President Biden thread

Tweety said:

Less is still costly here.  I just saw a listing for a 700 square foot home for $260,000.  I do think the market is going to cool as interest rates drop.  These prices just don't seem sustainable alongside the insurance issues.  

Anyway back to the topic at hand, people think they are better off during the Trump years than Biden.  People don't necessarily look at explanations as to why, but just know inflation and harder times have come since Biden took office even if wages have risen and unemployment is low.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/12/politics/biden-economic-populist-inflation-analysis/index.html

People think they are worst off and that the President is responsible because that is the message they are receiving every single moment from unscrupulous media.  Marshall McLuhan should be required reading in high schools now.  A president can't control oil prices, just like they cannot control the sequelae of a world-wide pandemic.  They can makes little tweaks around the edges of 

subee said:

People think they are worst off and that the President is responsible because that is the message they are receiving every single moment from unscrupulous media.  Marshall McLuhan should be required reading in high schools now.  A president can't control oil prices, just like they cannot control the sequelae of a world-wide pandemic.  They can makes little tweaks around the edges of 

It doesn't matter because the sitting President has always held responsibility for the economy and opponents have take advantage, even if they really can't do anything about it.  It caused George Bush Sr. to be a one-term president and cost republicans the election that put Obama in power. Of course we all remember the election changer when Reagan asked "are you better off than four years ago...." causing Carter the fate of being a one-term President.   Right or wrong that's how it goes and how people vote.

Tweety said:

It doesn't matter because the sitting President has always held responsibility for the economy and opponents have take advantage, even if they really can't do anything about it.  It caused George Bush Sr. to be a one-term president and cost republicans the election that put Obama in power. Of course we all remember the election changer when Reagan asked "are you better off than four years ago...." causing Carter the fate of being a one-term President.   Right or wrong that's how it goes and how people vote.

And, propaganda works.  

Insurance payments, in general, are getting out of hand. Some days I feel very insurance-poor. Between what we pay for homeowner's insurance, auto insurance, health/vision/dental insurance, life insurance, and short-term-disability insurance, it amounts to a substantial portion of our income. I think boat insurance goes in there somewhere, too. But do I dare go without any of it?

Insurance I could pay for but I don't: long term care insurance, pet health insurance. I'm sure there are more.

And people are rightfully angry when they see the insurance company executives pocketing multi (multi) million dollar salaries and golden parachutes. And none of this can be laid at Joe Biden's feet.

I can't find the original comment, but it was implied here that once you collect Medicare, someone else pays for your health care. I have Medicare and I still pay premiums for Part B, medigap coverage and drug coverage. Dental and vision is not covered, but I don't think I'd save if I bought that insurance. 

nursej22 said:

I can't find the original comment, but it was implied here that once you collect Medicare, someone else pays for your health care. I have Medicare and I still pay premiums for Part B, medigap coverage and drug coverage. Dental and vision is not covered, but I don't think I'd save if I bought that insurance. 

Most of the time, working Americans ARE paying for your Medicare costs.  We spend lots more than we put in.  I don't think it is as abused as much as it used to be (going to the ER for a Benadryl type of visits), but I have no doubt that we are still paying too much for futile care.  And then there is the problem that we allow patients to live just  to get discharged to a nursing home when they are warehoused.  We need to change our expections.  I always wanted to open up a medically assisted death facility on Columbus Avenue in NYC called "Death'nStuff" where the experience could be made as pleasant as possible.  Anybody interested in investing?  

Tweety said:

A lot of people are moving from the higher priced cities to different parts of the state where they can commute or find a job somewhere else.  I know several young nurses that moved from St. Pete to areas in the counties north where they can become homeowners and get more bang for your buck.  

A lot of people still move here but apparently there is a net loss of population where I live now, by maybe only 1,000 but still a loss in an area that saw growth the last few decades that I've been here.

