We've had historic job growth and rising wages. So why are so many Americans pessimistic about the economy? Here's what President Biden's top economic adviser told me.
No, I think we should focus on wealth inequality. Income inequality can be highly misleading as the richest people actually have fairly modest income cause they can use their wealth to dodge taxes and massively drop their expenses and cost of living varies hugely by location. High income is usually by highly skilled workers and those are not the problem in the economy, the problem are capitalists who have low income but high wealth. They can increase their wealth without it being counted as income, they do this to avoid paying taxes. This is a very crucial thing to keep in mind as income is often used by capitalist propaganda to hide just how bad the inequality in society really is.
@MrMarinus18 capital gains is an income. That is how we deal with the "wealth inequality" issue relative to "income inequality". Also the comparison of income inequality compares executive vs workers. Wealth inequality compares owners to workers. Both are interesting matrix to watch. So, I think income inequality is the more important statistic at this point until the workers can actually have enough income to actually start building measurable wealth.
@@5353Jumper CEO compensation really isn't that much when compared to the stock buybacks for shareholders. The problem is that as long as wealth inequality is so high that will never happen. With wealth comes power so the wealth inequality will have to be lessened before we can do anything else.
@@MrMarinus18 except the path to increased wealth equality is through increasing the income of the working class. We cannot just give wealth to the working poor, there is no mechanism for that. One path to that could be to do more capital gains tax (cut loopholes), corporate income tax and potentially wealth or estate inheritance tax (my lease favorite option, would preffer doing more of a capital gains tax at the time of wealth transfer). Then spend that "money" on infrastructure and improved government services. Nearly everything the government spends money on is decent making middle class jobs, so more of those please. This would take "wealth" off the top and redistribute it as "income" at the bottom. Increased corporate income tax would also reduce short term shareholder returns, incentivising the money actually getting spent within the company on long term improvements (causing more middle class jobs and incentives for employee loyalty). Cutting corporate taxes starting with Regan just brought in an era of short term profiteering over genuine growth investing. Needs to be reversed. Anyone who screams "Make America Great Again" needs to go back and look at tax rates and capital gains rules back when "America Was Great". The other path would be just to regulate high minimum wages and consolidate a significant number of part time jobs back into full time jobs. Force companies to take a hit in executive compensation and net income for a while to fund an increase to bottom up wages. The right wingers will claim this will cause more inflation but looking at the financials of most companies now-adays we can see that is total BS. Entry level part time frontline worker pay is a small part of the cost of things lately, doubling it will only have a small inflationary push. The biggest inflationary effect would be demand side as people can actually afford things - the best kind of inflation, actual economic growth.
@@RNG-ts5gnno don't. Right there with you. I do appreciate these conversations/comments between people compared what is usually common, but 😜 sometimes I murmur to myself," what the hell did they just say?"
As far as gas and groceries go, corporations fleeced us and blamed the pandemic. They still do. They made record profits because they raised prices to increase their profits. The federal government doesn’t set supermarket prices or gas prices at the pump.
And then they refuse to raise wages and donate to the Republican party. That last part is not a joke, many rich people including Joe Rogan and Elon Musk have explicitly stated they're voting Republican. They are in on it.
Food companies aren't planning to reduce prices because, as the say, people are not cutting back on their spending, aka not complaining, still pay the going prices.. When it comes to essentials like food, people still need to eat. Take at look at Gleaners, Forgotten Harvests, and other food panties. The needs are real, the costs are oppressive. The farm to table movement must grow.
Read this Guardian "expose". Revealed: top US corporations raising prices on Americans even as profits surge A Guardian analysis uncovers how companies enriched themselves and their investors while boasting about jacking up prices by Tom Perkins.
@@yourdaddy-mq4km It's called price gouging. But to counter the OP, the price of a dozen eggs at ALDI's has fluctuated, they went from $1.16 or less before 2020 to over $4 when there was a disease that wiped out a bunch of chickens, back down to $1.30. Other prices have also fluctuated, but not as noticeably as eggs. Point is prices don't stay raised, shop around for better prices.
For me, everything is more expensive but my wages barely went up. Our electric company raised rates by 17%. All the utilities are going up. Groceries cost more for less (shrinkflation). I want to switch jobs but employers jerk people around doing 5+ interviews. My employer is demanding back in office despite us working from home before the pandemic. The CEO has said with scorn that he doesn’t care how unhappy this makes employees. It feels like we have no power. In a good economy, we could easily leave this bad CEO
Yeah none of this crap applies to real-world today. Fuel is much higher, food is much higher, utilities are much higher. No EV's are selling. Real world not internet world.
