Atlantic Article: “The U.S. Economy Reaches Superstar Status” Is it reality? or economic gaslighting?

15 comments

1. The “economy” they’re talking about only benefits the ruling class. Overall it has little/nothing to do with the pay or quality of life for the masses.

2. If you think we are going to have a massive deflation you’re going to have a bad time.

   Also, it’s because the US economy is in fact doing very well in the global post-pandemic economy relative to all of our peers and rivals.

   People just see prices are high compared to before the pandemic and feel squeezed. Wages are rising but haven’t caught up yet. People need to stop waiting for prices to crash and see about getting a wage adjustment or a new job if they haven’t gotten a raise yet. They also need to stop enabling the inflated prices by buying even when they don’t need something. Everyday people are sustaining prices on everyday items.

   It’s like the article says:

   >…America’s economic performance has left other countries in the dust and even broken some of its own records. The growth rate is high, the unemployment rate is at historic lows, household wealth is surging, and wages are rising faster than costs, especially for the working class. There are many ways to define a good economy. America is in tremendous shape according to just about any of them.
   …
   Right now America’s economic-growth rate is the envy of the world. From the end of 2019 to the end of 2023, U.S. GDP grew by 8.2 percent—nearly twice as fast as Canada’s, three times as fast as the European Union’s, and more than eight times as fast as the United Kingdom’s.

3. Politics.

   The economy is a major issue for undecided voters. If they feel the economy is bad or trending towards the wrong direction, then the incumbent president has a hard time getting reelected. For LW media, like the Atlantic, they can’t let voters think the economy is bad, so they will push fluff articles to trick voters.

   If the economy was doing as good as they say, then there would be no need to convince voters otherwise. Biden would cruise to an easy reelection.

4. I keep telling everyone & getting downvoted for it…if people start calling the economy bad, it helps Trump…we have to call the economy ‘superstar’ to save democracy from Trump

5. We live in strange economic times. On one hand we’ve had 27 straight months of job growth, unemployment is extremely low, wages are rising faster than inflation (which is mostly under control).

   On the other hand, prices – esp of key items like homes, energy, insurance, med care, childcare, higher ed, and some food items (meat mostly) are extremely high – but for different reasons.

   We have structural issues driving some of these high prices – zoning and other “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) measures that restrict residential construction, for example. Our medical system has long been the most expensive and the worst bang for your buck system in the world. Our higher education system’s inflation has outstripped general inflation for decades. Unlike most industrial nations, we have little support for childcare.

   Fixing those issue will take a unified congress able to pass intelligent legislation. Don’t hold your breath.

   Other inflationary areas, like food, and energy are due to both strong demand and restricted supplies due to wars around the world. Ukraine used to be one of the largest exporters of agricultural items – not since the invasion. Russia used to be one of the largest exporters of oil – not anymore. The Houthis attacking shipping in the middle east also pushes up oil costs – which impact everything. I see little sign either of these conflicts are going to end anytime soon.

   Making it all worse, we are in an election year, and those out of power are pushing the mis-information button helped by Russia and China using fake news to attack the current administration (which they hate). So, we get an endless stream of idiots yelling about awful the economy is – when the truth is more nuanced (elections hate nuance).

   If we focus on bringing down prices – the only tool (over the short and medium terms) we have is to reduce demand – which is a nice way to say put people out of work. That’s not a great solution.

6. >Right now America’s economic-growth rate is the envy of the world. From the end of 2019 to the end of 2023, U.S. GDP grew by 8.2 percent—nearly twice as fast as Canada’s, three times as fast as the European Union’s, and more than eight times as fast as the United Kingdom’s.

   What a misleading claim. This is not year over year growth so you have to divide this number by the 4 years and it is barely 2.05%. Compare that to the Chinese year-over-year growth in excess of 5.3% Sure, compare the US economy to that of Europe which the US destroyed by blowing up the Nordstream Pipeline.

   >Still, growth is a crude measure that says very little about people’s day-to-day lives. 

   No shit sherlock.

   The IMF says even Russia is going to surpass the USA — by a lot — with 3.02% growth this year.

   The “disconnect” is that the Oligarchy is lying to you. They want you to blame yourself for your loss of buying power. don’t fall for it.

7. LOL, let’s just say it’s a really good time to be super rich! Though in fairness, a few revolutions aside… it’s always a good time to be super rich!

8. The rich are doing awesome while the middle class and poor are struggling under the weight of the rich getting all of the breaks!

9. First if saying the economy is doing well is like saying Biden and Democrats are doing well. That is emotionally difficult for someone who wants less immigration and republican social issues.

   Americans in general and Republicans cant really say stuff is more important than the economy. They can’t say I don’t care what the S and P 500 is immigration is bad. They can’t say I would rather have a gun than a job.

   So a conservative who hates the Democrats says na the numbers are not good. And conservatives legitimately feel like everything is bad. If you are a conservative watching conservative news you have to hate life right now. Also liberal media is really targeting Gaza so they only see people with no running water.

   That is why you have disconnect between economic data showing an average of 1-4% growth and people hating life. 4% more money does make up for constant bad news

10. Cough…election year…cough.

11. Omg. The Gilded Age…. economy is going great but only for a few people. Both can be true and have been true.

12. This is all true if you are already wealthy. For everyone else, nothing could be firther from the truth. There are at least two Americas and the realities are in stark contrast.

13. Prices on everything 1, 2 is partisan pity partying & hateful rhetoric. At some point you have to call people out making whatever claims and use factual data to disprove or prove their case. Much relies on what so one has experienced BUT in this country alot of it are people being difficult and spoiled. Where I live the number of people driving gas guzzlers both suv’s and trucks not used for business but whom complain on gas prices in a western nation where fuel is way below average comparably need to be made to realize yeah, get real with yourself and stop being a selfish pig. The percentage of people spoiled in the US is incredible.

14. Yep. Election year gaslighting.

15. Economic Gaslighting, the fact that the national wage has not gone up still is absolute bullshit.

    Economic progress under this administration is admirable, but not praising. There are many who are suffering, and oh golly gee do we have a lot of republicans still in office preventing worker reforms and attempting to overt the overtime pay bill in Congress.