Bidenomics At Work
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@Axtremus said in Bidenomics At Work:
Had street food from a food truck last night. A Mediterranean style "platter" with lamb and felafel over rice with a bit of salad and a soda ran $10. Used to be $8 just before COVID, $7 around 2010.
A certain Chinatown "dinner box" with four condiments plus one starch and one soup is now $7.50. Used to be $4.50 around 2010.
Probably could get the same meals for a lot less in 1965...
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From the RWEC: CBS.
The typical American household must spend an additional $11,434 annually just to maintain the same standard of living they enjoyed in January of 2021, right before inflation soared to 40-year highs, according to a recent analysis of government data.
Such figures underscore the financial squeeze many families continue to face even as the the rate of U.S. inflation recedes and the economy by many measures remains strong, with the jobless rate at a two-decade low. The analysis, from Republican members of the U.S. Senate Joint Economic Committee, taps government data such as the Consumer Price Index and Consumer Expenditure Survey to examine the impact of inflation state by state.
Even so, many Americans say they aren't feeling those gains, and this fall more people reported struggling financially than they did prior to the pandemic, according to CBS News polling. Inflation is the main reason Americans express pessimism about economy despite its bright points, which also include stronger wage gains in recent years.
To be sure, economists point to a number of pandemic-related issues as the cause of high inflation, rather than decisions from any one political party. For instance, spending bills were signed by both Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden that put stimulus money into the hands of millions of Americans, while global supply-chain snarls and labor shortages drove up the cost of goods and services.
But even as inflation is now cooling rapidly, many consumers say they aren't feeling it, with a new Bankrate survey finding 60% of working Americans say their income has lagged inflation has over the past 12 months.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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To be sure, economists point to ... decisions from ... one political party. For instance, ... Joe Biden ... put stimulus money into the hands of millions of Americans ... and ... drove up the cost of goods and services.
Welcome to Joe Biden's America.
Education is extremely important.
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@Horace said in Bidenomics At Work:
To be sure, economists point to ... decisions from ... one political party. For instance, ... Joe Biden ... put stimulus money into the hands of millions of Americans ... and ... drove up the cost of goods and services.
Welcome to Joe Biden's America.
Interesting use of ellipses...
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K said in Bidenomics At Work:
@Horace said in Bidenomics At Work:
To be sure, economists point to ... decisions from ... one political party. For instance, ... Joe Biden ... put stimulus money into the hands of millions of Americans ... and ... drove up the cost of goods and services.
Welcome to Joe Biden's America.
Interesting use of ellipses...
I'm studying to be a journalist.
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This post is deleted!
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Trump shares his fair share of the blame, but the article ignores that the bills were written and passed by Democrat controlled Congresses.
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https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
https://wapo.st/4aNHOCg
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/01/05/december-jobs-unemployment/Economy added 216,000 jobs in December, capping off a year’s worth of solid gains
The unemployment rate held at 3.7 percent.
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As of December, the labor market added 2.7 million jobs in 2023, with an average monthly gain of 225,000 jobs. The unemployment rate has now remained below 4 percent for more than two years, a stretch last accomplished in the 1960s. Average hourly wage growth accelerated slightly in December, rising by 4.1 percent over the previous 12 months to $34.27 an hour and continuing to beat inflation, boosting workers’ spending power.Bidenomics is working well.
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Always remember, Operation Valkyrie was an act of sedition.
Warning: I post things that interest me. Read and comment at your own discretion. -
@Jolly said in Bidenomics At Work:
- We always add seasonal jobs this time of year.
The article gives you not only December figures, but also figures for the whole of 2023.
- Take government jobs out of the figures and get back to me.
If you think that will make a meaningful difference, you show the work and explain why the difference is meaningful.
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Yay… Foreclosures are up 34%.
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All these wonderful new jobs, yet the massive layoffs last year are still affecting employee moral and confidence…
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@Axtremus said in Bidenomics At Work:
@Jolly said in Bidenomics At Work:
- We always add seasonal jobs this time of year.
The article gives you not only December figures, but also figures for the whole of 2023.
- Take government jobs out of the figures and get back to me.
If you think that will make a meaningful difference, you show the work and explain why the difference is meaningful.
Did you actually read and comprehend the article you linked? 52K. 25% of the new jobs. They averaged 56K new jobs per month over the year, or 672K over the year.
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By the way, did you notice they also revised October numbers again? They’ve dropped it over 35% over the past two months.
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@LuFins-Dad said in Bidenomics At Work:
By the way, did you notice they also revised October numbers again? They’ve dropped it over 35% over the past two months.