The reason bosses hate workers working from home is because they dont have direct control over the workers. Bosses are literally control freaks who love to terrorize workers.
Exactly. Plus rent (mine is up to more than 30% of my pay),, mortgage rates, medicines, insurance etc., went way up and aren't going down. The fed rate hikes hurt the lower wage "bottom" class and those of us on fixed incomes. Y'all report mainly from polls , not actual people. Joe Biden's vision of Build Back Better, from the bottom up and the middle out was exactly what we needed. In spite of the Republicans fighting him every step, President Biden has done some remarkable things for us. But, so far, the middle class and above are the only ones feeling the benefits. And now, it's changed to "Bidenomics", ( don't like that name), middle out, bottom up ?? We, down at the bottom, hear him campaigning on the "middle class". We don't hear anyone talking to us anymore. The lower working class or working poor, and fixed income.
Currently there are no counties in the US where a person can get an apartment while earning less then $20.00 per hour, yet a huge part of Americans earn under that... that is why they say the economy is crap, and politicians are out of touch.
You are so wrong. I live in Arizona, we have tons of apartments out here that you can move into and a lot of people out here make $13.85 an hour. That's our minimum wage. Maricopa County Phoenix Arizona. Look it up before you make crappy comments.
@@CompetitionSportsNetwork ya illegal immigrants who live together, or with roommates, yeah poor families are still getting by, but the lie millennials were sold was that we could do everything on our own, now 10 years+ it seems even more impossible now, and wages have stayed the same! you do your research!
@@CompetitionSportsNetwork I live in Mesa.. the average cost of an apartment in Maricopa is around $1500.00 a month, and you have to show that you earn at least three times that to qualify. The average rent in Pinal County is about $1600.00, rent around Flagstaff is around $1700.00, hell state wide it is $1200.00, and again apartments require that you earn three times the rent a month. So even state wide average you need to be making $20.76 an hour, 40 hours a week to rent.
@@ThunderTheBlackShadowKitty Sure little buddy, whatever you gotta tell yourself. If everyone is entitled to money for nothing, fiat currency could never be worth less than it was before, never. 👌😂
@@yourdaddy-mq4km That's a strawman. People born in a first world nation are entitled to a first world middle class standard of living, not fiat money itself.
I'm really surprised he didn't mention Americans are frustrated with housing prices. You basically can't buy a home right now unless you're buying it outright because mortgage rates are insane. Rent is also quite expensive. Wages simply haven't kept up with inflation in this country for many decades now, not just this recent few years.
Getting private equity and foreign investors out of the housing market needs to be a priority. Too many homes are being bought for cash, then instead of being sold, they are being turned into predatory rentals. This is driving up rent to an unsustainable level, especially for middle and low income people. The number of “homes” that people,e are renting out needs to be severely limited, especially those owned by financial institutions and aspiring slum lords. Then the gains from these investments need to be taxed much higher than they are. trump’s pa through income tax breaks, just one of the ways he used the government to enrich himself, need to no only be rescinded, but increased to discourage the predators in our rental market from preying on families, essentially charging so much for rent that they cannot afford to buy homes.
Yes. The costs of housing are skyrocketing here in the U.S. and in many advanced economies worldwide. It may well be time to get some controls in place on the concentrations of controlled price/availability of housing under the corporate and other big money investors. They are making an already stressful economy for so many here in America, much more dire. If you are at risk of not being able to keep a roof over the heads of your family, you are living in a state of existential dread. Demagogues are empowered by frightened people. We can influence the scary real stuff such as this, if not the fantasy fearfulness of the MAGA'ts.
Increasing the money supply does not cause inflation.That is a commonly believed myth. Inflation is due simply to the fact that there is no regulatory price on goods and services and monopolization of the market hence greedflation.@@oofballz4328
No one ever speaks of people on fixed incomes. We need rent caps and windfall taxes. My neighbor put in decades of work but now is in her late 60s and in a wheelchair.
