#pre-Reagan economy

[imkeepinit]

For Dell’s Billionaire CEO, Taxing the Ultra-Rich is a Joke

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Uplinkchump Linkdump

On June 20, I'm keynoting the LOCUS AWARDS in OAKLAND.

It's Linkdump Saturday! This is the day on which I clear the giant backlog of links from the previous week that I haven't managed to post in my newsletter's "Hey look at this" sections. This is my 19th linkdump; here's the previous 18 dumps:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

Let's start with some fun and games. Liam is a high-schooler who created "Bad Plumbing," a Jenga-style boardgame using a variety of 3D printed shapes; the game was a smash hit at his local game-jam, so now he's kickstarting it:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/liamclift/bad-plumbing

The shapes are delightful and Seussian, and there's a very ingenious game dynamic that's not just "make the pile bigger." You can pre-order for $30, and for $100, you'll get a version with a custom-designed shape of your specification. I backed!

It's lovely to see something that's both excellent and delightful, but to be honest, the majority of this week's links are excellent and enraging. Most of these links from The American Prospect, which has, under David Dayen's executive leadership, gone from "a magazine I really like" to "the first thing I read every day."

This week saw a the Prospect publish a stunning series of articles on prices, a sacred object for neoliberal economists, who see them as the carriers of the information that allows society to order itself for maximum efficiency and broadest benefit. Unfortunately for these economists, the love-affair with prices is one-sided: they may love prices, but prices hate neoliberalism.

The dogma that says that any government interference in pricing will destroy the economy by "distorting" prices does not survive contact with reality. The instant the government steps away from regulating monopoly, and its handmaiden, fraud, prices go batshit crazy.

This week's Pluralistic newsletters were dominated by this brilliant series in the Prospect. On Wednesday, I wrote about the Prospect's investigations into algorithmic and surveillance pricing:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/05/your-price-named/#privacy-first-again

And yesterday, it was the epidemic of junk fees:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/07/drip-drip-drip/#drip-off

There's more than I could fit into the newsletter, though, like Friday's excellent piece on the scourge of surge pricing by Sarah Jaffe:

https://prospect.org/economy/2024-06-07-urge-to-surge/

Jaffe's piece was especially interesting given economist Ramsi Woodcock's compelling case that surge pricing is a per se violation of antitrust law:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/26/aggregate-demand/#pure-transfer

The Prospect series was so timely. After decades of pricing orthodoxy, economists like Isabella Weber are making huge waves (and attracting a tsunami of abuse). Weber's interview with Vass Bednar on the Globe and Mail's Lately podcast this week is a must-listen:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/podcasts/lately/article-the-millennial-economist-who-took-on-the-world/

(Though if you get your econ ideas from the New York Times, you'd miss this whole revolution, as the Grey Lady's views on prices remain mired in the Reagan era:)

https://twitter.com/HalSinger/status/1798849195664916648

Few prices are more important than the price of the roof over your head – after all, "shelter" is only second to "food" in the hierarchy of needs. Dayen's Friday story for the Prospect in NIMBYism gets to the crux of the cost-of-living crisis: people who own houses want houses to be expensive, and will go to enormous lengths to make sure that shelter costs as much as possible:

https://prospect.org/infrastructure/housing/2024-06-07-homeowners-want-housing-prices-to-go-up/

Dayen attributes this to "the wealth effect" – that is, most people would like to be richer, and the minority of Americans who have a positive net worth owe that status to rising house prices, and the plurality of Americans who have a negative net worth thanks to a mortgage are counting on rising house prices to flip them into the black.

When America threw off the Gilded Age, we charted two courses to prosperity for working people: labor unions and home ownership. The ruling class cannily convinced us to rely solely on the latter. The housing emergency raging across the country is the inevitable result of that decision:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/06/the-rents-too-damned-high/

The Prospect's consistent brilliance isn't merely an editorial matter, of course. The magazine features a recurring cast of some of the best muckraking writers in the field, and the absolute peak of that impressive pile is Maureen Tkacik. Tkacik's work on Boeing is stunning:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/01/boeing-boeing/#mrsa

Her labor coverage is second to none:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/14/prop-22-never-again/#norms-code-laws-markets

And no one writes better than her about private equity:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/02/plunderers/#farben

I am in pure awe of Tkacik's prolific and expert work. So when I read her piece on Long Covid in the Prospect this week, I was stunned to learn that she has been severely disabled by this heavily downplayed – but rampant – chronic illness:

https://prospect.org/health/2024-06-06-nih-perpetuating-long-covid-denial/

The fact that Tkacik is doing this career-defining, high-frequency work while being randomly smashed by a series of acute Long Covid incidents makes her achievements nothing sort of heroic. But Tkacik's Long Covid coverage isn't a lament for her personal situation – it's a characteristically brilliant investigative story about the systematic cover-up of Long Covid by the NIH, which has a long history of dismissing inconvenient illnesses as psychosomatic, from black lung to chronic fatigue.

Tkacik's Long Covid coverage adds yet another subject where I'm learning more from the Prospect than from other sources – part of a host of issues where the magazine leads the pack. An issue far more squarely in its wheelhouse is antitrust, especially the intersection of antitrust and labor rights.

This week, I eagerly devoured Luke Goldstein's story about the latest in a series of lies that Amazon executives were caught making to the US government:

https://prospect.org/labor/2024-06-06-senators-allege-amazon-lied-delivery-drivers/

You may recall when Jeff Bezos lied to Congress, claiming that the company didn't spy on its sellers and clone their best products:

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58961836

Or when Amazon posted a lying rebuttal to a Congressman who objected to its drivers being forced to pee in bottles in order to meet its punishing schedules:

https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/policy-news-views/our-recent-response-to-representative-pocan

The latest lie: Jeff Bezos and CEO Andy Jassy lied to the Senate about the company's relationship to its drivers, whom it insists are "independent contractors" because they are hired through cutouts called "Delivery Service Providers":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/17/revenge-of-the-chickenized-reverse-centaurs/

These drivers work for Amazon. It dictates their working conditions. It installs cameras that watch their eyeballs while they drive. It enforces an illegal "no poach" system that fixes their wages. And it lies about all this. To the Senate.

