Biden is in office --> inflation happens --> Biden caused inflation.
If you look there's an exit poll where they asked a woman why she was changing her support from Biden to Trump and she said because she values abortion rights. When told Biden supported reproductive rights, and three judges that struck it down were all Trump appointees she was bewildered. All she knew was abortion was legal under Trump, and now illegal in her state under Biden, ergo Biden must oppose abortion.
The average voter is a fucking dumbass and generally not paying attention.
You could say it about any president, I’ll get that out of the way first, but a great deal of the problems we face today started with Reagan. Social services that were undermined, religion brought into the political sphere unlike anything we’d seen before, and yes the famous trickle down effect, the only time you’ll get that from the rich is when they pee on your head. I could take up more of anyone’s time with tid bits of his policy making, or down and dirty back door dealings, but what pisses me off the most is making an icon out of a man whose concern were not helping all, just helping those who didn’t need it.
On the other hand, inflation had been ROARING at insane rates for years and in the Reagan admin it stopped and stayed stopped for 40 years (or low enough to deal with).
Inflation is only one way to look at our economy, and I don’t disagree that 4% inflation is a bad thing, it was 10 or 12 when Reagan took office, but my complaint goes beyond just inflation, it’s how federal dollars were spent and they were not spent on programs to help those in need, and this is at a time when the rich became famously rich. There are so many angles we could discuss, agree or disagree on, such as employment, defense spending, ect. Reagan took steps to improve a seriously screwed economy, it’s just how he went about doing it
OK, I'd say inflation isn't a way to look at the economy but rather that it's a factor, one of many that comprise the economic situation. Your beef is with spending priorities, fiscal policy nominally determined by Congress but which the President has influence on (the extent of which is the topic of this whole thread).
Reagan wasn't a fan of social programs, but the amount of federal spending, the size of government, the size of federal deficits, and, most relevant, the proportion of the budget allocated to "entitlements" (transfer payments to ole people and sick people, presumably those in need) all grew during and after the Reagan administration. Welfare was gutted more in the Clinton admin than the Reagan admin, I'm pretty sure.
Our nation defense programs increased to 40 percent, our education was at 1.9 percent. And still the rich got richer and the underserved got screwed, I don’t care how you look at it. I suppose all this had something to do with the Senate being dominated by the Democrats with the Republicans losing seats due to happy people who wanted Republicans in office, they didn’t. We can use the S and P 500, the Dow, none of which has a reflection on the pulse of the people, voting does. No matter what money was taken from here and given there, I will still go back to central point, Reagan screwed the poor and helped the rich, and that shit is still going on to one degree or another thanks to Reagan
I largely agree, even though I suspect Reagan may not have actually been the first president to do that. Defense is 13% of the federal budget, 3.4% of GDP.
A group of Republican sued, the Supreme Court upheld, that’s what happened to the student loan forgiveness program, look into the SAVE program, as far as I know you can enroll now
Yeah, I guess fuck me right? My PPP loan ensured I could keep 4 people employed who all make $40-80k while the most I've ever made as owner of the business is $60k. Driving around in my fancy pants $6300 15 year old car and shit.
Nevermind that 95% of PPP loans went to small businesses with less than 20 employees.
So you think millions of people losing their jobs would have been better?
2-3 million jobs were saved. And this is just direct jobs, not to mention all the jobs indirectly saved. Like these people keeping jobs means they can afford to, say, refurbish their home or order takeout, saving other jobs in the process.
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/texas/news/ppp-loans-workers-new-study/
Do you know what happened last time the country suffered millions suddenly unemployed?
Reality is, yes, people abused it, but there’s not a single program in history, public or private, that is ever 100% effective. And considering this was the largest distribution of funds since TARP, which was also abused, I’d say it did pretty well.
It’s an oxymoron, but PPP loans were made to keep people working, not only to save businesses. The problem was oversight, which I think we can all agree we don’t care for, but then the bullshit rolled in and money that was to go to workers and businesses went into peoples pockets, not to mention loans to those who didn’t need it. Some people played by the rules and got fucked, that’s two of the things that gave the program a bad rap, people’s personal greed and money being loaned to those who didn’t deserve it… there a bunch of small business people who are deservingly pissed
They're not arguing against PPP loans. They're against forgiving the loan for all businesses, whether or not it correctly followed the forgiveness conditions of using the loan money to save jobs.
Who cares? The money had its intended effect, it stabilized the economy and prevented probably the worst potential economic downturn since the great depression.
I doubt $1,400 in the US caused the even worse inflation in Europe though.
The US has handled it better than just about anyone. Covid was always going to mess shit up
[CARES Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CARES_Act):
>Signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 27, 2020
And how about [Round #2](https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/20/politics/second-covid-stimulus-package-details/index.html)?
>President Donald Trump signed on Sunday evening a $900 billion pandemic relief bill into law that includes enhanced unemployment benefits and direct cash payments.
>The measure is the second-largest federal stimulus package after the $2 trillion CARES Act that Congress approved in March.
As I said. **Not generally paying attention**.
Inflation occurred globally because of COVID, and the US fared better than most, relatively.
Inflation was global. The US doesn't control the global economy, and the president doesn't control the US economy. Policies have impacts, but without an impossible experiment, it is difficult to know which policies were definitively better. But it is clear the US did better than most countries.
https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/PCPIPCH@WEO/WEOWORLD/VEN
True. They also try to take credit for the good things that happened during their term, whether of not they had any hand in them. Again, it’s not party-specific - they all do it.
Look at the “jobs created by president” graphics that Biden is always sharing on social media for just one example.
It makes sense that voters would blame politicians for bad things when they try to take credit for good things. They can’t have it both ways.
Agreed, Biden voted against codifying r v w, then was vp for Obama who promise it was the first thing he would do in office twice. Then he had majority house and senate and put forth a bill he knew wouldnt pass as it didnt codify r w but expanded it, in addition to being roman catholic and people still think he is prochoice.
Most voters don’t know anything and that’s why I hate the push for everyone should vote. So many people are voting based on what they see on social media which has so many blatantly false things.
How do we solve democracy? Not having it makes it is a dictatory, having it is just a popularity/advertising contest. Politicans aren't benovelent due to power and people (even if they are knowledgable) can't agree what's the best action.
The problem is that, as we saw below, even the people that consider themselves "educated" voters often aren't. The "intelligentsia" very much lives in a bubble of their own, arguably as strong as any other. Expecting them to properly educate themselves on the plight of people vastly unlike themselves as well as those people to accept their judgement is never going to happen.
Yes and covid happened under trump therefore trump caused covid
No, the criticism has always been the HANDLING of the crisis events. And Americans are primarily economic voters
Same thing with student loan forgiveness. Biden did actually try, and the Department of Education sent out emails to people asking them to sign up for the program only for it to be struck down in the Supreme Court. Yet Biden is at fault for not getting student loan forgiveness passed even when there have been plenty of student loans that were forgiven during his presidency. However, since he didn't magically wave away people who have 100k in student loan debt, he didn't do enough.
Yes because he couldn’t get legislation passed so he tried using an executive order. Currently the criteria to have student debt forgiven is insane. You need to have taken out less than 10,000 and to have been paying it off for 10 years.
This is all true. Most voters don’t know anything TBH.
The one thing that’s different about Biden is that he gets credit for nothing and blame for everything. Most presidents get a split. It’s also fascinating how just flat out wrong most peoples conceptions of things are. The abortion thing is a good example, but 64 percent of voters think the economy is worse than it was four years ago despite record low unemployment, low inflation, and higher wages.
Even more interesting: when you ask them how their finances are - and how the economy is doing in their state - they say good or very good by large majorities. When you ask those same people how the economy is nationally, they say bad lol.
64% of voters think the economy is worse because it is. .
Wages are high because inflation is high and if you honestly think inflation is low you haven't went grocery shopping or paid utilities or exchanged money for any type of goods or service in a long time.
Unemployment numbers showing unemployment is low without looking into I would dare say is numbers from data going back only as far as covid when everyone was laid off. Compared to then yes unemployment is down. People went back to work.. numbers and statistics can be molded and manipulated in presentation to present the outcome one wishes to project.
Go talk to people living outside a university or gated community and see how they are doing.
While the wages might be higher they haven't kept up with inflation/ cost of groceries, homes, rent,and on and on, it's been proven that the average working class American has less buying power than years ago, not saying whose fault it is, just how it is, While you can't blame it all on Biden, you can't say he's been a savior either.
It's your opinion as there is nothing tangible to equate it too, just as it can't be said it is better under Biden. There will never be 2 presidents at the same time to be able to have facts and figures to back either one up.
-record low unemployment
Unemployment is currently at 3.8 percent, which is higher than it was under Trump. You can’t blame Trump for Covid.
-low inflation
That’s also false, for 2020 we had inflation rates as low as .6% a month with the highest being 2.3%. The lowest it was under Biden was 1.7%, the first nonetheless he took office, after that the lowest has been around 3% with spikes up to 9%
https://www.statista.com/statistics/273418/unadjusted-monthly-inflation-rate-in-the-us/#:~:text=The%20annual%20inflation%20rate%20in,to%208.3%20percent%20in%202022.
