Lowest unemployment in 20-50 years depending on how you count
Wealth inequality going down for the first time in I have no idea how long
Actual urgent effort to address climate change for the first time in US history
15% minimum corporate tax, Amazon paying higher taxes than they ever have before by quite a large margin (which is what funded most of the above)
And, that all happened despite absolutely rabid resistance from the Republicans at every turn.
A lot of people are still suffering, which makes it hard to feel like anything is good – in particular, inflation is rising faster than wages at the top end of the scale, which makes it “feel” especially to people in the tech industry like the economy is still doing bad (which, it kind of is). However, wages for people who do housekeeping or manufacturing or etc are actually rising faster than inflation by quite a large margin – that’s incredibly unusual in the modern day even when inflation isn’t spiking, and it’s a direct result of some of Biden’s policies like strengthening the NLRB or spending billions and billions of dollars of Amazon’s money on domestic manufacturing.
The criticism of Biden over his criminal support for Israel is real and fair. Of course, he’s at least making some limp little noises about maybe giving Netanyahu a stern talking to if he exceeds his dead children quota, whereas Trump just wants to kill all the Palestinians and ban Muslims from the country and maybe start with Hispanics too.
The mythology that people got betrayed who voted for Biden is very explicit propaganda; it has absolutely no grounding in the reality of what happened.
To be fair - abortion was also a huge issue and Biden has made no progress on that point. It doesn’t help to deny his failures even if he has had quite a few successes (and it seems impossible that Biden could have actually addressed abortion rights in any meaningful way beyond what he did). That’s a bar he set for himself.
Are you sure that the unfolding abortion disaster in this country currently is what you want to pick to argue the “it doesn’t matter whether we elect Democrats or Republicans, because the outcome will be the same” thesis?
Think again. Are you sure? Because I’m happy to argue against that thesis if you’re sure you want to stick with it. I think probably you can imagine what my argument will be without me even needing to say it.
I mean I’m not trying to be condescending or hostile about it even though I absolutely was. It just seemed like you were making an argument that made absolutely no sense. If you want to clarify because I’ve misunderstood something about what you’re saying, I’m fine with that.
TBH I think I read “Biden has made no progress” and “It doesn’t help to deny his failures” and didn’t read in depth much beyond that. I think you’re right that it was unfair to assume; rereading it now, I just don’t really understand what they actually meant. But yeah maybe it was unfair to assume what I did about what they’re saying.
Like they say “it seems impossible that Biden could have actually addressed abortion rights in any meaningful way beyond what he did.” Okay, agreed… So is it still a failure of his that I’m not acknowledging?
I think it’s a very understandable failure from Biden as I personally don’t believe stuffing the Supreme Court would be a reasonable approach, additionally Biden couldn’t tell that Democrats would get swept in the midterms when he was elected.
That all said, Biden very much ran on abortion (in a “I’ll fix it” way - not just “Trump will ban it nationally”) so it is a promise he made that he couldn’t keep. Do I blame Biden for the shortfall? No. Do I think Biden shouldn’t have implied he’d reinstate abortion rights? Yes.
Anyways, come November I’m voting for Biden because otherwise Trump will absolutely, guaranteed, murder women through denying reasonable healthcare.
Thank you. It’s fair to hold Biden accountable for what he’s done and not done, but we must always remember the alternative is Trump, and if you think Biden is bad, you must have forgot the utter and complete shitshow 2017 through 2020 was.
I try to just stay out of these conversations. Obviously failed here. :) I’m not a Biden fan by any stretch, but this election isn’t even about policy. It’s about staying a country under the Constitution, which is arguably on shaky ground, and full blown fascism. I get the people who thinks everything sucks and we need to blow it all up and start fresh, but trump is just following the German handbook from the 1930s. It’s so clear, yet a significant part of our population not only doesn’t care, but is cheering them on. The crazy gaslit feeling just continues on.
I don’t think housekeepers are seeing the increase. They say “the lower end” and I’m pretty sure it’s talking about the new stronger contracts unions won through strikes and what not. That’s not a ding on Biden.
Biden took some pretty unusual action to strengthen the NLRB, which is part of the reason unions have been having all these successes recently. It’s not just the one or just the other; the battles the unions have been picking and the hard work they’ve been doing have been able to win them successes, and also they’ve also been getting legal and political backing that they usually haven’t been getting, and each makes the other easier to do.
But also, yes, housekeepers are seeing the increase. Increases in wages for anyone tends to drive competition that drives up wages for everyone who’s roughly in the same bracket and category. What I meant in talking about the lower end was overall US wage income at the 10th percentile; I was just using housekeeping as one random example. But yes:
The typical housekeeper therefore saw their wages beat inflation by 15.1 percentage points, even in a time of incredibly high inflation. That’s fucking astoundingly unusual, even if it’s invisible to most people who talk about politics and economics in Washington and on Lemmy.
For what it’s worth, the “housekeepers” mentioned in the data are mostly hotel workers. And they made big, and public, wage strides through union strikes. Not saying it’s bad or anything, just saying. But let’s say all that was completely wrong. Even on that weird, unreal hypothetical…that still gives zero fucking reasons to not vote for Biden in November. It’s why I don’t really like discussing this shit. When someone says they aren’t going to vote, or vote for trump, I’m just done. It’s the dumbest fucking thinking.
And they made big, and public, wage strides through union strikes.
Exactly. Waiting for elections to get things done isn’t going to do it. Every major movement in the US started with direct action and organization, and the votes came later when they couldn’t ignore the direct action anymore.
