The Biden administration keeps gaslighting the American people on the economy. Biden himself says Americans would feel better if the media just did a better job with messaging. But would it? The reality for a lot of Americans is the economy is not good, and not getting better any time soon.
Enter The Wall Street Journal. It's their turn to carry water for the administration.
Inside the disconnect between gloomy Americans and a robust economy. “There’s a sense it could all go away in a second.” https://t.co/SUUx0JqudF https://t.co/SUUx0JqudF
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) February 7, 2024
They call it 'disconnect', we call it 'reality.'
Clayton Wiles, a truck driver in North Carolina, earns about 20% more than three years ago. Kristine Funck, a nurse in Ohio, has won steady pay raises, built retirement savings and owns her home. Alfredo Arguello, who opened a restaurant outside Nashville when the pandemic hit, now owns a second one and employs close to 50 people.
But ask any of them about the state of the American economy, and the same gloominess surfaces. “Unstable” is how Arguello describes it. Said Funck: “Even though I’m OK right now, there’s a sense it could all go away in a second.”
There’s a striking disconnect between the widely shared pessimism among Americans and measures that show the economy is actually robust. Consumers are spending briskly—behavior that suggests optimism, not retrenchment. Inflation has tempered. Unemployment has been below 4% for 24 straight months, the longest such stretch since the 1960s.
The disconnect has puzzled economists, investors and business owners. But press Americans harder, and the immediate economy emerges as only one factor in the gloomy outlook. Americans feel sour about the economy, many say, because their long-term financial security feels fragile and vulnerable to wide-ranging social and political threats.
Once more for the people in the back: just because inflation is 'tempered' doesn't mean things are less expensive.
It's the same logic the media use when a budget doesn't have quite as big an increase from one year to the next. They call that a 'cut', and it's so dishonest.
The uncertainty is a big deal. Covid showed how quickly the government could basically turn on us. Shutter small businesses, force us to keep tenants who weren’t paying rent, divide us into “essential” and “non-essential,” close schools, get people fired for not getting the jab… pic.twitter.com/iMmB73iLEK
— Amygator 🐊 *not an actual alligator (@AmyA1A) February 7, 2024
This is a hugh part of it.
We all know now that the government can -- and will -- take this all away from us in the name of 'public safety' in the next 'emergency.' And the journalists who can work from home don't care. Their jobs are secure. Mostly.
Media gas lighting knows no limits. Wowee Apple and Google stock is up the economy is great!! (Groceries are up hundreds of percent from 2 years ago). https://t.co/hyl0UOhwcA
— Eric Lindblad (@lindblad_eric) February 7, 2024
And the media are largely insulated from this.
Must be nice.
Watching the media fanboy the economy is really getting annoying.
— Frog Capital (@FrogNews) February 7, 2024
Letting someone living in an apartment in DC tell you how things are going is a bad idea.
This "booming economy" has left more people behind than any other time in history. pic.twitter.com/nrQ7DrBU0y
But Biden tells us his 'bottom up, middle out' economic plan is working!
This graph is misleading. It looks like prices are falling, when really it's only the rate of inflation that's slowed. I wish someone would make a graph that correctly depicts how astronomical the prices are now compared to the unremarkable wage increase that actually occurred.
— Maxximus (@MattimusMaxxim1) February 7, 2024
And inflation is still twice as bad as it was before Biden.
Food banks near me have never been bigger. I’m in a good middle class city. Never seen it so bad.
— MichMash (@MichMash20) February 7, 2024
Things are fine. Just fine.
the gaslighting will continue until morale improves https://t.co/Boy2nHlJHP
— florida man 🐊 (@2rick2morty) February 7, 2024
That's pretty much the plan.
Gaslight, gaslight, gaslight.
I think some of this is prolonged political and social instability making people feel more uncomfortable than current economic data would suggest they should feel. Rising long-term interest rates don't help either https://t.co/iyDwL1z1qT
— Andrew Eastmond (@eastmond_andrew) February 7, 2024
All of this.
If the economy is doing well why doesn't anyone feel it? A really smart look at Americans' dire views on the economy even as their incomes go up and inflation goes down https://t.co/z1WspRyFnz
— Eliza Collins (@elizacollins1) February 7, 2024
Because it's not doing well.
"Interviews with Americans across the country show they are weighed down by fears of an unpredictable world in which no one in government or business is competent to steer the nation through precarious times." https://t.co/2mN8ITsFwL
— James Pethokoukis ⏩️⤴️ (@JimPethokoukis) February 7, 2024
But Biden is in charge. He's 'healing the soul of the nation' or something.
This is the best article I've seen that explains why Americans are so pessimistic about this "strong" economy. Spoiler: It's not because they are too dumb to realize how good things are.https://t.co/8QwUp0vORF
— Christopher Leonard (@CLeonardNews) February 7, 2024
No, it's because things aren't good.
It’s not immediate economic stats, it’s the lack of hope of what is coming long term.
— Sal Nuzzo (@salnuzzo) February 7, 2024
Inflation may be “down”, but price increases from the past two years didn’t go away.
Wages may be up for families, but $250,000 college tuition is on the horizon. https://t.co/wggxXZFMSO
And that's the problem.
There is a lot of pessimism. And it won't be changing any time soon, we guess.
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