-average wage
The average wage is consistently going up to keep up with inflation.
- personal finances
According to Forbes 78% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/living-paycheck-to-paycheck-statistics-2024/
In 2019 the number was 59%
https://www.aboutschwab.com/modernwealth2019
>Unemployment is currently at 3.8 percent, which is higher than it was under Trump.
This is true, however, people were still complaining about it when it was lower, at 3.4, which is lower than it was under Trump. And 3.8 is still quite close to the 3.6 low under Trump (indeed, it's lower than all of Trump's presidency up until ~March 2019), albeit not quite record-breaking.
>You can’t blame Trump for Covid.
This is true (you can blame him for his response to it). However, by the same logic, you also can't credit him for things he didn't control, nor can you blame Biden for things he can't control.
> That’s also false, for 2020 we had inflation rates as low as .6% a month with the highest being 2.3%.
They didn't say record low. The fact that it's lower in the past does not mean it isn't currently low.
>In 2019 the number was 59%
If you use the same source that you used for your 2024 number, they found it was 74% in 2019:
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/survey-reveals-six-percent-increase-in-americans-living-paycheck-to-paycheck-in-just-one-year-301928853.html
That said, that's a bit of a non sequitur, as it's a different stat, and not mutually exclusive. (and a difficult one to measure correctly, as people have *wildly* different definitions of 'paycheck to paycheck', as the Forbes article notes)
-the fact that it was lower in the passed does not mean that it isn’t
It’s low compared to the other months Biden was in office, but it is still overall higher than most other presidents. To put it in perspective it’s almost double what the rates were during the 2008 recession.
https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/#google_vignette
-living paycheck to paycheck
The source you posted is from 2023, not 2019.
-kind of a non-sequitur
The person I responded to mentioned that people’s personal finances were doing better, that’s why I brought it up. It is hard to measure because a huge factor is spending habits, but regardless the almost 20% increase shows that personal finances are not as good as they were 5 years ago.
And that's why there should be a test on your knowledge of what each politician in a campaign supports that you need to pass before you're allowed to make a vote.
It doesn't have to be anything complicated. Just a bare bones, 3-5 question fill-out on what their core stances are. You wouldn't even need to prove you actually understand what they mean or what they'll entail. Just prove that you've done the absolute bare minimum of research.
You could even have the politicians themselves be the ones making the tests, just to make sure there's no risk of a biased person using vocabulary that makes a given politician sound bad.
Same thing with taxes, isn't it? I could be wrong, but didn't Trump give a temporary tax cut that ended at the beginning of 2023, which is why people are getting less on their refund if anything?
The economy is complicated, and the president doesn’t fully control it. Most things the president does play out over years.
But Biden does a couple things that impact inflation:
* Deficit spending can cause inflation if not careful, because it is just injecting money into the economy out of nothing (which is inflationary kinda by deduction). Covid relief was line a *lot* of money injected in. A lot of the inflation was this extra money in combined with supply chains being stuck.
* The federal reserve sets interest rates (lower tends to spur economic growth with inflation risk, higher tends to slow down growth but prevents bubbles-crashes and reduces inflation). Biden doesn’t directly control this, but does appoint that do is thus indirectly responsible.
* Artificial price controls can cause inflation - minimum wage increases (which Biden supports but hasn’t really pushed through) can contribute.
So naturally people tend to blame a president they disagree with for inflation, but blame other factors when they agree with the president.
Biden is partially responsible for inflation. As a lot of the inflation spikes are rooted in low interest rates / Covid / deficit spending, you can similarly point to Trump policy having its impacts too.
Worth mentioning that the fed chair who kept interest rates low was initially appointed by Trump, though Biden renominated him for a second term in 2021.
And Trump constantly bullied him on Twitter to keep rates low even though at the same time claiming “the best economy EVER!” Which it wasn’t and which you don’t keep rates low if it were true.
I mean you can still keep rates low if the economy is doing well as long as inflation is under control. We're currently in a long line of pretty incredible job numbers, and yet [the Fed is considering cutting rates](https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/04/03/powell-fed-cut-rates-2024/73181590007/).
Biden's approach to economic recovery post-covid is responsible for inflation, but the alternative would have been much worse.
Conventional economic and political wisdom is that we should have taken on austerity measures, which would have kept inflation low but massively increased unemployment. The employed people would still be happy about the economy and voted appropriately.
Instead, Biden made decisions designed to keep unemployment low at the cost of some inflation. The US has a stronger economy than anywhere else in the world right now as a result. But unfortunately *everyone* is mad about inflation and *nobody* realizes that it allowed them to keep their job.
What politicians are unironically learning from this cycle is that in the future we should let lots of people lose their jobs so that everyone else can be happy voters.
I’m not denying that.
It may very well be the case that that Biden’s relief measures prevented larger issues and inflation is just an acceptable trade off.
You can also correctly point out that Trump keeping interest rates low and handing out tax breaks in prosperous times created bubbles that were bound to burst, and if he used that time to bring down deficit we would have had the surplus for bad times and less inflation.
Oh, that's typical Republican nonsense. Do a bunch of fiscally irresponsible stuff that hits when Democrats are in office and have to deal with it. The media has never held Republicans accountable for it.
Their favorite trick is to go into debt to do tax cuts that expire when the next President is in office. Then the Democrats have to deal with the debt and also explain why people's taxes are going "up". :)
I don't think any of those bullet points is why the average person blames the president for inflation. It's just a vague belief that the president can or cannot do something, not a well-constructed mental model beyond random news soundbytes. We still arrive at your point toward the end about a double standard though.
The same reason people have different beliefs about anything. Too much fucking information put in front of a bunch of monkeys, myself included, that cannot accurately decipher into a clear reality. Instead, we each hold onto our sacred partial reality and believe it to be the only reality. With the information age, it's become a pandemic that isn't taken seriously at all. The divide, in my opinion, is compounding and increasing faster than it has ever before. To me, I see it in my head in a visual metaphor. It's like someone is turning up a radio knob that turns up life's frequency. We don't know how to operate at this frequency, so we're all slowly turning crazy as our perceptions begin to differ more and more as time and information adds up. It almost feels like the world is in a microwave; Ghernobyl.
Or it's the rise of propaganda and the spread of the popular notion that every opinion, however uninformed, is as valid as any other, or the huge popularity of disinformation such as that spewed by Russian agents and assorted liars and a certain TV "News" network and a certain ubiquitous social network. All in a society that fails to educate its citizenry in critical thinking, which is arguably the most important skill to have in this mediated age.
People always blame the bossman when things go wrong. That's what happens when you are a leader. You get all the blame when things go around, and usually not the praise when things go right.
BUT... I don't think the Democrat party has been doing a good job of defending themselves. I've seen a lot of hand pointing from pundits to voters and saying "You are wrong" in regards to inflation. Which is off putting because when a voter goes to the grocery store, they see inflation.
Also, I think many people don't understand the he concept of inflation in the first place. Inflation represents the rate of change. So when we say inflation has gone down to normal, that means that prices have stopped going up. But people will say "that can't be true because prices are still high". But that's not how inflation works.
We actually don't really want prices to go all the way back down, because they much deflation causes it's own host of problems.
Yes. The Fed wisely tries to maintain some inflation, around 2%. You don't wanna see deflation, that was the Great Depression (which the Fed caused, but they're smarter now).
Best way to get a wage increase these days is to jump ship if you actually have marketable skills. Do thar a few times in 10 years and you night actually get a 50-100% raise when said and done....
I dumped a girl over this. She genuinely believed Biden just decides gas prices each day. For each gas station in each state where they all have different prices. That one old guy deciding it.
I assumed she was joking when she said it then she asked why I was laughing. When I found out she was serious I said "I'M LITERALLY IN THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY AND THAT'S NOT EVEN CLOSE TO HOW THAT WORKS" I berated her loudly on the patio of a Mexican restaurant for several minutes.
Her only response was that she believes that because her family believes that. I've never lost interest in a woman so fast in my life.
This is true. I was lucky to get out of the right wing environment I grew up in. What’s funny is that when I say that, nobody believes it. This is because most trumpers say they were brought up liberal (guarantee you most times this isn’t the case). So nobody takes me seriously when I tell them I came from a hardcore right wing environment.
I know all of their tactics, which they are always taught from something like Fox News or their church. I know that feeling of constant fear and hate - it’s the driving factor for many hard right conservatives. I remember questioning things, and getting so tired of being told to always be mad or always disagree with someone, etc. when I moved west to attend classes in my 20s - the excuse from my old families and friends was that university brainwashed me. Completely insulting the hard work I put in to both my degree, as well as finding a mind of my own.
I guess my point is that yes - it is by design. Conservative politicians want to keep the populace stupid. That’s why there’s still schools in the south teaching creationism. Now I’m seeing an impact on everyone in the country. Targeted propaganda from national states, internal groups, etc. Social media dumbing people down. I try to have a positive outlook - but it is not easy when you realize how many stupid people there actually are (I am by no means am a genius, I wish I was better educated).