Dear professor Reich - I have just listened to your riveting 1994 Thanksgiving speech. Thank you for your insights and dedication to the American people and economy. As a European, living in a small country (Belgium), we have organized our society and economy with important emphasis on social corrections - despite all the imperfections and challenges. I wish you the best of luck and stand inspired by your words and ideas. Have a wonderful day!
I lived in Rhode St Genese 89-91 LOVED BELGIUM!!! ❤ I now have a Belgian shepherd malanois "maligator". ❤ OMG the beer!!!!!! Lol I'm of Irish descent 🤪🤭
####################################################### WE DO NOT SPEAK LATIN or English or German or Russian. The dominate Empire writes their version of History. The Baballonians of Mesopotamia ( 2400 BC ) understood compound interest. { at 10% your debt equals your income in 7 years } Thus: the impossible debt is never repaid ( a wage slave with no land ). When the Oligarchs made slaves of the 99%, collapse followed. The recipe for avoiding this was a debt Jubilee for the working class. To return Life to harmony. ( this did not include the Oligarchs, they had the assets to pay the debt) This was chiseled into the Rosetta Stone. American Neoliberal economics took hold in 1970. ( Voodoo Economics know as “ trickle down” ) The Neoliberals ( the 1% owning all the marbles ) have rewritten our laws ( our History ) to favor massive Global inequality. Not sustainability. Not prosperity. Stay tuned for the Great Reset. The moral obligation of the borrower to pay a debt, is a fiction fostered by the creditors ( the 1% ) Feudalism of the dark ages. T rump would have us speaking NYC English.
My concern is with corporate welfare, in its many forms. One form is when a state uses its tax revenue to bid on an Amazon warehouse, not only is that aiding amazons bottom line with the bid, but also with its company motive of upscaling its own business. We are now talking about amazons monopoly ability but it’s been aided by a lot of government money. I know USPS now operates on Sundays to deliver for amazon now. The other form of corporate welfare is a portion of build back better. When our government decides to give money to telecommunication companies to build towers in rural areas, to then charge the very residents who paid taxes that went toward the infrastructure, at what point do we decide communications are vital to our people and thus should be publicized? They knew this with the post office when that was the main form of communication so why does the government not have its own communication available to its people? If we the people are the ones covering the bill for the infrastructure for these private companies to then charge us, at what point do we stop and say hey wait a minute, this is all the bad portions of socialism without the good. Many people argue against socialism, but then don’t realize our country is doing all the bad portions of socialism without the good payouts of it. As a society we already pay for production costs yet we don’t see the production profit side. This is why the government fund is negative. We keep giving money like we are a socialist community but then when it comes profit time, private companies who price gouge and pay out their investors, get all the profit. I want rural communities to have the internet infrastructure they need, and I’m fine with our government allocating some tax money to pay for it, what I’m not okay with is the fact Comcast or some other telecommunication company then gets to charge the very same people who paid for the infrastructure. Indefinitely. Yea I’ve read there were some restrictions in place as to how much these companies could charge these residents but it was time sensitive and if they move at all within the community it doesn’t roll over. Let’s think 20-30 years from now, how much power these telecommunications companies will have, and there will no longer be restrictions on how much they can charge people, so it’s indefinitely and almost unmeasurable. This set up of giving companies money to boost the economy isn’t working when my government still has to resort to QE to pay for a 3 year pandemic. It makes me laugh a little because people who like trump or hate socialism, have always stated they wanted trump to run the government like a business. Do they not realize they are in fact describing socialist ideals when they say they want the government to run like a business? lol a business needs profit from its investment, current we are just investment, and we let the profit go to private. That’s literally the bad part of socialism without the good. I don’t want my kids paying more on the debt of our country than we pay for our social programs or military but because of all the QE we are headed that way. Could we do less QE if we socialized the profits of these projects we fund?
You want to communize telecommunications this is the same government that runs the VA infamous for poor care and big cost the same government that gave Harvard seven hundred fifty thousand dollars to Harvard to blow lizards off trees with leaf blowers
The top five percent pay over half the federal taxes they pay for the infrastructure we use Democrats party of handouts that don't understand economics only that everything should be free or subsidized at our childrens expense who will have to pay for the unimaginable debt they have run up
We pay for much of the research in pharmaceuticals, but then we get charged more than anyone else for the drugs we pay to create. That is corporate welfare. We bail out corporations that take our money, and then lose it, i.e.the sub prime scam. We have bailed out Wall Street too many times for being irresponsible with our money and now, with pensions going the way of the dodo, they have control of our retirement as well. We subsidize every company that doesn’t pay a living wage or benefits with SNAP and Medicaid. Why do we have to subsidize a company so evil that it pays people less than what it takes to just live? That’s akin to congratulating thieves. When the multi millionaires running these companies are living in luxury and their workers are getting killed with childcare costs, healthcare costs, housing costs that put them in the red every month because shareholders have a greater stake in the profits of the company than the workers who literally create the profits, we are in a sorry state. It is nothing but pandering to the horrific greed of those at the top and subsidizing their lavish lifestyles on the backs of workers and their families. It’s evil.