You know what they say, it's not the crime, it's the cover-up. Tech barons go through life in a warm bath of their own bullshit, surrounded by lackeys who are contractually prohibited from calling them on it. They forget that there are people out there in the world who won't offer them this deference – including lawmakers and regulators.

That's why Facebook lied to the FCC when they bought Instagram, withholding key information in order to secure regulatory permission for the merger:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ftc-claims-facebook-withheld-information-152834983.html

After decades of inattention, the world's governments have discovered a newfound energy for busting trusts and smashing corporate power. Five years ago, it looked like maybe this was a fixup by Big Cable or Big Content to take Big Tech off the board so they could claim more dominion over our lives:

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/06/04/why-is-there-so-much-antitrust-energy-for-big-tech-but-not-for-big-telco/

Today, every sector is coming in for antitrust scrutiny, and the tempo is only increasing. Just this week, the FTC and DOJ opened investigations into Microsoft, Openai, and Nvidia:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/6/24172868/ftc-doj-antitrust-openai-microsoft-nvidia-investigations

Yeah, there's still a lot of policy focus on tech, but that's because tech has extended its tendrils into every area of policy. That's the end-point of a decades-long process of tech going from sitting alongside important policy questions to being inseparable from them. I've had a front-row seat for that transformation, through my work with EFF, whose brief just keeps expanding as tech infuses every aspect of our lives and rights.

The latest example; EFF's "Surveillance Defense for Campus Protests" by Rory Mir, Thorin Klosowski and Christian Romero:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/surveillance-defense-campus-protests

The military has gone all-in on electronic surveillance, and campuses have gone all-in on militarized policing, so campuses are now sites of electronic warfare, and protesters are vastly overmatched. This is an excellent and timely guide.

Well, this is where this week's linkdump comes to an end. It only falls to me to send you off with one last week: Libro.fm's buy-one/get-one sale on DRM-free audiobooks, with a share of each sale going to an indie bookstore of your choosing! This is a heckin deal, and a great way to start weaning yourself off of the Audible monopoly (also, my latest novel The Bezzle, is in the sale):

https://libro.fm/bogo

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/08/medley/#the-prospect

Image: Cjp24 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Automobiles_in_a_french_junkyard.jpg

CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

[thepolyamorouspolymath]

Fun fact to share with anyone who tells you about how they vote Trump because of prices or the economy, the "gas and eggs" lie that even leftists seem to believe...

Eggs have gone up in price around $0.70 since 1980 as has gas when adjusted for inflation.

So no it wasn't a choice between wallets and human rights -- because those prices haven't changed much.

It's taking more of your money to pay for essentials because of an artificial housing crisis (of Republican support), an out of date utility system (of Republican support), and wage suppression (of Republican support.)

You can check here

for prices on goods like gas and eggs and milk, adjusted for inflation every year.

The idea that Republicans are better on the economy is a lie. It's simply not supported by actual data. If we were in 1925, then we could debate the value of liberal and conservative economic policies -- they were both largely untried, simply theoretical math.

But it's been almost a century and every time conservative economics have been put in play, a market crash and recession inevitably follow. When liberal policies have been put into place, we rebounded from the biggest economic disaster in history to the longest period of sustained growth, created the middle class, funded not only our own part in WWII but a goodly portion of the UK's as well, paid to reconstruct Europe, increased education, created a safety net for our elderly (FDR post Hoover depression), had an economic and technological boom, a soaring stock market, ran a budget surplus, (Clinton post Reagan/Bush recession) restored industries, improved healthcare, came back with 72 months of sustained job growth (Obama post Bush 2 recession).

Now I will not blame Trump for the economic problems in his last year in office -- pandemics can happen to anyone and while better economic policies could have helped, that's theoretical which is up for debate, and I'm here to address FACTS. Hard data from unpartisan sources that is publicly available FACTS.

And Biden's "terrible" economy? Yeah we had the lowest inflation in the western world (EU inflation in 2023 was 6.59% versus US inflation in 2023 was 4.1% -- as of October 2024, inflation was at 2.6% versus Trump's 2.3% inflation rate in 2019) at a time when inflation is INEVITABLE (literally every pandemic has an inflation period after it, since forever -- look at the Black Death sometime), the highest GDP (21.43T for 2019 versus 27.36T for 2023) and GNP (21.73T in 2019 versus 29.03T for 2023) in history, jobs growth every quarter (unemployment rate of 3.7% in 2019 to 3.6% in 2023, which means we not only got back everything we lost from COVID, but then some), and an increase in the median wage from $35k per person per year to $59k.

For those of you who have some weird devotion to tax rates in 2019, the federal income tax rates were 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, and 37%. In 2023 they were... exactly the same. Your tax rates remained unchanged by Democrats at all. Also the largest budget deficit in history occurred under Trump's first administration. Personally I find these less than irrelevant (FDR put on a top tax of 94% and spent more than anyone knew you could spent and it paid off spectacularly.) But if you want to claim to be a fiscal conservative (tell me you don't understand history or economics without telling me...) then you should care.

The stock market is the worst indicator of economic health as its based on perception rather than value and has relatively little effect on daily life for most people. So how did it do under Trump (pre Covid number) versus Biden?

The S&P 500 value as of January 2020 was 3289.29. As of October 2024, 5705.45.

Again, those are all publicly available numbers.

STOP LETTING THEM GET BY WITH THE IDEA THAT THEY ARE GOOD FOR THE ECONOMY BECAUSE NO THEY ARE NOT. THEY HAVE LITERALLY NO DATA TO SUPPORT THAT.

Economics is a hard science. Data matters.

We can debate the role of religion or parental control or the fundamental nature of man. But basic arithmetic? No, sorry that question has been answered.