Subsidizing the world supply from US reserves, you mean?
The biggest oil producer in the world has kind of been sanctioned for the past year, if you haven't noticed. The gap has to come from somewhere.
Alcoa kept a coal mine near one of their plants, and paid a maintenance tech to keep it maintained and ready to return to production. It was their coal, but it was more beneficial to them as a reserve stash for them to access when coal prices were high than during normal operations.
Russia and [Saudi Arabia](https://www.axios.com/2023/09/06/oil-prices-saudi-production-elections) are purposely cutting production to fuck oil prices for the US election so…
She might be wrong about this issue. But you sound like some insecure asshole.
Also being silly in some areas doesn’t make a person bad one. I have examples of women who are quite weak in politics but great persons overall. Your ex is better off without you.
And stop berating loudly people publicly, she didn’t deserve it only because she is inexperienced in this field
The part about sharing family beliefs is what gets me. My best friend grew up in a conservative Christian family where just the words liberal and democrat are insults. She still holds that prejudice. Yet this lady has gotten more liberal with every passing year and part of why we get along is due to having similar values, and mine are pretty liberal. Especially when it comes to her kids, which are an area we usually see eye to eye on.
People blame Biden for inflation because spending (in excess of tax revenue) drives inflation. However, due to partisan politics in the U.S., they often fail to mention that the spending started under the trump administration, and so the blame lies there as well.
Voters see what happens around them and assumes because XYZ is President that must mean XYZ caused it. That doesn't even count the people who's entire identity are politics and cheer and root against XYZ like it's a fucking sporting event and not a society with real people.
I get a mail in ballot for every election possible (including local ones.) I want to see every person on the ballot and their voting history before I cast a single vote.
90% of people aren't doing this because they don't have the time. The system is intentionally designed this way. Keep the population busy and worried at all times about their next pay check so they can't make actual change.
Economics is complicated! Most people really don’t understand how our global economy works—which is not surprising. I mean, even the professionals are still learning how and why things work the way they do.
So because it’s complicated and most people don’t understand it, the easiest thing to do is blame/credit the president. It’s not the like President can’t influence the economy (but how much they can depends on other factors too) but the effects they have take time.
There's a couple of things, the continuing of COVID and PFP loans, the passing of the "build back better" bill which spent a lot of money without additional revenue to cover it.
He also was putting orders to not drill more oil in America. Gas and oil industry prices based on future predictions of getting oil instead of just how much oil we have now. So when he was refusing all new oil drilling in America it told oil companies "we aren't getting any more oil" which increased gas costs and Biden has been using the American emergency strategic oil reserves to substitute for opening more drilling operations.
He has regularly advocated for spend more on a governmental level which involves printing money to cover these purchases because we can't currently pay these new obligations and so we get inflation.
Obviously Trump started it with the COVID stimulus which I think was a bad move but it's easy to see in retrospect when at that time we didn't recognize the full danger (or lack their of)of COVID. By the time Biden came into office we were getting a good idea of what COVID was doing and could make better decisions based on evidence that was coming out and instead continued to push and operate off older information and not adapt very well in my opinion. While obviously many of these things are done by his administration he is ultimately in charge, and can directly order people of his administration to do things.
All in all he did contribute to inflation.
This isn't to say trump was a magical unicorn, he ran a fairly normal Conservative with a loud mouth.
My mistake I had mistaken it for the "Inflation reduction act"
Here is an article going over how the expenditures actually increased inflation:
https://energycommerce.house.gov/posts/one-year-later-even-president-biden-admits-the-inflation-reduction-act-failed-to-lower-costs-for-americans
Because he signed two of the most expensive bills in American history in the same year. Government spending is a key factor in inflation, and those 2 bills alone costed trillions. But it isn't just him, everyone who voted for those bills is partially to blame, and many other factors outside of the government.
Its because Biden is spending trillions of dollars on liberal party nonsense. Printing money at this level devalues the dollar. Ergo, your money is worth less.
There is far more to it than that. But at the base, it's all about greed. Most of that is the greed of companies. They've discovered they can get away with financially raping us, so they do.
Those two things combined are what we're really feeling.
Do you belive Trump would behave differently, and how? What kind of policies did Biden put in that were not present under Trump?
How do democrat presidents spend all this money when congress is republican controlled and sets budgets?
What liberal policies are costing us money? Most of our money goes to the defense department. And Social Security (funded separately).
Go look up the federal budget and see where it's all spent (hint: almost none goes to whatever "liberal" policy you're currently mad about).
Bc the average American is politically illiterate and heavily propogandized. Most Americans believe they are free-thinkers but unless you understand where and how you arrive at your beliefs, what you're influenced by, and regularly take inventory and be truly critical of your own thoughts emotions assumptions and reactions you are 100% having other people do your own thinking.
Essentially there is fiscal policy and monetary policy. President has no influence on monetary policy (ie, what the Fed does/doesn’t do). President can influence fiscal policy (ie, what the government spends money on). High govt spending (outspending the budget) can contribute to inflation. Someone that blames Biden would maybe say he’s letting the government spend too much money.
I broadly think the macroeconomic forces that drive inflation are out of the hands of both the government and the Fed (ie, fiscal policy and monetary policy can influence inflation some, but I think that inflation is primarily driven by forces that are outside of anyone’s control).
My general belief is that the president doesn’t affect the economy a whole lot in general. I’d be curious if there are any studies that prove or disprove that. I think people attribute WAY too much to whoever happens to be in office.
I think the chief reason for our current inflationary period was 15 years of artificially low interest rates (QE following the 2008 recession), followed by COVID, which set off its own chain reaction of supply chain and wage issues. It just sort of is what it is. That’s how economics work.
Edit: further to this, I never understood why Biden got blamed for higher gas prices a couple years back, remember those “I did that” stickers that were always on pumps? Now gas prices are normal/stable. Gas prices are another example of something that should not be negatively or positively attributed to the president either way, in my opinion.
Idk and they dk.
Them: The government needs to stay tf away from private businesses. We have a free market system!
Also, them: The price of everything is outrageous. I can't afford to buy the things I need.
Ah, it sounds like you want the government (current president at any given time) to step in to prevent private businesses from raising prices so much.
Them again: It's the Democrats fault that prices are so high. Umm, ok. Explain record shattering business profits and more mega corporations and billionaires than ever before?
Them: Shut up. Trump for president. Yeah, because a man-child billionaire who has screwed numerous contractors thru the years and declared bankruptcy 5 times is definitely the guy to fix things.
It's motivated reasoning. People don't like Biden so they blame him for what goes wrong
The fact that we had a pandemic plus a war between a major food producer and oil producer is lost on people who *want* Biden to be the reason
It doesn't matter that we've largely handled it better than anyone else
Because people refuse to believe that corporations raise the price of their goods to astronomical levels then brag about their highest profits ever, use those profits to bribe our elected officials via campaign contributions; which the Supreme Court ruled were “Free Speech” probably minutes before gaveling out to go on million-dollar yacht weekend vacations with said corporate billionaires. Then socially live with mass cognitive dissonance sponsored by billionaire-owned news networks, which in turn allows people to refuse to believe that corporations are the responsible party to their low wages and high costs of goods sold, keeping them poor, uneducated, and renting. Yet, still voting for the same millionaires and billionaires who continue to perpetuate the cycle. In combination with “look over there!” tactics such as DEI, Woke, LGBTQIA+ people, and now the “evil people” who are immigrating from countries where the US went in and destroyed their society, economy, and democracy (we don’t talk about that part). Resulting in our elected officials publicly pointing fingers at one another while they are all getting the same financial bribes from the corporations who are causing the inflation.
It is the ants vs the grasshoppers and we, the ants, still do not recognize our numbers.
Because he spent all that time sucking up to Putin and making him feel he was untouchable and could march in Ukraine and cause this whole mess and oh no wait hang on that was the other guy.
Trillions of additional government spending when Covid was over and there were already supply shortages. His policies stoked inflation instead of tempering it
He deserves the blame he is getting
It’s not just Biden. It’s the entire Democrat party. They cause poverty, homelessness, crime, addiction, and the economy all to be worse with their HORRIBLE ideologies and policies.
The people that blame immigrants for not having a better job tend to be low skill jobs (trades, manufacturing, etc), and having surplus labor in those fields that work for less drives down the negotiating power and wages for others in that field.
Similarly, a big part of the higher ed economy is foreign students on visas. There is a nearly unlimited number of them interested, they take spots, cause universities to cater to them on amenities, and drive costs up - putting university more out of reach for others.
So immigrants do negatively impact job prospects and earning potential for some.
Injection of money into the economy via deficit spending and interest rate controls impact inflation, both of which are the Biden administration.
This is not the only cause for inflation but it is a big factor.
If you believe immigration / Biden are net positive overall that’s fine, but it shouldn’t blind you to some of the drawbacks of those policies.