The United States as we know it is no more. All signs point to 2023 being a year of significant economic hardship for the entire nation. Put your cash to use straight away to increase its value. I was aware that I needed to invest. I had no idea how quickly a few thousand dollars a month would go up. Though it is. Since 2020, I've made about $600,000.
@@William.ManciniCrypto trading is very profitable, I started the year joyfully after partaking in December last year. Never knew it was this lucrative
Robert - Inflation may be slowing but everything is twice the cost. Lowering the percentage increase of inflation, does not mean prices are going back down. Everyone is so poor - I think you are a great man, but I think you are missing the forest for the trees - Things are shockingly bad for people on the ground. Homeless are everywhere, people who were my neighbors a few months ago.
You're absolutely right. I haven't noticed anything going down in price at the supermarket. At my last job they gave us a 2% raise but charged 25% more for the goods. I think my figures are more accurate.
Gas is down. Eggs are down. Meat is down. Sure not down to pre-pandemic pricing but still way down compared to a couple years ago. And the price is still falling. Seriously what do you want the government to do, price fixing and regulations? If executive compensation and shareholders returns are up through the roof, while worker pay is stagnant, prices are high and profitability is setting records it is fairly obvious what is causing this inflation and preventing deflation. And as the man said, large wage increases for the working poor sector of the country would be the solution if that could actually pass Republican obstruction. Wages raising coming out of executive and shareholder compensation would be awesome, just not sure there is any way the government can actually achieve that. Maybe also blocking foreign investment in existing real estate and corporate investment in existing detached housing would also help cool real estate and rental prices too.
@@5353JumperTo me, price controls DO should be a tool in the government's tool bag. We have a modified free market economy, we should avail ourselves of the possibilities that system offers to us!
@@roberthevern6169 hey, we are already being accused of radical Communism for wanting worker collective bargaining, basic human rights for certain mistreated demographics and single payer health care. And the presidential candidate for the party labeling us radical Communist is also saying he wants to round us all up in camps and deport or maybe kill us for those "radical" beliefs. We kinda have to pick our battles and go for the low hanging fruit at this point, I think presidential price fixing would just blow their little minds with fear.
As a trucker owner operator the last 6 months been the worst for me, high diesel prices and slow down on freight. Trucks move almost everything in the US . The government says it’s great but the reality is I’m almost going bankrupt and there’s nothing positive when will freight rates will come back up at least I could provide for my family.
@tmorales7674 My husband has been an OTR trucker for 20 years now. Brokers are killing us. He is leasing a truck right now, and we don't think he'll make it to the end of the lease. If brokers weren't involved, or at least didn't take the majority, I think we'd be ok even with the high gas prices.
In things like that the economy as a whole isn't all that relevant, worker power is. The strong economy means wages for workers easily can go up, it doesn't mean that they will though.
As I understand it, the FED raising interest rates is designed to reduce my consumer spending and encourage me to save more. So if the Bank is making more off interest charges, why are they NOT encouraging me to save more by giving 'some' of that back with higher interest rates on my Checking and Savings Accounts. (Yes, I have opened several Higher Interest CD accounts but I had to track them down in the market. They're not with the banks I'm already dealing with.) This is why I view the entire financial services industry as greedy and corrupt. Pretty sure I'm not alone in that view.
It's designed to make it more expensive to borrow money, and ultimately INCREASE unemployment. So, literally, the INTENTION is to put more people out of work. That's supposedly what brings down inflation: when there are less people who have money to buy things because they're BROKE.
When they talk about low unemployment, they omit the homeless, and those who have given up on finding work. They also leave out Native Americans who live on reservations.