And anyone who tries to use it as a justification for supporting Nazis is wrong, lying, or both.

[lestbian]

All our lives we have been taught that those of us who do the work of the world are not the agents of historical change. Instead, we are told that the only way we can have any impact on the direction of the economy, or society as a whole, is to vote once every four years for one of two parties that are funded by and beholden to big business. Since the 1930's, the Republican and Democratic Party have played hard cop, soft cop when it comes to domestic economic policy. The Democratic Party has taken credit for legislative reforms like the New Deal. But do Democrats really deserve that credit? This is an important question, especially since some in the lesbian, gay, bi, and trans communities look to the Democratic Party as a vehicle of progressive reform. So how the New Deal was won, for example, has meaning for our movement. Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, took office three years after the cataclysmic 1929 capitalist economic crash. His administration presided during a powerful mass upsurge of the working class that threatened to erupt into a general working-class rebellion. The Roosevelt administration was in charge of trying to quell this pre-revolutionary surge. His job was to save capitalism. And the New Deal was meant to do just that. And so the New Deal was a great legislative victory wrested through struggle. Workers won it. Democrat Lyndon Johnson was similarly forced to make concessions... His administration created new social programs like the "War on Poverty" in order to buy social peace at home, while waging war in Vietnam. These policies, plus the strong war economy, helped isolate young middle-class activists and keep rebellion from sweeping the entire working class. The Democratic Party cannot lead us forward to trans liberation. They've led us into war and economic austerity: Woodrow Wilson led the United States into World War I; Franklin Roosevelt led the country into World War II. Truman started the Korean War. John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson began and widened the Vietnam War. ... The process of transferring wealth from working people to the wealthy continued after Reagan. The rate actually accelerated during the first four years of the Clinton Democratic administration. Whether a Democrat or a Republican presides, both parties administer the same system on behalf of big business. As the trans struggle unfolds, it will become critical to develop an independent movement that can free itself from the grip of "lesser-of-two-evils" politics of waiting to get another Democrat in office. The truth is, you and I are the stuff that great leaders are made of... The ranks of rebellions and revolutions that have shaped human history have been made up of people like you and me. That history lesson has been purposely kept from us. ... The people who make a difference in history are those who fight for freedom--not because they're guaranteed to succeed--but because it's the right thing to do. And that's the kind of fighters that history demands today. Not those who worship the accomplished fact. Not those who can only believe in what is visible today. But instead, people of conscience who dedicate their lives to what needs to be won, and what can be won. I am confident that you and I will find each other, shoulder-to-shoulder, in that historic struggle.

Leslie Feinberg, Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue, pages 139-144

[racefortheironthrone]

Unsure if this is correct, but remember being told that "socialist" governance of many Western European nations (which often get denounced by the American rightwing) were created post-Second World War and based themselves on America (guessing pre-Reagan administration)?

Huh, that's a weird one.

So it's true that a lot of the social democracies in Europe achieved their full flowering in the trente glorieuse/wirtschaftswunder after World War II.

However, it's certainly not the case that they "based themselves on America." Postwar European economic and social policies were largely based on national traditions (dirigisme in France and Italy, co-determination in West Germany, the Nordic model) and were quite distinct from one another, let alone from the United States. (Although the same period also saw the beginnings of the drive towards European cooperation that would give rise to the OEEC, the ECSC, the European Economic Community (EEC), and eventually the European Union.)

My guess is that whoever told you this was getting a bit confused about the impact of the Marshall Plan on European economies. It's true that the U.S imposed certain requirements for receiving Marshall Plan aid that emphasized free trade and certain technical approaches to production, but it wasn't so extensive or long-lasting as to rise to the level of "based themselves on America."

[hellstobetsy]

This is a chart of Median Weekly Real Earnings in the United States. Median as in "Half of workers make more, half make less", so it's not skewed by billionaires, and "Real" means it's' adjusted for inflation. (Pinned to 1982 dollars, instead of today's). It's also only counting people who have a job, so it spikes up in recessions because low-wage workers are more likely to lose their job.

When Reagan took office in 1981, the median worker made $314 a week in 1982 money, which is $1,021 in today's money according to this inflation calculator. I'll be adjusting to modern dollars going forward for clarity. When Reagan left office, we were up to $1,054 a week.

Under George W. Bush, real wages fell to $1,015 a week, less that we were making under Reagan, leading his his loss to Clinton.

Median wages were $1,018 when Clinton was up for re-election, but things improved in his second term, to $1,086/week by the time of the 2000 election.

The median worker was making $1,109 during the 2004 election, which Dubya won. During the 2008, the economy had collapsed, causing lots of people to lose their jobs and artificially spiking up the median wage. Despite this, the median worker was still only making $1,105, less than in 2004.

Obama took office at the beginning of the great recession, and when the 2012 election came around, the median worker made $1,083 a week, less that we'd ended Clinton's tenure with.

However, under Obama's second term, wages began rising consistently for the first time since Reagan took office, and the 2016 election was held when the wages were up to $1,135 a week.

Wages continued rising under Trump, and the median worker was making $1,223 a week during the 2020 election...but that, like 2008, was a recession spike, and a big one. Still, looking at Q4 2019, before the pandemic, we were at $1,177 a week.

Real wages fell from the artificial Covid spike as Biden took office, and then began rising. As of Q4 2023, the median American worker makes $1,206 a week, less than the pandemic spike but more than the pre-pandemic norm.

[militantinremission]

Biden's State Of The Union: a bridge to bipartisanship?

Joe Biden's 2nd State Of The Union Address seemed to be about checking boxes. 1st, Biden attempted to check the 'Fit for Duty' box. He appeared to be his snarky self, channeling the old persona of Blue Collar 'Joe from Scranton'. He took a few jabs @ Republicans, starting w/ his introduction of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. He also instigated a kerfuffle w/ Marjorie Taylor Greene & others over Social Security & Medicare. Throughout his address, Biden tried to emote the swagger of that Senator from Delaware, who had the ear of Reagan, Bush, & Gingrich.

