I have personal experiences with a bevy of East Coast relatives who hang their brains on Republican and Tyrumps and Far Right Media assertions on everything.
One of my favorite cousins at first open to learning about the resources I have…changed his mind about “seeing” after 2 months.
True, grocery prices have a taken awhile to come back down, but I think my loved ones can’t bear admitting they’ve been wrong for 8 years.
Disinformation is a virus killing the American experiment, social media and cable news are the perfect vector. Look no further than Rupert Murdoch and his empire of Fox, the Wall Street journal and the NY post. Slime for the masses! The sweetheart deal where cable networks do not let you opt out of paying for Fox. One America and other cable stations that foster hatred between Americans. It’s disgusting, it’s despicable and there Is nothing “patriotic” about it. It has lead in many cases to ignorant sycophants being placed in positions of political power. Our nation is hemorrhaging, we are no longer one nation of the many and instead have been painted as two nations. I don’t know the answer, all I can do is stay educated, vote and follow rational voices. Thank you for doing these articles, I pray the message is spread far and wide.
Mainstream media outlets are owned by wealthy Republicans. They're using misleading information about the economy to hurt Democrats, bcause it'sall they have.
In 2016, it was "her emails".
In 2024, it's "his age" and "inflation".
If the economy is so terrible, why are car sales up? Why do we have to plan a couple of days ahead to get a restaurant dinner reservation?
If the Republicans felt secure, they wouldn't need to lie or to implement voter suppression or to intimidate voters.
If we drew a chart of nested worlds, the economy would be at the core, serving every other aspect of family, community, well being. But we are not educated to see the reality, thus think the economy is too hard to understand. This lack of education make us vulnerable to snake oil salesmen, by not clicking on stories about core processes. And, we need economist who can speak plain English, "In a collapsed economy, there is no money to pay growers & distributors of food, you will be hungry." Or what ever the situation is at the time.
What struck me about the Guardian report and other reports of polls on this is the way the perceptions flipped if the question is "are YOU doing well economically." Way more people said yes AND said the economy overall was doing poorly. The same thing happened in several swing states when the question was "is the economy in your state doing well economically."
THAT is the real conundrum. I like to think that for Dems who are misinformed but OK themselves or in their state are victims of their own empathy. They read the media mouth-drooping and figure well, think of all those people who aren't doing well even if I am." That may be putting too much stress on the beliefs that Dems operate from empathy more than Fox viewers, but I like to think it.
As for any poll with eye-popping results, one has to wonder "who are they asking?" Clearly a lean into disadvantaged communities is going to get different results than if the lean is into the suburbs. Same goes for places like here in Seattle where housing prices, to buy or rent, and eye-poppingly high. The parents of millennial kids still looking for jobs commensurate with their education are going to have a grimmer view even if the parents themselves feel comfortable. And so on.
The way to change this is not just to keep saying "how can they be all so wrong" or even just 'they are wrong, here are the figures." There need to be narratives that show the strengths. If not media initiated stories, then ads about places where jobs have gotten plentiful due to Biden's policies, interviewing folks who have LANDED those jobs. About people who have discovered that their invested nest eggs, retirement or otherwise, are looking pretty damn nice (this appeals to those who HAVE nest eggs, of course, and the thrust of the ads should be on jobs).
All this besides the fact that virtually no one, myself included as to details, understands --or worse has a clue-- what "recession" means. Even though we've all lived through anywhere from one to many. It's become another bad word to describe things in general we don't like, including the price of eggs.
What the media is doing is burying us and it’s been happening for a number of years. It began with the buying up of local newspapers and massive layoffs of reporters who kept the locals informed about what was happening in their own back yards. Now, news is disseminated via local stations that have also been bought up by the likes of Sinclaire or FOX. If anyone is still watching TV, they’re hearing pretty much the same old same old. The next resort is You Tube, Tic Tok, FaceBook, the X Bird or, heaven forbid, truth social. The saying though that is really significant though is, “All politics is local” and like politics, news is as well and that important leg for all of us has been amputated. Most of this economic news would be getting out there if we had good local news sources all over the country but most have gone the way of the dodo.
Thanks so much for this sensible discussion. I think a lot of the disinformation is coming from FOX, Newsmax and OANN, as well as NYT slant towards Trump.
The economy is best for those who have money already. Groceries are way expensive, and housing is out of sight.! I know these things are being addressed, but people are living them now!
American consumers view the economy thru three lenses. I'm paying more for groceries, I'm paying more for gas, and I'm paying more for housing (the GGH index). Unemployment, inflation rates, stock market gains mean nothing compared to what they think is happening to those three key factors.
