the economy isn’t working for normal people, and normal people will want it to change.
Terrible argument for what?
Avoiding a recession was a good thing. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still problems. Sorry if you’d be happier with a job market crash or a housing market crash. But that would be even worse for people.
It’s a terrible argument to get people to vote for the incumbent party.
Yes, avoiding a recession was a good thing. Yes, a job market crash would be bad. But telling people “yes, it’s bad, but it could be worse” isn’t going to get them to the polls.
It’s a terrible position to be in to argue that you are the right person to continue making things better. You have to argue that you’ve done a good job while also acknowledging that more needs to be done.
And the economy doesn’t just change overnight. Trump inherited a strong economy and over his term lined us up for a serious recession. Biden inherited that economy and mitigated that damage. It’s like Trump was driving us straight toward a cliff, Biden swerved to avoid plummeting to our death, and now people are mad that we’ve spun out on the shoulder.
I don’t disagree with that assessment, but the voters didn’t seem to care and that’s what matters. Unless theyre able to make a compelling argument they’re going to lose and we’ll go off the cliff anyway.
“Democracy is, basically, government of the people, by the people, for the people…”
-Rajneesh Osho