Back when I had a landline, I would occasionally answer political polls. I found it very frustrating that often my answer did not fit into one of their choices. The questions often seemed 10:25 designed to elicit a particular answer. I also wonder if sometimes people answer more to the negative because they don’t want the government to stop striving to make more improvement….
Anti-trust administration? Who are you trying to convince, Bob? I still have no choice of broadband provider; I pay what they demand or I go without, period. I spend enough that ought to feed 2 or 3 people and I'm still hungry because everything on the shelf is manufactured by 3 companies, if I'm lucky. Everything is consolidated to hell and back and has been for decades. Prices aren't just going to drop because POTUS makes some friendly noises and attends a picket line.
The sad reality is that the consolidation of corporate power has granted them a lot of political power and the capacity to have laws put in place that are beneficial to them and remove laws that are not. Right now there is no way to just bust even a blatant monopoly. It takes a time consuming and multi-pronged approach. Have they been as aggressive as they could have possibly been? Maybe not. But at least their actions have not been those of corporate cronies. There is a reason we have not heard of anyone in this administration go to a room of rich people and tell them that he just made them a lot of money.
My house has tripled in value since 2017 and I'm being taxed accordingly. It's ridiculous. The factors inflating costs other than demand need to be addressed. Laws need to be changed.
If you vote democrat should you not pay higher taxes to pay for the handouts they want otherwise we add it to the debt our children will have to pay for
Never understood how someone can vote democrat without voluntarily sending half there income to the government to pay for the government programs they want
Property taxes don’t go to the federal government, they go towards your local government (where I live it’s the county). Those taxes go towards paying for schools, police, parks and other public spaces and services. The people who gripe about property taxes are often the same people who will complain when the police don’t show up fast enough, or their schools and parks aren’t good enough. Pay your taxes and support your local communities!
Always love your content, but real world inflation for the working person isn't coming down and may not. As an example a one quart (32 ounce) bottle of Gatorade sports drink used to cost $0.89 at Wal-Mart and now a 28 ounce bottle of the same Gatorade cost $1.89 at that same Wal-Mart. If you go into the frozen food section of any grocery store you see the same inflation. Sizes have gone down and prices are way up. This is the real world inflation that we all face every day. We would need a huge jump in wages to catch up to this level of inflation and this inflation most likely will never go away and only get worse going forward. We really need to destroy the mindset of year over year profits. Corporate greed is the greatest sin in America with a close second of wage theft by employers.
Unfortunately inflation reporting and inflation understanding isn't the same "inflation" Inflation reporting refers to the speed in which prices grow. not the fact prices rose. "inflation" your referring to is simply the new price unfortunately. Without deflation its unlikely to come down and the Governments are deathly afraid of Deflation cuz number must go up! Not trying to be mean. its just a fine detail many don't realize.
You are noticing that over the last 10 years "inflation" has been hidden in the psychological sense by keeping the same price but reducing the size. After the pandemic, stuff got real.
To destroy the mindset of those engaging in corporate greed, that's funny. Rich people do not care, because for the most part, they got rich by forking someone over and over again.
Thanks professor Reich. We need way more of this kind of journalism. For all those who doubt it is real all you have to do is look at government websites for the data. I wish someone would do a comparison using the library of congress data.
Absolutely look at the general accounting office it shows the top five percent pay over half the federal taxes and the top ten pay over seventy percent Reich lies by withholding information from you
An economy that is represented solely by indicators of wealth is, by fundamental operation, not an economy that services the general populous. The failure to measure wealth inequality and the purchasing power of labor as part of an economic assessment is a fundamental shortcoming that WILL keep producing recessions until labor spending is respected as the core economic driver that it is. Well, at least, unless we fully transition to a socialized economy with UBI, in which case this would all be terrific news for everyone.
I've been looking for work for almost a year and I am no closer to getting a job than I was a year ago. When I was younger I could walk in to a business and ask if they were hiring, and they would respond "when can you start." This economy still sucks. I hear a lot of talk, but none of it has had a real effect on the economy. The half measures by the Biden administration have done nothing to make things better for the average American. As long as corporations are the only ones politicians listen to, things will not get any better for anyone.