In his Address, Biden said that America is about 'possibilities'. He touted the accomplishments of his Administration over last 2Yrs, & made his pitch for Congress to finish what he started. Joe Biden ran on a platform of bipartisanship; to back this up, he touted 300 Bipartisan Bills passed since he took Office. He expressed his plan to 'Restore The Soul of America', starting w/ The Middle Class. He spoke of building an economy from the bottom up, & the middle out. Like Donald Trump, he supports a Made In America Campaign where Our supply chain begins @ Home.

The Star of the 'Made In America' Campaign, is 'The Chips & Sciences Act'. Biden touts how it will create hundreds of thousands of 6 figure income jobs, that WILL NOT require a College Degree. The expectation is that these Chip Production Sites will bolster & hopefully restore the Communities around them. Presently, the National Unemployment Rate is @ 3.4%- a 50Yr low; this (supposedly) includes lows for Black & Latino Communities. On top of recent job growth #s, Biden also touted 10 million New Business Applications.

He pointed out how 30 million Employees have to sign Non Compete Agreements, & how Workers deserve 'Dignity @ Work' that gives them a Right to a Living Wage, Affordable Housing, & Affordable Child Care. Biden took a couple of jabs @ Republicans, while speaking on the Debt Ceiling. Speaker McCarthy already appeared on News Shows to say that he supports taking Social Security & Medicare off the Table; why did Joe Biden linger on the subject? McCarthy can do his own wrangling.

The Biden Administration were the 1st to say their Fiscal Budget is non-negotiable; how can they fault Republicans for crying foul? Ultimately, Biden agreed to compare Plans. His Plan for Restructuring the Tax Code entails no Tax Increase for families making below $400K, a Billionaire's Minimum Tax of 15%, & quadrupling Corporate Buy Back Stock Fees. Biden touted how his Administration reduced the Deficit by $1.7T, & how Programs like the 'Junk Fee Prevention Act' will spur economic growth.

The subject of Infrastructure gave Joe Biden another opportunity to take a jab @ Republicans. He remarked how Red States will get Projects earmarked, just like Blue States. Members Of Congress may not have voted for his Infrastructure Plan, but 'i'll see ya at the Groundbreaking'. Under this plan, Biden highlighted:

Bridges, Tunnels & Roads

Lead Pipe Removal

Affordable High Speed Internet for All Americans

ALL Construction Materials used for infrastructure must be Made In America

Biden's 'Inflation Reduction Act', is basically a Plan to use restructuring the Tax Code as an excuse to reform Prescription Drugs & Climate Change initiatives. No one (in their right mind) disagrees w/ $35 Insulin, Fentanyl Prevention, or Clean Water efforts; that said, politicians have been slow to act on these measures. The manufacturing angle of this Act sounds promising, as it rewards Companies for buying American made components for their operation. Education, Immigration/ Border Security, & COVID Protocols rounded out the balance of Biden's State Of The Union Address.

Biden stressed the need for quality Public Education for grades Pre-K through 12. He also expressed a need for access to Local/ Community Colleges, & College Debt Reduction. He split COVID fallout into 2 categories: Economic Fallout & Public Safety Concerns. Under Economic Fallout, Biden reiterates his Made In America Agenda to bolster job growth. He again touts Job Growth #s as an indicator that America is getting back to business; pointing out how We are outperforming the rest of The World.

Under Public Safety Concerns, Biden spotlights the family of Tyre Nichols. He goes on to speak about the need for better Police Training/ Reform, more Community Programs, & Gun Reform. He talks about 'Brown & Black' families having 'The Talk', but I don't know of ANY 'Brown families' having that 'Talk'. Joe Biden's ease @ changing 'Black American Struggle' into 'Black & Brown Issues' is becoming an Art. His short memory is already legendary. He speaks about implementing Community Programs, but he was an architect of Benign Neglect Policy that eliminated these Community Programs over 40Yrs ago.

I found it ironic how Joe Biden could invite Tyre Nichols' family to The State Of The Union Address, but didn't mention the George Floyd Justice In Policing Act. He spoke about funding for better Police training, but the combined budgets of the Nation's Largest Police Departments likely rivals the Defense Budgets of NATO Countries. There's already enough $$$ being spent on training. Why is training not a factor when Police are somehow able to apprehend armed White assailants w/ little incident? It was interesting to watch both Sides of the Aisle show sympathy for Tyre Nichols' Mother in one moment, & applaud an increase of Police Budgets in the next. I made note of the CBC Members that applauded.

Gun Reform, like Abortion, is an ongoing issue. The REAL problem, is how to restrict Blackfolk, while respecting everyone else's 2nd Amendment Right. Gun Control wasn't an Issue, until The Black Panther Party protested in Sacramento nearly 60Yrs ago. White Americans have an Inalienable Right to bear Arms, & always will. Gun Control is not a real thing; Society needs the same personality types that are misbehaving w/ firearms to protect them from 'The Big Black Boogeyman'... It's a strange dance.

On the subject of the Southern Border & Immigration Reform, Biden spoke about resources for Border Control, & a pathway to Citizenship for Migrant Workers & Children of Illegal Immigrants. Border States have been literally begging for help; the Texas Governor has been busing Illegal Immigrants to Northern Cities for months. A bus went to Kamala Harris' residence, so The White House had to know things were critical on The Border. It is estimated that over 2 million Illegal Immigrants have entered America on Biden's Watch; not counting tens of thousands of Ukrainians & Afghans entering from Tijuana. How was Barack Obama able to keep Border Crossings low, while Joe Biden seems overwhelmed?

Biden's International focus was on Ukraine & China. According to him, Ukraine is fighting against 'Putin's Tyranny', & We as Americans, should do everything possible to support their fight for freedom. I would personally like an accounting of what 'We' gave, & where it went. Redacted has reported on Al Qaeda & ISIS Soldiers being paid $2,500/ Week to fight w/ Ukraine- is this true? What are Our Tax dollars paying for? Redacted, The Grey Zone, & Jimmy Dore have all talked about high level theft of funds & Black Market activity in Ukraine.