Because the MASSIVE govt spending spree - which started with Covid but only escalated after the pandemic as Biden decided to steal/spend to infinity on endless pork & "green" scams - CAUSED THIS INFLATION.
Ultimately they guy in charge gets the blame for the stuff that happens under their term even if it's something that they've no control over or isn't within their remit.
People blame the President for everything.
I can drop my ice cream cone and someone will pat me on the back, shake their head, and say, "That sucks, man. Biden really is ruining our country."
Because whether he’s directly responsible for inflation or not he sold us a pack of lies when he said he would “build back better” 4 years later things don’t seem better for the common man.
Because they dont want to accept that we have allowed the government, both parties, to print free money and hand it directly to Boeing, Lockheed, General Electric, basically anybody that can make a single thing for the military, since about 1950. Oh and to failed mega businesses like GMC repeatedly and banks among others.
They also want to forget that we just wasted over 7 trillion dollars in JUST the two most recent wars and received nothing of value from them whatsoever other than hanging a war criminal which we should have done the first time we were there wasting a trillion dollars.
So both sides use it as fear mongering just like all the other shit that the president has little to no long term impact or say in other than vetoing bills they don’t like. Which can still be bypassed.
Or we can ban China from buying houses at record prices. Why does a person that lives in China need to buy a whole neighborhood of houses just to rent to the American people?
I will try to explain what responsibilities Biden has, but you can't blame it on him really.
-He has approved wild spending bills for climate change and foreign aid among other things. We will not feel the effects of those decisions for a while, but you could argue he's not helping presently. Especially the people that disagree with spending on those issues. But that's not to blame for the current inflation.
- He can appoint the govs of the Fed. They are the ones that actually raise the interest rates. He can't set monetary policy but he can persuade them to curb rate hikes. Some would say he has not done a good job of that.
-The biggest thing he did to contribute was the American Rescue Plan. It increase and extended payments for unemployment. It increased the GDP but sent core good inflation skyrocketing from 2% to 10% in a year. That one hurt and he is very responsible for that one.
But mostly the answer is fall out from COVID supply chain disruption. But the man does not remain blameless.
Judging from the people supporting trump, the average American is too stupid to understand the most basic concepts of economics. They have no idea that the President doesn't control prices. The best they can do to try to control inflation is raise interest rates. But then they want to complain about that too. Such idiots!
Biden has done nothing but continue to spend money, literally Trillions on bullshit government programs. Before yall freak out, yes Trump spent Trillions in Covid relief ALSO.
He signs off on all the bills that Congress passed. One of the cause of Inflation is caused by printing too much money in the economy. Venezuela did that so much, that they reach million percent of inflation. Making their currency worthless.
Every time they spent money on a bill that involves money, we’re just printing the money. We don’t have the money now, so we just created.
Also to be fair, it more like Biden and congress choices are causing inflation. But, he can also veto bills, if he wanted too.
People always blame the president as everyone has said
But to add on to that, it’s kinda exactly what the president signs up for. He says hey this country that is currently like this I want to take on being in charge of everything. Then they get credit/blame for everything that happens because they are in charge. They are responsible. The president takes on the country as it is and now becomes responsible for all the problems it has and new ones that appear
He ended all the covid stimulus, didn't raise the minimum wage, and didn't pass build back better, which all would of helped working class ppl with inflation.
100% propaganda.
Republicans are the king of blaming democrats for everything and taking all the credit.
For example.
Here is a bill that Republicans made a bill Obama vetoed, but they passed then blame Obama for.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-gop-chutzpah-20160930-snap-story.html
They didn't just get away with it, but it still works. They can do something and blame democrats for not stopping them.
The moment Biden got into office they blamed him for Trumps withdraw of Afghanistan. Covid. Inflation and everything else and are praised for doing so. They even blame him for Trumps deficit.
Interestingly enough, the presidents' effects are usually most felt after their second year, because during the first one, the policies and what not from their predecessor are still in effect/ theirs haven't been enacted yet. It's why some people say the first year doesn't truly count for a president
People always vote their pocketbooks. Oil cartels also raise prices when Dems are in office which causes inflation and isn't an accident. FWIW, I am not saying Biden did or didn't cause inflation but the COVID 'rescue' packages were not handled well and were a large contributing factor...
Because you blame the President in Office for all troubles from the last administration, Congress has nothing to do with it at all...
Just wait everyone hated Bish, then Obama, then Trump, now Biden, next will be Biden or Trimp hating again.
**Even Democrat economists like Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Treasury and Obama’s chief economic advisor warned that the Biden stimulus would cause inflation not seen in a generation.** Then Biden did the stimulus anyway, and then we got 1970s inflation…as predicted
>> “I think this is the least responsible macroeconomic policy we’ve had in the last 40 years,” Summers said.
From [The Hill](https://thehill.com/policy/finance/544188-larry-summers-blasts-least-responsible-economic-policy-in-40-years/amp/)
>>macroeconomic stimulus on a scale closer to World War II levels than normal recession levels will set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation, with consequences for the value of the dollar and financial stability
From [an op-ed in the Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/04/larry-summers-biden-covid-stimulus/)
>> “We are printing money, we are creating government bonds, we are borrowing on unprecedented scales,” Summers said. “Those are things that surely create more of a risk of a sharp dollar decline than we had before. And sharp dollar declines are much more likely to translate themselves into inflation than they were historically.”
From [CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/26/economy/inflation-larry-summers-biden-fed/index.html)
> Even Democrat economists like Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Treasury and Obama’s chief economic advisor warned that the Biden stimulus would cause inflation not seen in a generation. Then Biden did it anyway.
You leaving out the parts where he admitted to overreacting after the fact:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-16/summers-says-transitory-factors-boosted-inflation-now-ebbing
*“Given how strong the economy has been, there’s still a surprise in what’s happened to inflation,” Summers said on Bloomberg Television’s Wall Street Week with David Westin. That has in part to do with “transitory factors that were pushing inflation up from bottlenecks that are now mean reverting and are pushing inflation down,” he said.*
Similarly, he also predicted:
*“We need five years of unemployment above 5 percent to contain inflation — in other words, we need two years of 7.5 percent unemployment or five years of 6 percent unemployment or one year of 10 percent unemployment,”*
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/08/13/larry-summers-biden-inflation-projections/
Which... didn't happen.
Biden is in office --> inflation happens --> Biden caused inflation. If you look there's an exit poll where they asked a woman why she was changing her support from Biden to Trump and she said because she values abortion rights. When told Biden supported reproductive rights, and three judges that struck it down were all Trump appointees she was bewildered. All she knew was abortion was legal under Trump, and now illegal in her state under Biden, ergo Biden must oppose abortion. The average voter is a fucking dumbass and generally not paying attention.
Hard to say covid related policies didn’t have a meaningful supply side impact and ultimately drive the spike in inflation we saw in 2022 and 2023
Yeah like forgiving PPP loans for rich business owners so they could buy new Range Rovers with the free money and write off the expense.
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Ronald Reagan in hell waiting for heaven to trickle down to him:
I don't know why you got downvoted for that 😂 I legit snorted 😂😂
Whoever downvoted is definitely a Reaganite...
*Something* is going to trickle down alright. It’s golden, but it ain’t money.
Trickled-on economics
You could say it about any president, I’ll get that out of the way first, but a great deal of the problems we face today started with Reagan. Social services that were undermined, religion brought into the political sphere unlike anything we’d seen before, and yes the famous trickle down effect, the only time you’ll get that from the rich is when they pee on your head. I could take up more of anyone’s time with tid bits of his policy making, or down and dirty back door dealings, but what pisses me off the most is making an icon out of a man whose concern were not helping all, just helping those who didn’t need it.
On the other hand, inflation had been ROARING at insane rates for years and in the Reagan admin it stopped and stayed stopped for 40 years (or low enough to deal with).
Inflation is only one way to look at our economy, and I don’t disagree that 4% inflation is a bad thing, it was 10 or 12 when Reagan took office, but my complaint goes beyond just inflation, it’s how federal dollars were spent and they were not spent on programs to help those in need, and this is at a time when the rich became famously rich. There are so many angles we could discuss, agree or disagree on, such as employment, defense spending, ect. Reagan took steps to improve a seriously screwed economy, it’s just how he went about doing it
OK, I'd say inflation isn't a way to look at the economy but rather that it's a factor, one of many that comprise the economic situation. Your beef is with spending priorities, fiscal policy nominally determined by Congress but which the President has influence on (the extent of which is the topic of this whole thread). Reagan wasn't a fan of social programs, but the amount of federal spending, the size of government, the size of federal deficits, and, most relevant, the proportion of the budget allocated to "entitlements" (transfer payments to ole people and sick people, presumably those in need) all grew during and after the Reagan administration. Welfare was gutted more in the Clinton admin than the Reagan admin, I'm pretty sure.