Talk about a fluff piece I've been a democrat my whole life, but the party has really lost its way. They kowtow to the big corporations the same as Republicans, and completely obfuscate reality. Wage disparity is still massive, and interest rates are killing first time home owners. I work in the medical industry making a good wage, I have a two year degree, an honorable discharge after six years of service in the army, and I still can't afford a house. Heck, I can barely afford groceries
No, they do not kowtow to big corporations. That is 100% objectively false. Wage disparity is due to stubborn employers who refuse to give raises, and interest rates aren't killing first time home owners, private housing firms raising their prices are. Corporations have *deliberately* and *purposely* raised their prices simply because it's legal. They do not give a shit about our finances. Interest rates are what's stopping inflation from rising. These increased prices you see come from CORPORATE POLICY, NOT GOVERNMENT POLICY. CORPORATE GREED.
@@ThunderTheBlackShadowKitty Higher interest rates right now aren't helping though cause most of the houses are already in the hands of private equity. Wage disparity in today's economy also just isn't a terribly useful thing to pay attention to. What matters is wealth inequality as most high wage earners live in extremely high cost of living areas and also pay very high taxes which means the amount of wealth they can accumulate is quite limited. The problem are the people who have high wealth and use that to gain more wealth rather than those who work for a wage. They pay far lower taxes and usually are a big negative for society.
@@MrMarinus18 Higher interest rates ARE ultimately helping because a higher inflation rate would hit us much harder. Any house in the hands of a private firm is subject to price increases simply out of their own greed. They don't give a shit if you can afford it or not, they will squeeze you for every penny even if you're renting. Landlords do this constantly, and they'll even do it with a shit-eating grin on their face. They don't care. No, wage disparity NEEDS to be paid attention to. That's not up for debate. Average CEO wages are 300x the average worker wage today, up from 30x in 1970. Billionaires and corporations are seeing the highest profit in decades and that's not debatable either. We are being sucked dry by the private sector and their GREED. It's GREED, dude. GREED. Lots of high earners in fact live in very LOW tax areas, even what you'd call tax havens by average US standards. A good example is New Hampshire or Alaska which have among the lowest state taxes. We pay LESS taxes than high earners do, it only feels like more to us because we make less, and we make less because private firms refuse to raise wages, and they refuse to raise wages because of pure GREED. Billionaire corporations will find tax loopholes but your average 6 figure earner pays WAY more in taxes than you or I do, and it also depends on which state. High earners, corporate CEOs, they NEED to be FORCED to pay workers more. No way around it. I can almost guarantee America's average middle class income would be 100k+ by now if we had the same equality level in the 1950s. We ARE the richest nation on Earth.
@@MichaelChengSanJose Gaslighting troll. Do you need a dictionary? I'm sorry you don't understand English. I will say a prayer for your brain to open up to the simple understanding of words and sentences.
We are all greedy. And yes, corporations are greedy too. It is capitalism that keeps greed in check. Private business must compete for your dollars. It’s only when government intervenes and chooses winners, creates agencies and bureaucracies that nurture monopolies, prices rise. Consider your utility company. The company that provides you gas and/or electricity. That utility company is protected by a government monopoly through the utility commission. Government create monopolies, capitalism destroys them.
Robert Reich is such a concerned American. I am not an American but following Mr Reich gives me a feel of the economy. Frankly, I admire the man on many levels. America is blessed to have such a great patriot.
@MiddleAgedMillenial that is all thanks to Reagan neo-liberal economics which put abd end to small businesses and created these big box stores. Thst is not capitalism. That is greed!
That would happen if government would simply get out of the way. Government does out big favors to big business creating these monopolies. It’s the free markets that destroys monopolies.
Can someone truthfully discuss WHY the Fed is not lowering the interest rate, why credit card companies are not lowering interest rates, why food companies are not lowering food prices? These are huge impediments to the American economy.
@@ankaladar9732it's actually called inflation, economically illiterate people like reich are responsible for when they locked down our economy, demanded higher wages, vowed to dismantle fossil fuels, and refused to acknowledge the problem of inflation. "Don't buy into the inflation scare" - robert reich 2021.
I am confused about the unemployment rate. I have been searching for a job in my career for 4 months and see hundreds of applicants for the same jobs I'm applying for. I've never had this much trouble finding work in the tech sector. Is it that certain sectors that might be suffering? Specifically, I am a certified Salesforce Admin and many of us were laid off this year and are having trouble finding work. Any suggestions? Any answers as to why and if it's just certain sectors? And any indication as to when things will get better? Thanks!