On the issue of China, Biden said that We seek Competition, not Conflict. The U.S. helped China rise- from a 3rd World Nation, to a legitimate World Economic Power in under 50Yrs. America's ongoing meddling in Hong Kong, along w/ rising tension in Taiwan has apparently struck a nerve in Beijing. The recent drama of balloons violating U.S. Airspace are merely another round in a Marathon Dance Competition. America's dependence on China for basic Staples, is the Real Issue.

According 2 Biden, we're in Our strongest position to compete w/ China, & Anyone else. We will work w/ China, but WILL defend Our Sovereignty. He went on to say how No other World Leader wants to trade places w/ President Xi, going against America. Biden ultimately says that The State Of The Union is Excellent. He emphasizes a Nation built on ideals, not geography, collectively working together- sounds promising. Gov. Sarah Huckabee- Sanders delivered The GOP Response, & didn't waste time picking Biden apart.

According to Gov. Huckabee- Sanders, Joe Biden inherited:

The fastest economic recovery On Record.

The most secure Border in History

Cheap, abundant 'home grown' Energy

Fast rising Wages

A rebuilt Military

A World that was stable & @ peace.

Over the last 2Yrs, Joe Biden & The Democrats have spent Trillions in reckless spending, while creating the worst Border Crisis in History. 100,000 Americans are dying from drug overdoses annually- mainly fentanyl. Domestically, criminals roam free, while Internationally, We have been unable to stand up to China... Joe Biden has been unwilling to protect Our Border, Sky, & Our People- he is not fit to serve as Commander In Chief. She deadpans that Biden is caught up in 'Wokeism'.

Huckabee- Sanders goes on to repeat several GOP talking points that date back to Newt Gingrich's 'Contract w/ America'. She says that giving every child access to quality education is the civil rights issue of today. To that end, she proposes an 'Educate, not Indoctrinate' Agenda, that eliminates Critical Race Theory (CRT), & use of the label 'Latinx'. She closes by saying that America is Free, but this Freedom is under attack & America is in danger. The Biden Administration has failed Us, but the GOP has America's future in mind. They are still the place where Freedom reigns & Liberty never dies.

Clearly, Gov. Huckabee- Sanders is towing the Party Line. As Biden tried to build himself up as a virile, stable, & capable Leader, Huckabee Sanders tried to paint a picture of someone old, feeble, & out of touch. The GOP sees Biden as Dems saw Ronald Reagan. The Country was literally more 'Black & White' back then, so Reagan was able to get away w/ more than Biden can. As for 'The Future', how can Republicans truly believe this, when their base is quickly becoming a Minority?

All of this plays into an ongoing narrative, where Democrats & Republicans take turns assuming Leadership. In theory, One leans Left, & the Other leans Right. In practice, Both Sides find consensus on issues that promote the continuance of White Supremacist Policy, by way of Institutionalized Systemic Racism. Minority Groups understand & accept AmeriKKKa's 'pecking order', in return for resources & privilege. The GOP tend to use 'Non- Racial' language to filter out Black America, while Democrats use 'Liberal- Progressive' language to do the same. Both depend on Black America's sense of 'fair play', & equality for Everyone.

As ADOS, We rationalize why a Group should get resources ahead of Us, while Everyone Else behaves like they have some inherent Right to be ahead of Us. We know that some Immigrants & Minority Groups have prejudices against Black Americans; Joe Biden's lack of concern for 'Black specific Policy' in effect, tells them that they're justified in their thinking. If he doesn't care, why should they? To them, America is a 'Grab Bag'. When you consider the fact that Joe Biden showed more concern for Migrant Workers, than taxpaying Black Farmers who have been victimized & oppressed for generations, it's pretty easy to see how his State Of The Union Address condones an Anti Black Agenda- I call it: Benign Neglect 2.0

-Just My 2 Cents

[themuppetagenda]

Some quick numbers since I haven't seen any attached yet: the highest personal income tax bracket brackets

Pre-reagan: 70%

Post Reagan: 38% (32% today)

We've had 40 years to study the effects of this and it is abundantly clear that trickle down economics does not happen. High income earners are not at all incentivized to reinvest the money they keep (which was the theory sold to the american public). It turns out that a high tax rate is what incentivizes that money to stay in the economy - to reinvest that money into your business. Because money invested into a business through capital purchases, R&D, salaries, etc is not taxable.

[sethshead]

We saw the longest stretch of low unemployment in 70 years. Unemployment rates for Blacks, Black teens, and Hispanics all hit or tied record lows. While taking a dip in 2021-2022, real wages have bounced back and are above their pre-pandemic peaks, especially for workers at the bottom end of the wage distribution.

There has been a record pace of new business formation. Workers report record high levels of workplace satisfaction. The number of workers who can work from home has increased by almost 20 million. And more than 14 million homeowners were able to refinance their mortgages, either getting cash out for other purposes or saving thousands of dollars a year on interest payments.

This was in spite of a worldwide pandemic that initially sent employment plummeting, and then inflation soaring, as supply chain bottlenecks created shortages of many goods. The US recovery has been by far the strongest of any wealthy country, and its inflation rate by many measures is now below the average for other rich countries.

That story should give the Biden-Harris administration much to boast about in discussing its economic record, However, this is not the case. We can debate how much the media have contributed to this negative assessment, but there are any number of cases where they have reported things that are either simply not true or sufficiently distorted that they give people an entirely inaccurate picture of the state of the economy.

We see from surveys that the vast majority of respondents who believe the US economy troubled are personally satisfied with their own finances. They’re doing well, they say, but it’s the rest of the country that’s struggling. As it turns out, the country as a whole is benefiting quite nicely from the Biden economy. They simply are suffering from doom-and-gloom reporting from the media or, in the case of many Millennials and Zoomers, from unrealistic expectations of certain benchmarks of the American dream.