Feels like a broken record at this point
In 2020 they voted for Biden and got:
And, that all happened despite absolutely rabid resistance from the Republicans at every turn.
A lot of people are still suffering, which makes it hard to feel like anything is good – in particular, inflation is rising faster than wages at the top end of the scale, which makes it “feel” especially to people in the tech industry like the economy is still doing bad (which, it kind of is). However, wages for people who do housekeeping or manufacturing or etc are actually rising faster than inflation by quite a large margin – that’s incredibly unusual in the modern day even when inflation isn’t spiking, and it’s a direct result of some of Biden’s policies like strengthening the NLRB or spending billions and billions of dollars of Amazon’s money on domestic manufacturing.
The criticism of Biden over his criminal support for Israel is real and fair. Of course, he’s at least making some limp little noises about maybe giving Netanyahu a stern talking to if he exceeds his dead children quota, whereas Trump just wants to kill all the Palestinians and ban Muslims from the country and maybe start with Hispanics too.
The mythology that people got betrayed who voted for Biden is very explicit propaganda; it has absolutely no grounding in the reality of what happened.
To be fair - abortion was also a huge issue and Biden has made no progress on that point. It doesn’t help to deny his failures even if he has had quite a few successes (and it seems impossible that Biden could have actually addressed abortion rights in any meaningful way beyond what he did). That’s a bar he set for himself.
Are you sure that the unfolding abortion disaster in this country currently is what you want to pick to argue the “it doesn’t matter whether we elect Democrats or Republicans, because the outcome will be the same” thesis?
Think again. Are you sure? Because I’m happy to argue against that thesis if you’re sure you want to stick with it. I think probably you can imagine what my argument will be without me even needing to say it.
Fuck off I absolutely do care and you can dig into my history if you doubt that I’ve advocated for voting for Biden even with all the flaws.
If you’re going to deny obvious facts your words are meaningless. Don’t infantilize the people you’re talking to.
It’s an effective communication technique to compromise on your position in an effort to convince others.
I mean I’m not trying to be condescending or hostile about it even though I absolutely was. It just seemed like you were making an argument that made absolutely no sense. If you want to clarify because I’ve misunderstood something about what you’re saying, I’m fine with that.
I’m not sure how you got that out of what the guy wrote.
TBH I think I read “Biden has made no progress” and “It doesn’t help to deny his failures” and didn’t read in depth much beyond that. I think you’re right that it was unfair to assume; rereading it now, I just don’t really understand what they actually meant. But yeah maybe it was unfair to assume what I did about what they’re saying.
Like they say “it seems impossible that Biden could have actually addressed abortion rights in any meaningful way beyond what he did.” Okay, agreed… So is it still a failure of his that I’m not acknowledging?
I think it’s a very understandable failure from Biden as I personally don’t believe stuffing the Supreme Court would be a reasonable approach, additionally Biden couldn’t tell that Democrats would get swept in the midterms when he was elected.
That all said, Biden very much ran on abortion (in a “I’ll fix it” way - not just “Trump will ban it nationally”) so it is a promise he made that he couldn’t keep. Do I blame Biden for the shortfall? No. Do I think Biden shouldn’t have implied he’d reinstate abortion rights? Yes.
Anyways, come November I’m voting for Biden because otherwise Trump will absolutely, guaranteed, murder women through denying reasonable healthcare.
Thank you. It’s fair to hold Biden accountable for what he’s done and not done, but we must always remember the alternative is Trump, and if you think Biden is bad, you must have forgot the utter and complete shitshow 2017 through 2020 was.
I try to just stay out of these conversations. Obviously failed here. :) I’m not a Biden fan by any stretch, but this election isn’t even about policy. It’s about staying a country under the Constitution, which is arguably on shaky ground, and full blown fascism. I get the people who thinks everything sucks and we need to blow it all up and start fresh, but trump is just following the German handbook from the 1930s. It’s so clear, yet a significant part of our population not only doesn’t care, but is cheering them on. The crazy gaslit feeling just continues on.
I don’t think housekeepers are seeing the increase. They say “the lower end” and I’m pretty sure it’s talking about the new stronger contracts unions won through strikes and what not. That’s not a ding on Biden.
Biden took some pretty unusual action to strengthen the NLRB, which is part of the reason unions have been having all these successes recently. It’s not just the one or just the other; the battles the unions have been picking and the hard work they’ve been doing have been able to win them successes, and also they’ve also been getting legal and political backing that they usually haven’t been getting, and each makes the other easier to do.
But also, yes, housekeepers are seeing the increase. Increases in wages for anyone tends to drive competition that drives up wages for everyone who’s roughly in the same bracket and category. What I meant in talking about the lower end was overall US wage income at the 10th percentile; I was just using housekeeping as one random example. But yes:
The typical housekeeper therefore saw their wages beat inflation by 15.1 percentage points, even in a time of incredibly high inflation. That’s fucking astoundingly unusual, even if it’s invisible to most people who talk about politics and economics in Washington and on Lemmy.
For what it’s worth, the “housekeepers” mentioned in the data are mostly hotel workers. And they made big, and public, wage strides through union strikes. Not saying it’s bad or anything, just saying. But let’s say all that was completely wrong. Even on that weird, unreal hypothetical…that still gives zero fucking reasons to not vote for Biden in November. It’s why I don’t really like discussing this shit. When someone says they aren’t going to vote, or vote for trump, I’m just done. It’s the dumbest fucking thinking.
Exactly. Waiting for elections to get things done isn’t going to do it. Every major movement in the US started with direct action and organization, and the votes came later when they couldn’t ignore the direct action anymore.