Gen Z has some legitimate concerns and I think their angst is real.   Although I will say they are more interested in working less and not climbing corporate ladders than my generation was.  There's a concern that middle management jobs will have a shortage in the years to come.  It might be my imagination but my Gen Z coworkers rarely seem to work overtime like older millennials and older (like me, although I'm less and less interested as I age)

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/27/gen-z-vs-their-parents-how-the-generations-stack-up-financially.html#:~:text=Now%2C 31% of Gen Z,their family for financial support.

https://finance.Yahoo.com/news/gen-z-incredibly-ambitious-just-212027559.html

When I retired I moved 900 miles away to a city where I knew absolutely no one and had only visited once before.  My property taxes fell by 75% and my house is apartment with a yard.  This is a very American story.  It was a bigly culture adjustment.  It's not Biden's fault that my old property + school taxes were just under $17,000 yearly .  It's a choice I made because of commutes.  I live in a house because I couldn't afford a condo or even find one less than half a mill and I live in the middle of nowhere so $260,000 for 700 feet sounds reasonable to me.  I can't crank up a lot of sympathy for people who want a 40 hour work week but have to live at home longer.  I admire them for making that choice and staying out of the rat race.  But that is a choice.  

nursej22 said:

I can't find the original comment, but it was implied here that once you collect Medicare, someone else pays for your health care. I have Medicare and I still pay premiums for Part B, medigap coverage and drug coverage. Dental and vision is not covered, but I don't think I'd save if I bought that insurance. 

It's not common knowledge that you pay for Medicare when you need it.  Most people think that because you pay for it all your working life, it's just something you get when a certain age.  I probably was middle aged before I found this out.  I have a friend that found out when he signed up and was a bit taken aback by the cost.  It's still a good deal, since as Subee points out a good number of people use up what they pay into it and then some.

I'm going to have to include this in my monthly expenses when I next meet with my retirement advisor, alongside higher insurance costs for driving and housing.

subee said:

 I can't crank up a lot of sympathy for people who want a 40 hour work week but have to live at home longer.  I admire them for making that choice and staying out of the rat race.  But that is a choice.  

The expectation of working just a 40 hour work week isn't unreasonable and they have my sympathy that it's not enough hours for them to have affordable housing.  Putting in long hours shouldn't be a requirement to gain respect from people and to get ahead.

On the other hand people like Bernie Sanders think 40 is too much.  Many younger workers think they don't need 40 hours to accomplish their work related goals.  I believe some countries like Sweden have tried it and see no cut in productivity and happier workers.  It won't pass because no one cares about American workers.  I see that as someone that has worked the floor as a nurse and stayed out of management.

 https://abcnews.go.com/Business/bernie-sanders-proposed-32-hour-workweek-pass-congress/story?id=108152411

The fact that we can't envision the idea of having a prosperous life without working more than 40 hour weeks or why we pay more than any other country for a fractured and dangerous system to treat disease is related to our unwillingness to properly regulate capitalism.  We shouldn't be victims of pharmaceutical companies or oil companies or food conglomerates.  

Poorly regulated capitalism doesn't generate lower prices for consumers.  There's no such thing as a free market. It creates an environment where business interests get consolidated into a increasingly few very wealthy and powerful hands. We've seen that happen over and over again.  Small businesses get undercut by the big business in a region and when they collapse the big business buys them up for pennies on the dollar.  

Tweety said:

The expectation of working just a 40 hour work week isn't unreasonable and they have my sympathy that it's not enough hours for them to have affordable housing.  Putting in long hours shouldn't be a requirement to gain respect from people and to get ahead.

On the other hand people like Bernie Sanders think 40 is too much.  Many younger workers think they don't need 40 hours to accomplish their work related goals.  I believe some countries like Sweden have tried it and see no cut in productivity and happier workers.  It won't pass because no one cares about American workers.  I see that as someone that has worked the floor as a nurse and stayed out of management.

 https://abcnews.go.com/Business/bernie-sanders-proposed-32-hour-workweek-pass-congress/story?id=108152411

That's fine for office workers but until we have a surplus of nurses and a surplus of practitioner health care dollars that won't happen. It would be possible if we didn't have those pesky weekend, night and holiday hours:)  And, we'd have to get rid of those insurance companies.  We haven't evolved enough to get this done