As it turns out, the lowest-earning workers are the ones making the steepest gains over inflation: the first real wage growth we’ve seen since Reagan was elected. Home ownership among young people is higher than historical norms; there are just many thirtysomethings and under who thought is more universal a norm than it ever actually was.

There’s still much wrong with the economy, and many expenses, namely for education and health care, are exorbitant. Nevertheless, the policies of Biden and Harris address, if incrementally, these problems. Trump exacerbates them. The supposedly liberal media may be doing everything in its power to cast a shadow on America’s recovering prosperity, but the data tell an entirely different story.

This isn’t a seminar in critical poststructuralist literary analysis. Trust the data, not the narratives.

[bllsbailey]

Even Leftist CNN Fact-Checker Daniel Dale Has to Slam Tim Walz for Latest Whopper

CNN’s Daniel Dale has a history of simping for the Democrats and issuing fact-checks that defy common sense, much less reality. Every once in a while, though, even he realizes that if he’s going to maintain an ounce of credibility, he has to tell the truth.

Dale was forced to admit that Kamala Harris’ running mate, jumpin’ Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, fudged the facts on his recent appearance with the harridans of “The View”:

CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale corrected Democrat vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's claims about the Trump-era economy and made a key observation that some numbers were taken out of context. "Let‘s talk about manufacturing," anchor Kate Bolduan said to Dale as she spoke Tuesday on "CNN News Central." "Building back up manufacturing in the United States is a focus of both campaigns."  She then played a clip of Walz from his recent appearance on ABC's "The View" where he had claimed, "We want to make sure that you're able to bring manufacturing, like [Democrat presidential nominee] Kamala Harris has said. We know [Republican nominee] Donald Trump lost more manufacturing jobs than any president in American history. That‘s simply factual."

Oops, Tim, it's actually not "simply factual." It’s fake news. Implied profanity alert:

Dale went on to provide receipts showing that Walz was flat-out delivering “misinformation” (known in some circles as lying):

"Well, if you’re going to say something is simply factual, it should be factual. This is not," he said. "It’s not true that the Trump presidency lost more manufacturing jobs than any other presidency. Under George W. Bush, there were about 4.5 million manufacturing jobs lost. Under Trump, it was about 178,000." He went on to add that other past presidents had far more manufacturing jobs lost during their times in office, such as Eisenhower, Ford and Reagan. "So Trump does not have the record," Dale said.

Dale pointed out that there was a little thing called the COVID panic that affected the numbers during his tenure:

Dale also argued that people criticizing Trump’s economy are ignoring the fact there was a historic pandemic during his presidency.  "I think it‘s also worth pointing out for context that these Trump job losses in manufacturing overwhelmingly occurred because of the COVID pandemic," he said. "Pre-pandemic, under Trump, there was a gain of about 414,000 manufacturing jobs. Again, he ended [at] negative 178,000, but that was largely because we had a pandemic-related crash."

He’s not always so honest:

The 'Staggeringly Dishonest' Loser of the Night: Here's Lookin' at You, CNN 'Fact Checker' Daniel Dale

CNN 'Reporter' Dunked Into Next Week After 'Fact Check' on JD Vance Joke About Tim Walz

CNN Fact Checker Gets Checkmated by Mike Waltz in Epic Verbal Smackdown at RNC

There are less than two weeks left in this insane campaign season, and as we roll into the final days, expect more disinformation from the desperate Democrats as they see their prospects fading. When even Daniel Dale has to call foul, you know Kamala, Tim and Co. are sputtering utter BS.

[civicopienso]

In the current political climate…

Regarding the recent antics of former President Trump at the Arlington National Cemetery, all I can say is…Nothing that Donald Trump does or his supporters surprises me.

I try not to get caught up in the media frenzy that is the Trump campaign.

Again, as I’ve said before… (especially to those that ask if I voted)

The one thing I’ve learned from the presidency of Trump is this simple fact. People who have NO previous elected official experience should NOT be placed on the ballot for the office of President.

The United States is no longer a rural “self-taught” minimally educated country.

Abraham Lincoln was an exception and even then he did manage to become a lawyer and get some elected official experience before running for president.

The only thing that got Trump into the White House was his “personality” and “celebrity” status.

There have been numerous “on camera” “on-tape” interviews and circumstances that clearly indicate Trump isn’t presidential material.

His seeking out Russia’s Vladimir Putin and the Communist leaders of North Korea, as I’ve noted before to many people who have pulled me into political conversations was the most obvious indicator.

But no one really took that to heart in the media. Our divided and partisan Congress should have been alarmed by such disregard for American diplomacy and our national security.

The American people should have spoken out. But they are like little amphibians in a warm pot of water, all sleepy by the comfort.

The American public is unaware that the warm water is slowly coming to a boil and that they will be cooked.

The baby-boomers as an overall group neglected to take real leadership amid all the unique freedoms they were afforded.

And when then president Reagan enticed the public with “deregulation” Reagan and his administration cleverly dismantled the infrastructure that provided direction and safeguards for the economy.

Did the baby-boomers truly protest? No! They went along with it because they wanted to “go upscale!” Being solidly middle class wasn’t enough.

Even the activists didn’t want to be solid middle class.

A lot of undermining and disempowering was done during those years. But nobody wanted to confront it.

Instead people got pre-occupied with “special interests” and “unique amenities and privileges.”

Everyone was partaking in this mind set in one way or another.

Instead of keeping in focus the strides that were made in Civil Rights and other areas, people were dissuaded by the illusions of the “upscale mobility” economy.

Meanwhile, excessive spending and “celebrity status” mindset were on the rise. “Lifestyle” was emphasized more than actual living standards and conditions.

Everyone was oblivious to this! Everyone!!!

Trump was popular in the 1980s at the peak of the Reagan-Bush Administration.

And like it or not, it’s that popularity from the 1980s and early 1990s that the overall energy of the Trump campaign gets its power. Be it something of a nostalgia, or something else…

This is how Trump built his cult-like following. Check it out! Look it up if you want.

