Exclusive Harris poll for the Guardian shows 55% believe economy is shrinking, in troubling sign for president’s re-election bid

Nearly three in five Americans wrongly believe the US is in an economic recession, and the majority blame the Biden administration, according to a Harris poll conducted exclusively for the Guardian. The survey found persistent pessimism about the economy as election day draws closer.

The poll highlighted many misconceptions people have about the economy, including:

  • 55% believe the economy is shrinking, and 56% think the US is experiencing a recession, though the broadest measure of the economy, gross domestic product (GDP), has been growing.

  • 49% believe the S&P 500 stock market index is down for the year, though the index went up about 24% in 2023 and is up more than 12% this year.

  • 49% believe that unemployment is at a 50-year high, though the unemployment rate has been under 4%, a near 50-year low.

  • @visiting2440English
    5•30 days ago

    To be fair, in the second article you linked it actually indicates that post-tax inequality increased due to specific COVID era tax breaks expiring, while pre-tax inequality decreased. I think most middle to lower income people are not going to care that their pre-tax inequality is getting better because that doesn’t result in a feeling of the boot easing up.

    I also think that when many people speak colloquially about wealth inequality they’re thinking more in terms of “1% vs 99%” mentality rather than racial income inequality. Not to say that it’s not an important metric to monitor, but I think the class divide is more useful to focus on when talking about general income disparities and is what most people mean when they say wealth inequality.

    Could Biden do more to help with income inequality? For sure. Will he? Probably not that much. Will he be better for it than Trump? 10000% yes.

    • mozz
      3•30 days ago

      To be fair, in the second article you linked it actually indicates that post-tax inequality increased due to specific COVID era tax breaks expiring

      Yeah. Hard to say that’s Biden’s fault though. He was handed an economy that was in the throes of a catastrophe (literally still in the middle, with almost half the country still on Covid assistance to some extent), and he managed to actually recover it and make some small amount of positive progress even with more than half the existing system being against the idea (like rabidly against it). And then people are throwing that positive progress back in his face like “THIS ISN’T ANYWHERE NEAR ENOUGH, I’M STILL STRUGGLING, SO FUCK YOU.” Like yeah… it’s not enough. You are correct. Your solution for that problem seems kinda counterproductive though, my guy.

      I also think that when many people speak colloquially about wealth inequality they’re thinking more in terms of “1% vs 99%” mentality rather than racial income inequality.

      Agree. It’s just for some reason hard to find a version of that chart that shows particular quartile lines or something, and I was more or less assuming that racial inequality trends would match up with non-racial inequality trends.

      Also side note, WTF is up with the Asians, those guys are killing it.

      • @visiting2440English
        2•29 days ago

        Yeah. Hard to say that’s Biden’s fault though. He was handed an economy that was in the throes of a catastrophe (literally still in the middle, with almost half the country still on Covid assistance to some extent), and he managed to actually recover it and make some small amount of positive progress even with more than half the existing system being against the idea (like rabidly against it).

        Definitely agree it’s not really Biden’s fault. I think people in general attribute way too much of the state of the economy to the president when it’s Congress that is passing the laws that are affecting the most change. Although presidential appointments to regulatory bodies do play a big role and that is something I think Biden has mostly done a good job with and deserves credit for.