Economy has shot back up, unemployment at record low. Carry on bemoaning everything, but the country is in pretty fine shape. The biggest problem I see is the lack of immigration, which is a big problem when it comes to inflation. I wish Biden would make the case for immigration instead of just ignoring it.
I wouldn't say the economy has shot back up. It's rebounded sure, but that's to be expected, as it was in the gutter and there was nowhere to go but back up. The unemployment statistics are being gamed, as every administration does. But the Biden administration may have taken the gaming of the stats that to laughable new levels. A lot of the "new" jobs are just people going back to work. And
a lot of jobs are part time or gig economy jobs like Uber drivers and DoorDash delivery guys. Technically jobs, sure but these aren't really dignified
JOBS that pay a livable wage.
The facts are as follows; as many as 4 million jobs are gone forever. About 1/3rd of small businesses donezo. As much as 60% of restaurants- closed forever. Not saying this is Biden's fault- these are just the facts of the devastating effects Coronavirus and the fed/state/local governments response to coronavirus had on the economy.
The US was already teetering on becoming a rapacious oligarchy before corona. Wealth inequality levels before corona were the highest since the roaring '20s. All corona and the response from the government did was to accelerate wealth inequality. The CARES act was the largest transfer of wealth in the history of this country- and it will reshape the economy for decades to come. Main Street suffered while Wall Street got bail outs and access to trillion dollar credit allocations/slush funds. The gulf between the haves and have nots has accelerated at
record pace. Wealth inequality has now shattered every previous record in the US history books and is at a record all-time high. But hey, Americans got a one-time $1,200 check though. Lol. The conglomerates have just continued to consolidate through corona and buy up smaller businesses and distressed assets, and monopolies continue to devour everything- even though we have anti-trust laws on that books that are never enforced. Might be a good time to start enforcing them and breaking up Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, etc..
As far as inflation goes, the connection to immigration is unclear to me. Wage increase
is a good thing, and a
much needed thing for many Americans. Your average working class American has not seen a real wage increase in
40+ years - meanwhile costs of living have been rising drastically in that same time span. Americans have had to load up on credit cards and debts to maintain living standards. Wage increases are a good thing.
The main driver of inflation has been the skyrocketing cost of oil. The US dollar is tethered to the oil trade- it is what allows us to continue to maintain our status as the reserve currency of the world- and the cost of oil impacts literally the cost of everything else in the world. It is the greatest single input in the entire world economy. The entire world for the most part still runs on it. When oil goes up, price for every kind of fuel goes up, price for trucking, shipping- literally everything goes up. They go hand in hand. And Biden could try to fix this problem by getting on his knees and sucking off MbS, bending over backwards and begging Saudis to ramp production to all-time highs and drive oil prices down. As far as I know the bumbling brain dead senile old fart still refuses to talk to MbS. Senile Joe is a "tough guy" he's going to show that MbS! You go Joe...keep on keepin' on while inflation destroys the average US worker/family.
Increases in demand and supply chains being f**ked obviously has lead to increases in prices/inflation. There has definitely been some price gouging on as well- big agribusiness- which has lead to ridiculous prices at grocery stores. I have a buddy who owns a restaurant and ever since COVID his chicken supplier has raised prices by 3x what it was before for a case of chicken. They just increased the price on him again. I don't think there is a lack of chickens.....I understand fuel costs are higher and they might have to pay their truck drivers and plant workers more......but those continued price increases are just....insane. There has to be price gouging going on- for sure. Dirty little secret- once businesses know they can get people to pay a higher price for something- they almost never lower the price.