[thepolyamorouspolymath]

Why? Ah well that was part of Reagan's thing -- "we can afford both guns AND butter" (referring to defense amd domestic spending respectively and, nope, no we truly can't, not while also cutting taxes to make tax revenue increase. Seriously, you have to be so fucking high to come up with the math for Reaganonomics, bc it bears no relation to this reality at all), which he pulled a super shitty sleight of hand to convince people was true... no infrastructure.

See, US infrastructure generally went through a 20 year cycle, where it needed a big influx of cash to fund repair and improvement projects. Not sexy, not shiny, but very much a needed part of governing that everyone pre Reagan accepted had to be part of their budget, kind of like your gas bill may not be thrilling but it is pretty mission critical.

Well, Reagan first budgeted for projected revenue, rather than collected -- and those projections were based on the aforementioned "people will pay us more if we charge them less" Laffer Theory. (Essentially, "the higher tax rates are, the more people cheat on their taxes, so if we lower rates people will pay the full amount owed and we'll actually increase revenue." This is categorically not true, not supported by any data ever, but because Reagan and the rich white men he toadied to all cheated on their taxes, it made sense to them -- conveniently they ignored that they still cheated on their taxes with lower tax rates.) So he spent more than he collected, increasing deficit spending while claiming not to.

Then by cutting the needed infrastructure, which due to the 20 year cycle would have eaten a hefty amount, he was able to spend on both military spending and the kind of shiny bullshit that voters who can't be bothered love. Because see, infrastructure is actually part of the butter -- the milk, if you want to go with the analogy. It's the part of domestic spending that creates jobs and meets needs. Reagan essentially cut that out and just kept the packaging and told everyone that it was butter.

All of this worked great. For a little bit. Then of course, a market crash and recession and a much worse global position going forward, as was inevitable because all cons eventually fail.

Sound familiar? Yes, THAT'S where all the finance bros learned the "take the money and run" bullshit that has had the economy yo-yoing from fucking crisis to crisis for the last 40 years -- Reagan did it first and on a national stage, while lowering regulations so that his supporters could mimic it.

I can't count the number of people I've heard express dismay and confusion how Trump got elected and a cult... um, because it's the inevitable conclusion to the story Reagan started?

Biden has infrastructure projects all over the country and only 19 Republicans voted to fund the Infrastructure bill. The Republicans that voted no have been been trying credit ever since.

[imkeepinit]

Basically, just go back to the post-war pre-Reagan economy.

[braidedgraphite]

If you want to understand the political economy of the New Gilded Age, this chart represents essential data.

Note that median wages were essentially unchanged between 1979 and 2017! ($335 and $345 per week respectively, 1982-84 dollars).

During this time frame, real per capita GDP almost doubled, going from $32,322 to $60,001 (2017 dollars).

This, of course, means that nearly all of the massive productivity gains during these four decades went to capital rather than labor, with the exception of what was siphoned off by employer paid benefits to fund The Best Medical System in the World ™.

The other fascinating thing here is that essentially the ONLY big gain in median wages in the last 45 years took place at the beginning of the pandemic, when they suddenly jumped by 10%, before declining again to their pre-pandemic level by the middle of 2022. Since then they’ve risen by about 3%, despite the high inflation during much of this period.

I’ll have more to say about this in a post about the cost of housing, but for now it’s worth contemplating what these statistics say about what’s happened to the American economy since the first ascendance of modern movement conservatism, with the election of Ronald Reagan and everything that followed.

lawyersgunsandmoney.com

[ramrodd]

Trump is QUICKLY running out of money

COMMENTAR:

David, the reason why it is the wisest path to-elect Biden is both Biblical and Quality Assurance business model" constancy of purpose. "A more perfect union" is the Quality Assurance clause of the US Constitution. The Scientific Method is the underlying philosophy of America, generally, and the US Constitution as what Kurt Lewin calls "action research", where governance is a measurable process and not jack-ass slogans and political fallacy.

Genesis 41 describes the biblical recommendation for capital budgeting as a method of government with the Pharoah's Dream, In that latitude, this weather pattern occurs regularly but I'm not sure it is entirely predictable, we ar always hearing of famine in Ethopia. well, it is this weather patter And the Holy Spirit warns the Pharoah in two  visions from a supernatural source of this was on the way as a 13 year event There are 14 years in the deconstructed version of the visions, but the 7th Year of Plenty and the 1st year of famine and the total gestalt is 616 + 1. 13  in my interpretation of the numerology of the Bible   is the Finger of God: it's the Lighening Strike of Yaweh, Queen of Battle. The thing is that the thirteen motif occurs constantly throughout the narrative and Genesis  41 is when it is really introduced as a figure of speech in the narrative of the Bible, The numerology begins with the days of creation and wends with the numerology of Revelation 22:21. = 7.

The thing is that Joseph is made the Prime Minister in charge of meeting the  challenge and he conducts a front-loaded capital investment in ware houses that collects the taxable income of the Egyptian farmers, paid in grain, carried Egypt through the 13 years cycle, That's how capital budgeting works : its how we finance WWII and paid for a lot of Boomer  college educations from war bonds that paid off. Joseph's system of warehouses not only sustained the Egyptian economy through the 13 year business cycle, but there was the possibility of a surplus in the 14 years. And, of course, the ware house system continued to function after the crises had passed and continued to produce a profit on its economies of scale.  taht's what constancy of purpose like in a a Free EnterpriseIn the  economy.

And that's why it is important to re-elect Biden-Harris for another 4 yars. Biden began a program of restoring the pre-Reagan economy as a deliberate capital program to fulfill the potential of the US Space Force as the culmination of  Eisenhower's 1956 Presidential Platform, which was conceived to transform the Military Industrial Complex of the Cols War to the Aerospace-Entrepreneurial Matrix of the Star Wars economics  requried to sustain a United Nations  lunar colony  like 2001: A Space Odyssey for 100 years, if not forever.