They tend to do that, dont'cha know.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K said in Bidenomics At Work:
@LuFins-Dad said in Bidenomics At Work:
By the way, did you notice they also revised October numbers again? They’ve dropped it over 35% over the past two months.
They tend to do that, dont'cha know.
Tale as old as time, but not 35% over 60 days... That’s a more recent story…
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WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-welfare-industrial-complex-is-booming-3a7ad15c
The Welfare-Industrial Complex Is Booming
Allysia Finley is a member of the Journal's Editorial Board.
Drill into the nation’s 3.7% unemployment rate, and you’ll find a growing welfare-industrial complex beneath the seemingly strong labor market. Government, social assistance and healthcare account for 56% of the 2.8 million net new jobs over the past year, and for nearly all gains in blue states such as New York and Illinois.
The tens of thousands of migrants pouring into big cities need to be tended to. So do the hundreds of thousands of drug-addled and mentally ill homeless living on the streets. Progressive government doesn’t do anything on the cheap. America’s welfare state has thus become a proverbial Big Dig, and it keeps getting bigger.
New York City is spending $394 a day—or $143,810 a year—to house and feed each migrant, many in formerly posh hotels. Mayor Eric Adams grouses about the flood of migrants, but what does he expect when the city makes itself a welfare magnet?
Meantime, the homeless population continues to swell, even as government shovels more money into housing subsidies—nearly $43 billion in the Democrats’ March 2021 Covid bill alone. The number of homeless shot up 85,389 between 2019 and 2023, with California and New York combined accounting for about half the increase, according to a recent federal government report.
A 2017 report from Orange County United Way, a nonprofit in Irvine, Calif., estimated that each chronically homeless person living on the streets and in emergency shelters costs the public $85,631 a year, largely owing to high healthcare expenses from repeat trips to the emergency room. The $837,000 Los Angeles is spending to build a single housing unit for the homeless almost appears frugal by comparison.
Democratic Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de León accused leftists of bribing vagrants to reject the city’s offer of temporary shelter. The self-proclaimed homeless advocates denied paying bribes, claiming they were merely seeking to protect homeless people’s right to “self-determination.”
Such advocates—some supported by taxpayer dollars—have sued local governments to stop encampments from being cleared. During the Biden presidency, employment at “social advocacy organizations” has exploded. Every migrant, vagrant and endangered species apparently needs an advocate.
Public-choice theory assumes people are guided by their self-interest. Progressive government and the groups that feed on it have a vested interest in not solving pressing social problems. Treating mental illness and drug addiction, and getting the homeless into productive jobs, would mean fewer jobs for the welfare-industrial complex.
It’s amusing, then, to hear Democratic leaders like Mr. Adams and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson scapegoat migrants for their cities’ vagrancy and budget deficits. How do they explain Texas? The Lone Star State’s foreign-born population has increased by far more than New York’s over the past few years, yet it has 75% fewer homeless people than the Empire State.
In October the Texas comptroller projected an $18.3 billion budget surplus. The state doesn’t have a budget deficit or a homeless problem because it doesn’t spend lavishly on welfare or tolerate public disorder. Migrants who arrive and stay in Texas can get jobs off the books that can support them, unlike in New York and Illinois, where there is less demand for labor.
Migrants aside, the biggest money pit for Democrat-governed states is Medicaid. New York spends about 2.5 times as much per capita on Medicaid as Texas. The Empire State’s spending on the program in the past year alone increased by $13 billion—roughly what Mr. Adams projects migrants will cost his city over three years.
More spending on Medicaid, migrants and the homeless means more jobs for the welfare-industrial complex. Government, social assistance and healthcare made up most, and in some cases more than all, of the net new jobs over the past year in California (61%), New Jersey (81%), Oregon (89%), Michigan (113%), Illinois (113%) and New York (121%).
The last three states lost jobs in several industries, including manufacturing and tech, but they were more than offset by gains in government, social assistance and healthcare. These sectors made up a much smaller share of new jobs in Texas (34%), South Carolina (37%), Indiana (39%), Florida (41%) and Georgia (48%).
President Biden won’t admit it, but he has Republican states to thank for the increase in productive jobs in private industry. The administration’s bet is that government spending on welfare and entitlements can continue to power the U.S. labor market even as job growth in manufacturing, tech, retail and other industries flags. But social make-work projects don’t improve American living standards.
Aside from two years of runaway inflation, one way to explain Americans’ malaise is that they sense most new jobs aren’t making them or most people they know better off. The main beneficiaries are workers in the welfare-industrial complex.