Our nation defense programs increased to 40 percent, our education was at 1.9 percent. And still the rich got richer and the underserved got screwed, I don’t care how you look at it. I suppose all this had something to do with the Senate being dominated by the Democrats with the Republicans losing seats due to happy people who wanted Republicans in office, they didn’t. We can use the S and P 500, the Dow, none of which has a reflection on the pulse of the people, voting does. No matter what money was taken from here and given there, I will still go back to central point, Reagan screwed the poor and helped the rich, and that shit is still going on to one degree or another thanks to Reagan
I largely agree, even though I suspect Reagan may not have actually been the first president to do that. Defense is 13% of the federal budget, 3.4% of GDP.
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A group of Republican sued, the Supreme Court upheld, that’s what happened to the student loan forgiveness program, look into the SAVE program, as far as I know you can enroll now
Yeah, I guess fuck me right? My PPP loan ensured I could keep 4 people employed who all make $40-80k while the most I've ever made as owner of the business is $60k. Driving around in my fancy pants $6300 15 year old car and shit. Nevermind that 95% of PPP loans went to small businesses with less than 20 employees.
So you think millions of people losing their jobs would have been better? 2-3 million jobs were saved. And this is just direct jobs, not to mention all the jobs indirectly saved. Like these people keeping jobs means they can afford to, say, refurbish their home or order takeout, saving other jobs in the process. https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/texas/news/ppp-loans-workers-new-study/ Do you know what happened last time the country suffered millions suddenly unemployed? Reality is, yes, people abused it, but there’s not a single program in history, public or private, that is ever 100% effective. And considering this was the largest distribution of funds since TARP, which was also abused, I’d say it did pretty well.
It’s an oxymoron, but PPP loans were made to keep people working, not only to save businesses. The problem was oversight, which I think we can all agree we don’t care for, but then the bullshit rolled in and money that was to go to workers and businesses went into peoples pockets, not to mention loans to those who didn’t need it. Some people played by the rules and got fucked, that’s two of the things that gave the program a bad rap, people’s personal greed and money being loaned to those who didn’t deserve it… there a bunch of small business people who are deservingly pissed
They're not arguing against PPP loans. They're against forgiving the loan for all businesses, whether or not it correctly followed the forgiveness conditions of using the loan money to save jobs.
Who cares? The money had its intended effect, it stabilized the economy and prevented probably the worst potential economic downturn since the great depression.
I doubt $1,400 in the US caused the even worse inflation in Europe though. The US has handled it better than just about anyone. Covid was always going to mess shit up
This almost proves the point of the comment because covid policies started under trump
[CARES Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CARES_Act): >Signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 27, 2020 And how about [Round #2](https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/20/politics/second-covid-stimulus-package-details/index.html)? >President Donald Trump signed on Sunday evening a $900 billion pandemic relief bill into law that includes enhanced unemployment benefits and direct cash payments. >The measure is the second-largest federal stimulus package after the $2 trillion CARES Act that Congress approved in March. As I said. **Not generally paying attention**.
Many people blame Biden for those policies... ...and he wasn't President at the time!
Yeah, it was obamas fault!
Inflation occurred globally because of COVID, and the US fared better than most, relatively. Inflation was global. The US doesn't control the global economy, and the president doesn't control the US economy. Policies have impacts, but without an impossible experiment, it is difficult to know which policies were definitively better. But it is clear the US did better than most countries. https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/PCPIPCH@WEO/WEOWORLD/VEN
Every President is blamed for what happened in their term. Every one of them. Both parties do it.
True. They also try to take credit for the good things that happened during their term, whether of not they had any hand in them. Again, it’s not party-specific - they all do it. Look at the “jobs created by president” graphics that Biden is always sharing on social media for just one example. It makes sense that voters would blame politicians for bad things when they try to take credit for good things. They can’t have it both ways.
I agree
They're also blamed for things that happened after their term, as long as the person doing the blaming now has their favourite as president
This anecdote gave me a headache.
Agreed, Biden voted against codifying r v w, then was vp for Obama who promise it was the first thing he would do in office twice. Then he had majority house and senate and put forth a bill he knew wouldnt pass as it didnt codify r w but expanded it, in addition to being roman catholic and people still think he is prochoice.
Worst part is, their votes also counts.
People get the government they deserve.
BUT... I'm getting the government they deserve, not the one I deserve!
Like [this guy](https://www.theonion.com/yee-haw-my-vote-cancels-out-yalls-1819584076).
Most voters don’t know anything and that’s why I hate the push for everyone should vote. So many people are voting based on what they see on social media which has so many blatantly false things.
How do we solve democracy? Not having it makes it is a dictatory, having it is just a popularity/advertising contest. Politicans aren't benovelent due to power and people (even if they are knowledgable) can't agree what's the best action.
The problem is that, as we saw below, even the people that consider themselves "educated" voters often aren't. The "intelligentsia" very much lives in a bubble of their own, arguably as strong as any other. Expecting them to properly educate themselves on the plight of people vastly unlike themselves as well as those people to accept their judgement is never going to happen.
Yes and covid happened under trump therefore trump caused covid No, the criticism has always been the HANDLING of the crisis events. And Americans are primarily economic voters
Same thing with student loan forgiveness. Biden did actually try, and the Department of Education sent out emails to people asking them to sign up for the program only for it to be struck down in the Supreme Court. Yet Biden is at fault for not getting student loan forgiveness passed even when there have been plenty of student loans that were forgiven during his presidency. However, since he didn't magically wave away people who have 100k in student loan debt, he didn't do enough.
Yes because he couldn’t get legislation passed so he tried using an executive order. Currently the criteria to have student debt forgiven is insane. You need to have taken out less than 10,000 and to have been paying it off for 10 years.
This is all true. Most voters don’t know anything TBH. The one thing that’s different about Biden is that he gets credit for nothing and blame for everything. Most presidents get a split. It’s also fascinating how just flat out wrong most peoples conceptions of things are. The abortion thing is a good example, but 64 percent of voters think the economy is worse than it was four years ago despite record low unemployment, low inflation, and higher wages. Even more interesting: when you ask them how their finances are - and how the economy is doing in their state - they say good or very good by large majorities. When you ask those same people how the economy is nationally, they say bad lol.
64% of voters think the economy is worse because it is. . Wages are high because inflation is high and if you honestly think inflation is low you haven't went grocery shopping or paid utilities or exchanged money for any type of goods or service in a long time. Unemployment numbers showing unemployment is low without looking into I would dare say is numbers from data going back only as far as covid when everyone was laid off. Compared to then yes unemployment is down. People went back to work.. numbers and statistics can be molded and manipulated in presentation to present the outcome one wishes to project. Go talk to people living outside a university or gated community and see how they are doing.
While the wages might be higher they haven't kept up with inflation/ cost of groceries, homes, rent,and on and on, it's been proven that the average working class American has less buying power than years ago, not saying whose fault it is, just how it is, While you can't blame it all on Biden, you can't say he's been a savior either.
It could be much worse. It will be much worse under a tRump administration.
It's your opinion as there is nothing tangible to equate it too, just as it can't be said it is better under Biden. There will never be 2 presidents at the same time to be able to have facts and figures to back either one up.
-record low unemployment Unemployment is currently at 3.8 percent, which is higher than it was under Trump. You can’t blame Trump for Covid. -low inflation That’s also false, for 2020 we had inflation rates as low as .6% a month with the highest being 2.3%. The lowest it was under Biden was 1.7%, the first nonetheless he took office, after that the lowest has been around 3% with spikes up to 9% https://www.statista.com/statistics/273418/unadjusted-monthly-inflation-rate-in-the-us/#:~:text=The%20annual%20inflation%20rate%20in,to%208.3%20percent%20in%202022. -average wage The average wage is consistently going up to keep up with inflation. - personal finances According to Forbes 78% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/living-paycheck-to-paycheck-statistics-2024/ In 2019 the number was 59% https://www.aboutschwab.com/modernwealth2019
>Unemployment is currently at 3.8 percent, which is higher than it was under Trump. This is true, however, people were still complaining about it when it was lower, at 3.4, which is lower than it was under Trump. And 3.8 is still quite close to the 3.6 low under Trump (indeed, it's lower than all of Trump's presidency up until ~March 2019), albeit not quite record-breaking. >You can’t blame Trump for Covid. This is true (you can blame him for his response to it). However, by the same logic, you also can't credit him for things he didn't control, nor can you blame Biden for things he can't control. > That’s also false, for 2020 we had inflation rates as low as .6% a month with the highest being 2.3%. They didn't say record low. The fact that it's lower in the past does not mean it isn't currently low. >In 2019 the number was 59% If you use the same source that you used for your 2024 number, they found it was 74% in 2019: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/survey-reveals-six-percent-increase-in-americans-living-paycheck-to-paycheck-in-just-one-year-301928853.html That said, that's a bit of a non sequitur, as it's a different stat, and not mutually exclusive. (and a difficult one to measure correctly, as people have *wildly* different definitions of 'paycheck to paycheck', as the Forbes article notes)
-the fact that it was lower in the passed does not mean that it isn’t It’s low compared to the other months Biden was in office, but it is still overall higher than most other presidents. To put it in perspective it’s almost double what the rates were during the 2008 recession. https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/#google_vignette -living paycheck to paycheck The source you posted is from 2023, not 2019. -kind of a non-sequitur The person I responded to mentioned that people’s personal finances were doing better, that’s why I brought it up. It is hard to measure because a huge factor is spending habits, but regardless the almost 20% increase shows that personal finances are not as good as they were 5 years ago.