I think it has mostly to do with where we find ourselves today in America. People seem to be addicted to the 24 hr news cycle that skims over so many real stories of substance. We've developed an obsession for "breaking news", reality tv, train wrecks, and anything that is the "worst thing that has happened in history" (this week). It tends to get instant attention on social media which spreads it around the world in minutes.
Why are so many Americans misinformed and tend to believe what they just heard? I think it's because many people haven't developed critical thinking skills that help us separate truth from what someone wants us to believe because they said it. Where have I heard that before??
For me, it seems like the answer is, "all of the above." First and probably most importantly, people judge the economy based on personal, first-person, experience. Grocery prices are very high, other prices are high too, and we all know someone who is priced out of the housing market. Add to this the misinformation and poor reporting and the pounding by Trump and team (intentionally designed to stoke concern and fear). Now imagine President Biden and his team wading into all this and saying, "it's not really that bad." It's a really challenging situation.
Good points. Maybe President Biden and his team should point out the truth, and speak to the real issues facing American families, like the price of food, housing, insurance, day care....
The economy is only working for people who invested in a house before interest rates rose. Working class people are not invested in the stock market. They might have received a 4% raise but it doesn’t cover the difference in grocery bills and the 30% rent hikes we’ve seen in the last two years. There has been no significant investment in affordable housing and hedge funds have purchased a lot of single family homes and rent them at exorbitant rates. If people feel like they are stuck it’s because they are. If you make $20 an hour and your rent is $2000 a month and your car and house insurance goes up you feel as if you’re living on the edge. Middle aged people are losing their homes and living in their cars. Tent cities are everywhere because people cannot afford housing. Yet there is no recognition or help coming from the government. It’s not tough to see that the massive disparity in income has created an environment where people recognize the government is not working for them. It’s working for the rich. Two income households struggle if they have kids because child care is underfunded, so having a child is a luxury now. Numbers mean nothing if your standard of living has fallen to a degree where you live paycheck to paycheck.
The points you make are spot on. Income disparity in America is a glaring issue that few people talk about, and Congress will never address. Should the minimum wage be $25-30 per hour just to give the majority of Americans a chance to live comfortably? And that doesn't even address the cost of housing. What are answers? Thanks for pointing these issues out.
I have personal experiences with a bevy of East Coast relatives who hang their brains on Republican and Tyrumps and Far Right Media assertions on everything.
One of my favorite cousins at first open to learning about the resources I have…changed his mind about “seeing” after 2 months.
True, grocery prices have a taken awhile to come back down, but I think my loved ones can’t bear admitting they’ve been wrong for 8 years.
Disinformation is a virus killing the American experiment, social media and cable news are the perfect vector. Look no further than Rupert Murdoch and his empire of Fox, the Wall Street journal and the NY post. Slime for the masses! The sweetheart deal where cable networks do not let you opt out of paying for Fox. One America and other cable stations that foster hatred between Americans. It’s disgusting, it’s despicable and there Is nothing “patriotic” about it. It has lead in many cases to ignorant sycophants being placed in positions of political power. Our nation is hemorrhaging, we are no longer one nation of the many and instead have been painted as two nations. I don’t know the answer, all I can do is stay educated, vote and follow rational voices. Thank you for doing these articles, I pray the message is spread far and wide.
Mainstream media outlets are owned by wealthy Republicans. They're using misleading information about the economy to hurt Democrats, bcause it'sall they have.
In 2016, it was "her emails".
In 2024, it's "his age" and "inflation".
If the economy is so terrible, why are car sales up? Why do we have to plan a couple of days ahead to get a restaurant dinner reservation?
If the Republicans felt secure, they wouldn't need to lie or to implement voter suppression or to intimidate voters.
They have no merits and they know it.
If we drew a chart of nested worlds, the economy would be at the core, serving every other aspect of family, community, well being. But we are not educated to see the reality, thus think the economy is too hard to understand. This lack of education make us vulnerable to snake oil salesmen, by not clicking on stories about core processes. And, we need economist who can speak plain English, "In a collapsed economy, there is no money to pay growers & distributors of food, you will be hungry." Or what ever the situation is at the time.
What struck me about the Guardian report and other reports of polls on this is the way the perceptions flipped if the question is "are YOU doing well economically." Way more people said yes AND said the economy overall was doing poorly. The same thing happened in several swing states when the question was "is the economy in your state doing well economically."
THAT is the real conundrum. I like to think that for Dems who are misinformed but OK themselves or in their state are victims of their own empathy. They read the media mouth-drooping and figure well, think of all those people who aren't doing well even if I am." That may be putting too much stress on the beliefs that Dems operate from empathy more than Fox viewers, but I like to think it.
