President Biden thread

14 minutes ago, Beerman said:

High inflation isn't just "perception".  It is the reality of our present situation.  And, unlike other economic indicators,  inflation is the one thing that we all see and that directly effects us everyday. 

I can't disagree with this.  I was talking about the perception that the economy is bad.  It isn't.  I wasn't necessarily giving Biden all the credit but I can't give him a low rating on handling the economy either.

But yes, even I am having a hard time feeling good about the economy because of inflation.  It's dimmed my prospects of retiring when I want to.  I was hoping to retire three years before I take SSI at age 70.  But might keep working until I'm 70 instead.  I consistently overspend my budget on groceries and household items.  And despite paying what I feel is a high and adequate amount of taxes, I still owed $700.  Bleh..

I also think that even with Republicans handling the economy there would have been inflation.  

I've often not been attuned with the rest of America on some issues.  I'm used to it.  

10 minutes ago, Beerman said:

Yes, you are correct.   My bad.

High inflation isn't just "perception".  It is the reality of our present situation.  And, unlike other economic indicators,  inflation is the one thing that we all see and that directly effects us everyday. 

Much of the improvement in other numbers was going to happen as we came out of the pandemic.  Just as I said oil prices were bound to go up some, the same is true for job gains.

Also, from the same poll I linked to:

"Fifty-four percent of respondents said they trust Republicans to do a better job at handling the economy, while 35 percent said the same of Democrats. Seven percent said they trusted neither, while 3 percent said they had no opinion and 1 percent said they trusted both."

History demonstrates that those 54% who trust republicans to do a better job with the economy are wrong.  What we see in American polling in the 21st century is that an alarming percentage of the population are influenced by media opinions and commentary that aren't necessarily reflective of reality.  Feelings about the economy are driven largely by the media consumed by the individual.  When democrats are in in White House the conservative media outlets ramp up concern rhetoric about the economy.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/republicans-pessimistic-views-on-the-economy-have-little-to-do-with-the-economy/

https://evonomics.com/economists-agree-democratic-presidents-better-making-us-rich-eight-reasons/

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Since Joe Biden became president, several surveys have found a sharp rise in Republican pessimism about the economy.

This might seem surprising considering the national economy — which experienced one of its worst downturns thanks to the coronavirus pandemic — is now objectively improving. The United States added 916,000 jobs in March, smashing Dow Jones expectations and the unemployment rate is now at its lowest level (6 percent) in over a year. And economic forecasters now predict annual GDP growth in 2021 will soar to levels the country hasn’t witnessed in nearly 40 years.

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Yet, despite these optimistic economic indicators, most Republicans say the economy is getting worse. On the one hand, this is to be expected, as political scientists have found that how we think about the economy is increasingly rooted in how we identify politically rather than in actual economic conditions.

Take this data from Civiqs daily tracking polls, which has asked Americans about the economy each day since June 2016. Americans’ perceptions of the national economy have changed wildly depending on whether a Democrat or a Republican is in the White House.

These shifts are particularly striking for Republicans when considering the actual state of the economy. Even after a prolonged period of growth in GDP, household income, employment and the stock market during Barack Obama’s presidency, about 70 percent of Republicans consistently thought the economy was getting worse in 2016 — nearly the same share who are now pessimistic about the economy’s trajectory under Biden. (By contrast, fewer than half of Republicans said the economy was getting worse at the height of the coronavirus recession, when the U.S. economy was in its worst shape since the Great Depression.)

Pew research

Republican pessimism about the economy is directly tied to messaging from their preferred media outlets rather than to the facts at hand. 

 Business Insider

Forbes

I agree that it's not just the imagination of conservatives.  The polls clearly show Americans don't think the economy is doing well.  I'm not going to say that this is all in their imagination but it's also not necessarily accurate.  So how is it that people's perception doesn't match the reality?  

I think part of it is the media the consume, which generally is pessimistic.  For a good deal of people it's social media as well.  For others it's the reality of inflation.  

I wonder to how in such a bad economy people feel so freely to quit their jobs in the "Great Resignation".  

Again, like I said, it's perception, not reality.  

5 minutes ago, Beerman said:

and they do not see the importance of us being energy independent.

 

False.  We see the importance of being energy independent but not dependent on fossil fuels for that independence.  We want home grown energy from many sources and a clean environment.  The upcoming weeks with the Ukraine crisis is going to highlight our dependence on fossil fuels.  Republicans will use this as a cry for increasing domestic oil production.  Democrats will see it as an opportunity to highlight getting away from fossil fuels.

There's a variety of opinions but we do see the importance of being energy independent 

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/ukraine-crisis-us-energy-rick-perry

https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/21349200/climate-change-fossil-fuels-rewiring-america-electrify

https://www.brookings.edu/policy2020/bigideas/the-united-states-can-take-climate-change-seriously-while-leading-the-world-in-oil-and-gas-production/

9 minutes ago, Beerman said:

I'm willing to look at this from another angle.

Why should Americans be optimistic about how the Democrats are handling the economy and inflation?

I'm not asking you to look at it from another angle.  I'm saying look at it realistically.  

If inflation is your measurement of a good economy only then you do you.  

People shouldn't feel optimistic about inflation.  I think the realization that it's not getting better is settling in. 

However, one can still be optimistic about the economy in general as we get back to some pre-covid living.  467,000 jobs added in January etc.  

Right now the stock market is volatile for obvious reasons.  It seems we can't get ahead because of covid we have war.

https://www.usnews.com/news/economy/articles/2022-01-21/leading-indicators-suggest-economy-will-keep-growing

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If inflation is your measurement of a good economy only then you do you.  

The time has passed for me to edit but let me clarify the above statement which is worded wrong.

If inflation is your only measurement of a good economy, then that's your prerogative.  We have discussed before that the good economy is actually one of the forces driving inflation as demand for goods and services has increased.  There are other factors like energy.