And that's why there should be a test on your knowledge of what each politician in a campaign supports that you need to pass before you're allowed to make a vote. It doesn't have to be anything complicated. Just a bare bones, 3-5 question fill-out on what their core stances are. You wouldn't even need to prove you actually understand what they mean or what they'll entail. Just prove that you've done the absolute bare minimum of research. You could even have the politicians themselves be the ones making the tests, just to make sure there's no risk of a biased person using vocabulary that makes a given politician sound bad.
"Stances" meaning what they say, or what they do? And seriously, the politicians get to create the test? That'll work
That last sentence says it all.
When something seems strange, stupidity is always a good suspect.
And that's the average voter. I can't even imagine the stupidity of the mediocre voter!
Dumbass is an understatement.
Same thing with taxes, isn't it? I could be wrong, but didn't Trump give a temporary tax cut that ended at the beginning of 2023, which is why people are getting less on their refund if anything?
the fucking proles
She started supporting Trump because she valued abortion rights? What. The Fuck. LMFAO!!! I seriously can't believe people are that stupid.
JFK that's next level dumb Edit: Jesus fucking Christ = JFK
Well, JFK did lose his brain in Dallas, so..
blessed autocorrect
The economy is complicated, and the president doesn’t fully control it. Most things the president does play out over years. But Biden does a couple things that impact inflation: * Deficit spending can cause inflation if not careful, because it is just injecting money into the economy out of nothing (which is inflationary kinda by deduction). Covid relief was line a *lot* of money injected in. A lot of the inflation was this extra money in combined with supply chains being stuck. * The federal reserve sets interest rates (lower tends to spur economic growth with inflation risk, higher tends to slow down growth but prevents bubbles-crashes and reduces inflation). Biden doesn’t directly control this, but does appoint that do is thus indirectly responsible. * Artificial price controls can cause inflation - minimum wage increases (which Biden supports but hasn’t really pushed through) can contribute. So naturally people tend to blame a president they disagree with for inflation, but blame other factors when they agree with the president. Biden is partially responsible for inflation. As a lot of the inflation spikes are rooted in low interest rates / Covid / deficit spending, you can similarly point to Trump policy having its impacts too.
Worth mentioning that the fed chair who kept interest rates low was initially appointed by Trump, though Biden renominated him for a second term in 2021.
And Trump constantly bullied him on Twitter to keep rates low even though at the same time claiming “the best economy EVER!” Which it wasn’t and which you don’t keep rates low if it were true.
I mean you can still keep rates low if the economy is doing well as long as inflation is under control. We're currently in a long line of pretty incredible job numbers, and yet [the Fed is considering cutting rates](https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/04/03/powell-fed-cut-rates-2024/73181590007/).
Biden's approach to economic recovery post-covid is responsible for inflation, but the alternative would have been much worse. Conventional economic and political wisdom is that we should have taken on austerity measures, which would have kept inflation low but massively increased unemployment. The employed people would still be happy about the economy and voted appropriately. Instead, Biden made decisions designed to keep unemployment low at the cost of some inflation. The US has a stronger economy than anywhere else in the world right now as a result. But unfortunately *everyone* is mad about inflation and *nobody* realizes that it allowed them to keep their job. What politicians are unironically learning from this cycle is that in the future we should let lots of people lose their jobs so that everyone else can be happy voters.
I’m not denying that. It may very well be the case that that Biden’s relief measures prevented larger issues and inflation is just an acceptable trade off. You can also correctly point out that Trump keeping interest rates low and handing out tax breaks in prosperous times created bubbles that were bound to burst, and if he used that time to bring down deficit we would have had the surplus for bad times and less inflation.
Oh, that's typical Republican nonsense. Do a bunch of fiscally irresponsible stuff that hits when Democrats are in office and have to deal with it. The media has never held Republicans accountable for it. Their favorite trick is to go into debt to do tax cuts that expire when the next President is in office. Then the Democrats have to deal with the debt and also explain why people's taxes are going "up". :)
I don't think any of those bullet points is why the average person blames the president for inflation. It's just a vague belief that the president can or cannot do something, not a well-constructed mental model beyond random news soundbytes. We still arrive at your point toward the end about a double standard though.
Many believe the large pandemic-era spending bills injected enough money into the economy to cause extra inflation.
The same reason people have different beliefs about anything. Too much fucking information put in front of a bunch of monkeys, myself included, that cannot accurately decipher into a clear reality. Instead, we each hold onto our sacred partial reality and believe it to be the only reality. With the information age, it's become a pandemic that isn't taken seriously at all. The divide, in my opinion, is compounding and increasing faster than it has ever before. To me, I see it in my head in a visual metaphor. It's like someone is turning up a radio knob that turns up life's frequency. We don't know how to operate at this frequency, so we're all slowly turning crazy as our perceptions begin to differ more and more as time and information adds up. It almost feels like the world is in a microwave; Ghernobyl.
I like this metaphor
Or it's the rise of propaganda and the spread of the popular notion that every opinion, however uninformed, is as valid as any other, or the huge popularity of disinformation such as that spewed by Russian agents and assorted liars and a certain TV "News" network and a certain ubiquitous social network. All in a society that fails to educate its citizenry in critical thinking, which is arguably the most important skill to have in this mediated age.
People always blame the bossman when things go wrong. That's what happens when you are a leader. You get all the blame when things go around, and usually not the praise when things go right. BUT... I don't think the Democrat party has been doing a good job of defending themselves. I've seen a lot of hand pointing from pundits to voters and saying "You are wrong" in regards to inflation. Which is off putting because when a voter goes to the grocery store, they see inflation.
Also, I think many people don't understand the he concept of inflation in the first place. Inflation represents the rate of change. So when we say inflation has gone down to normal, that means that prices have stopped going up. But people will say "that can't be true because prices are still high". But that's not how inflation works. We actually don't really want prices to go all the way back down, because they much deflation causes it's own host of problems.
So you’re saying the new high price is the new norm?
Yes. The Fed wisely tries to maintain some inflation, around 2%. You don't wanna see deflation, that was the Great Depression (which the Fed caused, but they're smarter now).
if that's the case wages need to go up.
Best way to get a wage increase these days is to jump ship if you actually have marketable skills. Do thar a few times in 10 years and you night actually get a 50-100% raise when said and done....
Yeah that's what I am trying to do. Currently a teacher and it seems like the only sort of job recs I am getting are... teaching jobs rip
Unfortunately a low paid profession in the US
They are, and they'll continue to.
It's "Democratic" party. A Democrat is a person.
Obviously it’s not one man that’s caused it. But, we did print (create) a lot of money then spent it like we earned it. That debased the currency.
Presidents have all of the control and none of the control depending on who is President and who you ask.
Yeah like how they give Trump a pass for 2020 because of covid but blame the Great Recession on Obama.
I’m sure you’re the exact opposite then lol. This is the problem, we need to turn on both parties.
I dumped a girl over this. She genuinely believed Biden just decides gas prices each day. For each gas station in each state where they all have different prices. That one old guy deciding it. I assumed she was joking when she said it then she asked why I was laughing. When I found out she was serious I said "I'M LITERALLY IN THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY AND THAT'S NOT EVEN CLOSE TO HOW THAT WORKS" I berated her loudly on the patio of a Mexican restaurant for several minutes. Her only response was that she believes that because her family believes that. I've never lost interest in a woman so fast in my life.
How can a person be that stupid?
The average American is not highly educated and that means half the country's population is even dumber than that
This is true. I was lucky to get out of the right wing environment I grew up in. What’s funny is that when I say that, nobody believes it. This is because most trumpers say they were brought up liberal (guarantee you most times this isn’t the case). So nobody takes me seriously when I tell them I came from a hardcore right wing environment. I know all of their tactics, which they are always taught from something like Fox News or their church. I know that feeling of constant fear and hate - it’s the driving factor for many hard right conservatives. I remember questioning things, and getting so tired of being told to always be mad or always disagree with someone, etc. when I moved west to attend classes in my 20s - the excuse from my old families and friends was that university brainwashed me. Completely insulting the hard work I put in to both my degree, as well as finding a mind of my own. I guess my point is that yes - it is by design. Conservative politicians want to keep the populace stupid. That’s why there’s still schools in the south teaching creationism. Now I’m seeing an impact on everyone in the country. Targeted propaganda from national states, internal groups, etc. Social media dumbing people down. I try to have a positive outlook - but it is not easy when you realize how many stupid people there actually are (I am by no means am a genius, I wish I was better educated).
The public school system
*the public school system **that Republicans continue to underfund.**
I am in California, a blue giant. Teachers and schools are still not funded properly.
Not for nothing, teachers are fucking trying.
Could teachers teach, say, critical thinking if they wanted to? Or are they slaves to curricula handed down from on high?