As for any poll with eye-popping results, one has to wonder "who are they asking?" Clearly a lean into disadvantaged communities is going to get different results than if the lean is into the suburbs. Same goes for places like here in Seattle where housing prices, to buy or rent, and eye-poppingly high. The parents of millennial kids still looking for jobs commensurate with their education are going to have a grimmer view even if the parents themselves feel comfortable. And so on.
The way to change this is not just to keep saying "how can they be all so wrong" or even just 'they are wrong, here are the figures." There need to be narratives that show the strengths. If not media initiated stories, then ads about places where jobs have gotten plentiful due to Biden's policies, interviewing folks who have LANDED those jobs. About people who have discovered that their invested nest eggs, retirement or otherwise, are looking pretty damn nice (this appeals to those who HAVE nest eggs, of course, and the thrust of the ads should be on jobs).
All this besides the fact that virtually no one, myself included as to details, understands --or worse has a clue-- what "recession" means. Even though we've all lived through anywhere from one to many. It's become another bad word to describe things in general we don't like, including the price of eggs.
Polls: Yes, WHO are they asking?
What the media is doing is burying us and it’s been happening for a number of years. It began with the buying up of local newspapers and massive layoffs of reporters who kept the locals informed about what was happening in their own back yards. Now, news is disseminated via local stations that have also been bought up by the likes of Sinclaire or FOX. If anyone is still watching TV, they’re hearing pretty much the same old same old. The next resort is You Tube, Tic Tok, FaceBook, the X Bird or, heaven forbid, truth social. The saying though that is really significant though is, “All politics is local” and like politics, news is as well and that important leg for all of us has been amputated. Most of this economic news would be getting out there if we had good local news sources all over the country but most have gone the way of the dodo.
Great to hear the good news from such knowledgeable and sane individuals. Thank you both.
Thanks so much for this sensible discussion. I think a lot of the disinformation is coming from FOX, Newsmax and OANN, as well as NYT slant towards Trump.
The economy is best for those who have money already. Groceries are way expensive, and housing is out of sight.! I know these things are being addressed, but people are living them now!
American consumers view the economy thru three lenses. I'm paying more for groceries, I'm paying more for gas, and I'm paying more for housing (the GGH index). Unemployment, inflation rates, stock market gains mean nothing compared to what they think is happening to those three key factors.
I think it has mostly to do with where we find ourselves today in America. People seem to be addicted to the 24 hr news cycle that skims over so many real stories of substance. We've developed an obsession for "breaking news", reality tv, train wrecks, and anything that is the "worst thing that has happened in history" (this week). It tends to get instant attention on social media which spreads it around the world in minutes.
Why are so many Americans misinformed and tend to believe what they just heard? I think it's because many people haven't developed critical thinking skills that help us separate truth from what someone wants us to believe because they said it. Where have I heard that before??
We are also contending with the false, made up information being placed on media sites by Russia & China.
For me, it seems like the answer is, "all of the above." First and probably most importantly, people judge the economy based on personal, first-person, experience. Grocery prices are very high, other prices are high too, and we all know someone who is priced out of the housing market. Add to this the misinformation and poor reporting and the pounding by Trump and team (intentionally designed to stoke concern and fear). Now imagine President Biden and his team wading into all this and saying, "it's not really that bad." It's a really challenging situation.
Good points. Maybe President Biden and his team should point out the truth, and speak to the real issues facing American families, like the price of food, housing, insurance, day care....
FOX, FOX, amd FOX.
The economy is only working for people who invested in a house before interest rates rose. Working class people are not invested in the stock market. They might have received a 4% raise but it doesn’t cover the difference in grocery bills and the 30% rent hikes we’ve seen in the last two years. There has been no significant investment in affordable housing and hedge funds have purchased a lot of single family homes and rent them at exorbitant rates. If people feel like they are stuck it’s because they are. If you make $20 an hour and your rent is $2000 a month and your car and house insurance goes up you feel as if you’re living on the edge. Middle aged people are losing their homes and living in their cars. Tent cities are everywhere because people cannot afford housing. Yet there is no recognition or help coming from the government. It’s not tough to see that the massive disparity in income has created an environment where people recognize the government is not working for them. It’s working for the rich. Two income households struggle if they have kids because child care is underfunded, so having a child is a luxury now. Numbers mean nothing if your standard of living has fallen to a degree where you live paycheck to paycheck.
The points you make are spot on. Income disparity in America is a glaring issue that few people talk about, and Congress will never address. Should the minimum wage be $25-30 per hour just to give the majority of Americans a chance to live comfortably? And that doesn't even address the cost of housing. What are answers? Thanks for pointing these issues out.
https://open.substack.com/pub/lyz/p/stop-yelling-at-me-about-the-economy?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=6pv7n