Which has been a purpose of the Bible." a record of methods of government and how they worked, The system that works the best in the  Bible is the Roman Republic  west of the Indian/Persian boarder. The narrative of the Bible is the  scientific method as applied Theology., N.T. Writght's interpretation of Pauline Theology makes exactly this point, This is what Jesus was trying to get the Jerusalem society adopt. Gal Gadot, Benny Gantz, the IDF and Tel Aviv is exactly what Jesus had in mind and Paul captures in his 13 Epistles.

So, Buiden's Build Back Better capital budget is actually designed to fully implement Reagan's New Federalism which completes Stage 3 of Eisenhower's Star Wars economics and launch the final paradigm  shift to Stage 3 of the Starship Capitalism of 2001: A Space Odyssey and the creation of Starship America. We are within 13 years of Eisenhower's large system change based on the US Constitution and Genesis 41. The fact is, the capital budget process of Genesis 41 begins to get real traction  in the 5th and 6th years, The Soviet 5 year plans were almost right, but the longer throw of the 13 year cycle really establishes the program into the DNA of the culture. There is a reason why the Children of Moses wandered in the Wilderness for 39 years It's very Heidegger: th logos of instrumental transparency.

Given the current state of the GOP, it will serve America's destiny best is for K.D. Harris be ellected for another 8 years to fine-tune the matrix, This will ensure the BEI paradigm associated with  Fran Drescher's Quality Assurance business model  of the shower scene of Starship Troopers.

The thing is, Biden is  employing the US Constitution as a capitalist tool, which is what the Framers intended. In contrast, Trump and the Tucker Carlson conspiracy is trying to use the US Constitution to blow it up and reinforce elon Musk's business model as the las of the land,   Management by fear is Elon Musk's passion, A principle of Quality Assurance is to drive fear out of the system.

And Constancy of purpose. Four more years.

[lovestuckyhatemarvel]

Let's Talk About Inflation (the unsexy kind)

Okay so, before I go into this, I wanna first preface this by saying that no one is under any obligation to listen to me or implement a single goddamn thing I say here. If you don't like what I'm saying, you're not required to do any of this. I'm not your editor. I'm just some weirdo on tumblr who thinks too hard about a show that is arguably super badly written and pays no mind to any sort of logic. It barely keeps a coherent timeline. This is just one of my pet peeves.

And that pet peeve is I think people should stop putting actual dollar amounts in their Stranger Things fanfiction because so many people just put wildly high numbers for things and it just immediately is jarring to me. And below the read more, I'll explain why in way too many words and way too much detail.

So the bulk of the canon of Stranger Things takes place between 1983-1986 currently. There are earlier dates in books and plays, and there are also flashbacks in the show, but the bulk takes place in the 1980s because the Duffer brothers can't jerk off to completion unless they're thinking about the 80s and explosions.

And of course because the show is so badly written that you can drive a tank through the plot holes, it attracted fanfic writers. Including me. And so you get people writing about these characters going about their lives, except then they say shit like a character spends 50 dollars at a convenience store, and I'm left going, "No, he fucking didn't."

Because the thing is that economics are extremely complicated and there is a difference between inflation and relative buying power. So you can't actually take the price of a thing today and then plug it into an inflation calculator and then go 'tada, here's the price for 1986'. There are items that have, in fact, in terms of pricing, progressed below the inflation rate, and then others that went way way way above the inflation rate.

And that's also not taking into account the ever shifting prices of things depending on time you're buying it and also location you're buying it. Also the store matters. For example, a gallon of milk from walmart is more expensive than getting a gallon of milk from my local chain. Shockingly, buying from Aldi in my area is the most expensive for buying a gallon of milk. But also walmart in a completely different state has milk for cheaper than the walmart in my area.

So already for the same item on the same date in 4 different stores, I've got 4 different prices. And the price would still be different if I compared it to how it was 6 months ago. And go back further and that's even more true. Especially with Aldi since Aldi used to be the affordable store to go to. And now it's absolutely not. So you can see how trying to figure out the relative buying power of a small fictional town in Indiana in 1986 could be extremely complicated.

One of the reasons beyond just relative buying power being complicated is that Ronald Reagan fucked the economy so hard it literally never recovered. And during Stranger Things, they aren't yet feeling that. The economy actually won't fully show signs of this kind of fuckery for another decade. And then 9/11 made things even worse. That's not to say that no one writing fanfiction of Stranger Things was alive pre-9/11, but most of us weren't keeping track of prices of things outside of like, gum and candy. Or at least I wasn't. RIP to cheap Baby Bottle Pops. You are missed.

But that's just words and opinion, right? So where's my fucking proof?

What up, it's moneynotmoney.com and specifically their extremely detailed analysis on how the price of coca-cola has evolved over the years. And I'm really excited that it's coca-cola because the show loves to jerk that beverage off.

Here's their graph for the absolute price of coca-cola per year going from 1970 to 2022.

And here's their graph for the prices of coca-cola for those same years adjusted for inflation.

So can you accurately put a dollar amount on things for a fic set in the 80s? Sure. Is it easy? Absolutely not. Do I recommend it? No. And I'm gonna be real with y'all, this isn't to call out any individual person, and I'm not blaming anyone for doing this, but literally every single time I've seen someone list a dollar amount for something in your steddie fic, y'all do come across as:

Like even the show avoided putting actual prices on things for most of their run. The only times I remember actual prices being listed being in season 1 when Joyce is buying all the string lights in town multiple times. And a new phone. Like this is a thing I've put way too much thought and research into and I just straight up do not put prices in my story because it's not necessary and also it's way too complicated for my taste. No one's ever asked me to put a number on what 'barely scraping by' means, nor have they asked what having 'enough money to comfortably live the rest of his life without working' means. Even though those are two things that are never stagnant. That's not to say you have to go my route. Once again, I'm not your teacher and I'm not your editor. I'm not your fucking keeper. Do what you want.