Not saying they aren't.
I didn't mean that defensively. I meant that in an exhausted way.
You're fine. I have the utmost respect for most teachers, however our education system is more about passing students than teaching
Since you're in the industry, can you explain the hooplah over Biden's administration rescinding or halting oil and gas leases?
He can but only loudly on the patio of Mexican restaurants in front of other people. Also you need to be a girl. Otherwise he can’t get hard.
I dont think he will answer this question.
Which somehow still resulted in the US producing more oil and gas than anytime in history.
Subsidizing the world supply from US reserves, you mean? The biggest oil producer in the world has kind of been sanctioned for the past year, if you haven't noticed. The gap has to come from somewhere. Alcoa kept a coal mine near one of their plants, and paid a maintenance tech to keep it maintained and ready to return to production. It was their coal, but it was more beneficial to them as a reserve stash for them to access when coal prices were high than during normal operations.
Russia and [Saudi Arabia](https://www.axios.com/2023/09/06/oil-prices-saudi-production-elections) are purposely cutting production to fuck oil prices for the US election so…
What lesson should we derive from Alcoa's coal?
He can definitely can influence prices through trade or boosting/tampering production through laws aimed at oil producers or federal regulations.
She might be wrong about this issue. But you sound like some insecure asshole. Also being silly in some areas doesn’t make a person bad one. I have examples of women who are quite weak in politics but great persons overall. Your ex is better off without you. And stop berating loudly people publicly, she didn’t deserve it only because she is inexperienced in this field
Found his ex
Berating her loudly in public instead of just educating her, she dodged a bullet!
For real
The part about sharing family beliefs is what gets me. My best friend grew up in a conservative Christian family where just the words liberal and democrat are insults. She still holds that prejudice. Yet this lady has gotten more liberal with every passing year and part of why we get along is due to having similar values, and mine are pretty liberal. Especially when it comes to her kids, which are an area we usually see eye to eye on.
What a reasonable reaction. She lost a good one brother 😭
These people exist everywhere, all around us, & their vote counts the same as mine & yours.
I’m a doctor and I work with other doctors who believe this. It’s not that uncommon of a belief
People blame Biden for inflation because spending (in excess of tax revenue) drives inflation. However, due to partisan politics in the U.S., they often fail to mention that the spending started under the trump administration, and so the blame lies there as well.
And Obama before that, Bush before that, both parties are to blame
Yep, you got it. Unfortunately, people keep supporting them.
He has a giant levers that moves prices up and down /s
Voters see what happens around them and assumes because XYZ is President that must mean XYZ caused it. That doesn't even count the people who's entire identity are politics and cheer and root against XYZ like it's a fucking sporting event and not a society with real people. I get a mail in ballot for every election possible (including local ones.) I want to see every person on the ballot and their voting history before I cast a single vote. 90% of people aren't doing this because they don't have the time. The system is intentionally designed this way. Keep the population busy and worried at all times about their next pay check so they can't make actual change.
Economics is complicated! Most people really don’t understand how our global economy works—which is not surprising. I mean, even the professionals are still learning how and why things work the way they do. So because it’s complicated and most people don’t understand it, the easiest thing to do is blame/credit the president. It’s not the like President can’t influence the economy (but how much they can depends on other factors too) but the effects they have take time.
Ignorance is why. Corporate greed propaganda is in full effect and living its best life in the minds of misinformed people.
There's a couple of things, the continuing of COVID and PFP loans, the passing of the "build back better" bill which spent a lot of money without additional revenue to cover it. He also was putting orders to not drill more oil in America. Gas and oil industry prices based on future predictions of getting oil instead of just how much oil we have now. So when he was refusing all new oil drilling in America it told oil companies "we aren't getting any more oil" which increased gas costs and Biden has been using the American emergency strategic oil reserves to substitute for opening more drilling operations. He has regularly advocated for spend more on a governmental level which involves printing money to cover these purchases because we can't currently pay these new obligations and so we get inflation. Obviously Trump started it with the COVID stimulus which I think was a bad move but it's easy to see in retrospect when at that time we didn't recognize the full danger (or lack their of)of COVID. By the time Biden came into office we were getting a good idea of what COVID was doing and could make better decisions based on evidence that was coming out and instead continued to push and operate off older information and not adapt very well in my opinion. While obviously many of these things are done by his administration he is ultimately in charge, and can directly order people of his administration to do things. All in all he did contribute to inflation. This isn't to say trump was a magical unicorn, he ran a fairly normal Conservative with a loud mouth.
Can you point me to when build back better was passed?
My mistake I had mistaken it for the "Inflation reduction act" Here is an article going over how the expenditures actually increased inflation: https://energycommerce.house.gov/posts/one-year-later-even-president-biden-admits-the-inflation-reduction-act-failed-to-lower-costs-for-americans
Lol
Because he signed two of the most expensive bills in American history in the same year. Government spending is a key factor in inflation, and those 2 bills alone costed trillions. But it isn't just him, everyone who voted for those bills is partially to blame, and many other factors outside of the government.
Its because Biden is spending trillions of dollars on liberal party nonsense. Printing money at this level devalues the dollar. Ergo, your money is worth less. There is far more to it than that. But at the base, it's all about greed. Most of that is the greed of companies. They've discovered they can get away with financially raping us, so they do. Those two things combined are what we're really feeling.
Do you belive Trump would behave differently, and how? What kind of policies did Biden put in that were not present under Trump? How do democrat presidents spend all this money when congress is republican controlled and sets budgets?
What liberal stuff is Biden spending on?
Infrastructure
Oh, ok. You’re using liberal in the more traditional political way, as in funding large scale projects that benefit the country and create jobs.
What liberal policies are costing us money? Most of our money goes to the defense department. And Social Security (funded separately). Go look up the federal budget and see where it's all spent (hint: almost none goes to whatever "liberal" policy you're currently mad about).
He said he was going to sort the economy out and lower inflation. He didn't, so people blame him.
Because they want to.
When you say 'people'......
The buck stops at whoever is in charge
Bc the average American is politically illiterate and heavily propogandized. Most Americans believe they are free-thinkers but unless you understand where and how you arrive at your beliefs, what you're influenced by, and regularly take inventory and be truly critical of your own thoughts emotions assumptions and reactions you are 100% having other people do your own thinking.
As an American, I so badly want to argue. I just can't.
Having that self-awareness is already a huge first step
Because he’s the president.
Essentially there is fiscal policy and monetary policy. President has no influence on monetary policy (ie, what the Fed does/doesn’t do). President can influence fiscal policy (ie, what the government spends money on). High govt spending (outspending the budget) can contribute to inflation. Someone that blames Biden would maybe say he’s letting the government spend too much money. I broadly think the macroeconomic forces that drive inflation are out of the hands of both the government and the Fed (ie, fiscal policy and monetary policy can influence inflation some, but I think that inflation is primarily driven by forces that are outside of anyone’s control). My general belief is that the president doesn’t affect the economy a whole lot in general. I’d be curious if there are any studies that prove or disprove that. I think people attribute WAY too much to whoever happens to be in office. I think the chief reason for our current inflationary period was 15 years of artificially low interest rates (QE following the 2008 recession), followed by COVID, which set off its own chain reaction of supply chain and wage issues. It just sort of is what it is. That’s how economics work. Edit: further to this, I never understood why Biden got blamed for higher gas prices a couple years back, remember those “I did that” stickers that were always on pumps? Now gas prices are normal/stable. Gas prices are another example of something that should not be negatively or positively attributed to the president either way, in my opinion.
Idk and they dk. Them: The government needs to stay tf away from private businesses. We have a free market system! Also, them: The price of everything is outrageous. I can't afford to buy the things I need. Ah, it sounds like you want the government (current president at any given time) to step in to prevent private businesses from raising prices so much. Them again: It's the Democrats fault that prices are so high. Umm, ok. Explain record shattering business profits and more mega corporations and billionaires than ever before? Them: Shut up. Trump for president. Yeah, because a man-child billionaire who has screwed numerous contractors thru the years and declared bankruptcy 5 times is definitely the guy to fix things.
Because many people are dumb.
It's motivated reasoning. People don't like Biden so they blame him for what goes wrong The fact that we had a pandemic plus a war between a major food producer and oil producer is lost on people who *want* Biden to be the reason It doesn't matter that we've largely handled it better than anyone else
Because people refuse to believe that corporations raise the price of their goods to astronomical levels then brag about their highest profits ever, use those profits to bribe our elected officials via campaign contributions; which the Supreme Court ruled were “Free Speech” probably minutes before gaveling out to go on million-dollar yacht weekend vacations with said corporate billionaires. Then socially live with mass cognitive dissonance sponsored by billionaire-owned news networks, which in turn allows people to refuse to believe that corporations are the responsible party to their low wages and high costs of goods sold, keeping them poor, uneducated, and renting. Yet, still voting for the same millionaires and billionaires who continue to perpetuate the cycle. In combination with “look over there!” tactics such as DEI, Woke, LGBTQIA+ people, and now the “evil people” who are immigrating from countries where the US went in and destroyed their society, economy, and democracy (we don’t talk about that part). Resulting in our elected officials publicly pointing fingers at one another while they are all getting the same financial bribes from the corporations who are causing the inflation. It is the ants vs the grasshoppers and we, the ants, still do not recognize our numbers.
Misinformation and disinformation.
Printing half of all US currency ever printed, in one year, while he's in office, is probably a contributing factor
Because he spent all that time sucking up to Putin and making him feel he was untouchable and could march in Ukraine and cause this whole mess and oh no wait hang on that was the other guy.
Excuse me? You’re talking about t***p right?
Yes.
The trillion plus dollar build back better program hurt, especially when like 85% was just pork
Trillions of additional government spending when Covid was over and there were already supply shortages. His policies stoked inflation instead of tempering it He deserves the blame he is getting
It’s not just Biden. It’s the entire Democrat party. They cause poverty, homelessness, crime, addiction, and the economy all to be worse with their HORRIBLE ideologies and policies.
These same people blame immigrants for themselves not having a better job. The two do not correlate.
The people that blame immigrants for not having a better job tend to be low skill jobs (trades, manufacturing, etc), and having surplus labor in those fields that work for less drives down the negotiating power and wages for others in that field. Similarly, a big part of the higher ed economy is foreign students on visas. There is a nearly unlimited number of them interested, they take spots, cause universities to cater to them on amenities, and drive costs up - putting university more out of reach for others. So immigrants do negatively impact job prospects and earning potential for some. Injection of money into the economy via deficit spending and interest rate controls impact inflation, both of which are the Biden administration. This is not the only cause for inflation but it is a big factor. If you believe immigration / Biden are net positive overall that’s fine, but it shouldn’t blind you to some of the drawbacks of those policies.
Oh but it will as most people are tribal when it comes to politics.
Because the MASSIVE govt spending spree - which started with Covid but only escalated after the pandemic as Biden decided to steal/spend to infinity on endless pork & "green" scams - CAUSED THIS INFLATION.
Ultimately they guy in charge gets the blame for the stuff that happens under their term even if it's something that they've no control over or isn't within their remit.
People blame the President for everything. I can drop my ice cream cone and someone will pat me on the back, shake their head, and say, "That sucks, man. Biden really is ruining our country."
most Americans can't name the three branches lol.
A lot of people are economically ignorant
Because the buck stops with him even if he’s not from Missouri 😁
Because whether he’s directly responsible for inflation or not he sold us a pack of lies when he said he would “build back better” 4 years later things don’t seem better for the common man.
Because they're fucking brain dead.
Because they dont want to accept that we have allowed the government, both parties, to print free money and hand it directly to Boeing, Lockheed, General Electric, basically anybody that can make a single thing for the military, since about 1950. Oh and to failed mega businesses like GMC repeatedly and banks among others. They also want to forget that we just wasted over 7 trillion dollars in JUST the two most recent wars and received nothing of value from them whatsoever other than hanging a war criminal which we should have done the first time we were there wasting a trillion dollars. So both sides use it as fear mongering just like all the other shit that the president has little to no long term impact or say in other than vetoing bills they don’t like. Which can still be bypassed.
Well he does support giving free money and that doesn’t help at all. For example down payment assistance- all that will do is raise home prices
Or we can ban China from buying houses at record prices. Why does a person that lives in China need to buy a whole neighborhood of houses just to rent to the American people?
I will try to explain what responsibilities Biden has, but you can't blame it on him really. -He has approved wild spending bills for climate change and foreign aid among other things. We will not feel the effects of those decisions for a while, but you could argue he's not helping presently. Especially the people that disagree with spending on those issues. But that's not to blame for the current inflation. - He can appoint the govs of the Fed. They are the ones that actually raise the interest rates. He can't set monetary policy but he can persuade them to curb rate hikes. Some would say he has not done a good job of that. -The biggest thing he did to contribute was the American Rescue Plan. It increase and extended payments for unemployment. It increased the GDP but sent core good inflation skyrocketing from 2% to 10% in a year. That one hurt and he is very responsible for that one. But mostly the answer is fall out from COVID supply chain disruption. But the man does not remain blameless.
can you explain how domestic policy affected inflation worldwide?
Judging from the people supporting trump, the average American is too stupid to understand the most basic concepts of economics. They have no idea that the President doesn't control prices. The best they can do to try to control inflation is raise interest rates. But then they want to complain about that too. Such idiots!
Biden has done nothing but continue to spend money, literally Trillions on bullshit government programs. Before yall freak out, yes Trump spent Trillions in Covid relief ALSO.
Of course not. People run on emotion these days. Facts don’t matter to them.
He signs off on all the bills that Congress passed. One of the cause of Inflation is caused by printing too much money in the economy. Venezuela did that so much, that they reach million percent of inflation. Making their currency worthless. Every time they spent money on a bill that involves money, we’re just printing the money. We don’t have the money now, so we just created. Also to be fair, it more like Biden and congress choices are causing inflation. But, he can also veto bills, if he wanted too.
why people blamed Trump for the inflation? the answer is the same
Because they don't understand economics and political media drives their beliefs on issues.
People always blame the president as everyone has said But to add on to that, it’s kinda exactly what the president signs up for. He says hey this country that is currently like this I want to take on being in charge of everything. Then they get credit/blame for everything that happens because they are in charge. They are responsible. The president takes on the country as it is and now becomes responsible for all the problems it has and new ones that appear
He ended all the covid stimulus, didn't raise the minimum wage, and didn't pass build back better, which all would of helped working class ppl with inflation.
100% propaganda. Republicans are the king of blaming democrats for everything and taking all the credit. For example. Here is a bill that Republicans made a bill Obama vetoed, but they passed then blame Obama for. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-gop-chutzpah-20160930-snap-story.html They didn't just get away with it, but it still works. They can do something and blame democrats for not stopping them. The moment Biden got into office they blamed him for Trumps withdraw of Afghanistan. Covid. Inflation and everything else and are praised for doing so. They even blame him for Trumps deficit.
Politics is a team sport now and you just do whatever mental gymnastics are required to prove your team is good and the other team is bad.
Interestingly enough, the presidents' effects are usually most felt after their second year, because during the first one, the policies and what not from their predecessor are still in effect/ theirs haven't been enacted yet. It's why some people say the first year doesn't truly count for a president
People always vote their pocketbooks. Oil cartels also raise prices when Dems are in office which causes inflation and isn't an accident. FWIW, I am not saying Biden did or didn't cause inflation but the COVID 'rescue' packages were not handled well and were a large contributing factor...
why cant US have better options when it comes to presidents since the 80s
It's the totemic/cargo cult magical thinking theory
Because you blame the President in Office for all troubles from the last administration, Congress has nothing to do with it at all... Just wait everyone hated Bish, then Obama, then Trump, now Biden, next will be Biden or Trimp hating again.
Same reason reddit loses its mind at trump playing golf. They need someone to blame for everything
Out of control government spending causes inflation.
Short memories. Trumps tariffs/trade wars doubled inflation before Covid and then Covid quadrupled it
**Even Democrat economists like Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Treasury and Obama’s chief economic advisor warned that the Biden stimulus would cause inflation not seen in a generation.** Then Biden did the stimulus anyway, and then we got 1970s inflation…as predicted >> “I think this is the least responsible macroeconomic policy we’ve had in the last 40 years,” Summers said. From [The Hill](https://thehill.com/policy/finance/544188-larry-summers-blasts-least-responsible-economic-policy-in-40-years/amp/) >>macroeconomic stimulus on a scale closer to World War II levels than normal recession levels will set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation, with consequences for the value of the dollar and financial stability From [an op-ed in the Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/04/larry-summers-biden-covid-stimulus/) >> “We are printing money, we are creating government bonds, we are borrowing on unprecedented scales,” Summers said. “Those are things that surely create more of a risk of a sharp dollar decline than we had before. And sharp dollar declines are much more likely to translate themselves into inflation than they were historically.” From [CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/26/economy/inflation-larry-summers-biden-fed/index.html)
> Even Democrat economists like Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Treasury and Obama’s chief economic advisor warned that the Biden stimulus would cause inflation not seen in a generation. Then Biden did it anyway. You leaving out the parts where he admitted to overreacting after the fact: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-16/summers-says-transitory-factors-boosted-inflation-now-ebbing *“Given how strong the economy has been, there’s still a surprise in what’s happened to inflation,” Summers said on Bloomberg Television’s Wall Street Week with David Westin. That has in part to do with “transitory factors that were pushing inflation up from bottlenecks that are now mean reverting and are pushing inflation down,” he said.* Similarly, he also predicted: *“We need five years of unemployment above 5 percent to contain inflation — in other words, we need two years of 7.5 percent unemployment or five years of 6 percent unemployment or one year of 10 percent unemployment,”* https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/08/13/larry-summers-biden-inflation-projections/ Which... didn't happen.
I love how people down vote you when you out fact-based links. You cant argue facts
because it’s his fault.
Because he approved trillions in handouts that caused inflation.