@lovingkindness My husband is OTR, and believe me there are ALWAYS jobs for those. He's never waited more than a few days to get a new job. However, he used to make better money. Now, the system is so screwed (brokers) that he finally wants to quit. He loves his job, it just doesn't pay.
There is a delayed effect in unemployment reporting. it takes a while for it to change usually unless its a drastic shift. That being said the there was alot of jobs after the pandemic. there isn't now.
Another quick point here is when Build Back Better failed so did the Section 8 housing vouchers the President had promised. I give him credit for having at least at last mentioned low-income renters, which is more than a president has done for 40 years, but it failed and is failing all the homeless and nearly-homeless. What of that?
really? Anyway, as long as you callBernie Sanders a "socialist" and jsut having two parties your country is a failed state. What of that? #over #americaisnondemocracy
Yet another thing the Republicans love to scream and cry about but then obstruct any proposed solutions to. And when the Republicans are in majority all they do is a platform of things making the problem worse. Like complaining about undocumented border crossing while reducing the budget for border patrols and ICE. Like complaining about drug smuggling while reducing the budget for cargo inspection. Like complaining about crime while increasing poverty. Like complaining about certain demographic communities while promoting segregation. Like complaining about poverty while blocking minimum wage increases, unions and collective bargaining, deregulating working conditions, cutting benefits requirements. Like complaining about "elitists" running government while electing the most elitist candidates, creating industry funding for parties/campaigns, and refusing to investigate and punish open bribery. - Like complaining about freedom of religion while blocking certain religious practices, banning certain religions from entering the country, installing one particular denomination of one particular religion into positions of power, legal practice and government policy. - Like complaining about rights and freedoms while offending the rights and freedoms of certain demographics of citizens Oh this list goes on but I am running out of time writing it. Anyone else please add your own.
Wish Clinton would have listened to Robert Reich instead of some of the other advisers. Thank you for this conversation. Until inflation becomes a bit of deflation we consumers are not going to be super happy.
@@fritzforsthoefel8031 Wages arent rising to match inflated prices neither will prices fall back to normal level, people are squeezed and pushed to the brink.
According to the congressional budget office wages for low income workers rose faster as a percentage than anyone else and according to the census bureau poverty fell to record lows
If wages went up the same amount of inflation right after the pandemic shortages would have followed inflation happened because stimulus checks allowed consumption without production causing shortages resulting in inflation and shortages democrats think goods and services magically appear out of nowhere
I think that accepting that the stock market is doing well, at the same time that the working person is not doing well is by definition accepting that trickle down economics doesn't work.
The cost of groceries has most emphatically not truck. It has gone way up and at the same time, package sizes have shrunk! Talk to seniors about the inflation. We don't want inflation.
Thanks so much, I am so grateful to you for doing such great work. I am Irish Canadian and mostly retired as a physician. I found the research on why people tolerate inequality interesting.
I think we should look closer at how they calculate the unemployment rate. If we need multiple jobs, does it tie each job to same person or is the assumption that each job is 1:1?
Not an economist but here’s my experience in the economy in the last 15 years: you either get in demand skills and update them as the job market changes or you fall behind and it becomes harder and harder to catch up.
Okay so what do you do in a market like today's market where it is very difficult to penetrate the workforce no matter what you do? I know friends who got into the trades and whom have spent the last year and a half living with their parents because no one will give them an apprenticeship. I myself did the meme of "learn to code" only for that job market to enter a full-blown recession. If you get educated or trained, you can't get hired because companies only want "highly experienced" workers and if you take a job that doesn't require formal training (retail, warehouse, service/hospitality, etc.) you're just committing yourself to a lifetime of poverty.
I agree with your accesment. I worked 50 years as a mechanic and took every opportunity to improve my knowledge and value. I made a good living and am now securely retired. I believe that there is a good future in the trades sector for those willing to work.
@@kaijuultimax9407 That's the big question and unfortunately there's no good answer. I've been through what you described. I originally graduated from college in 2002 with a degree that was basically management because after working in the grocery retail world, I actually enjoyed it at that time. I was running into things you described: entry level jobs wanting 5 years experience, internships that weren't paid or paid minimum wage at the time ($5.25/hr while I was making $10/hr as a meat cutter). I did get into management and quickly realized it wasn't for me, that's a long story but it boils down to politics, good ole boys club, and much more. I ended up getting a job at a bank in management and it started off great. There was a leadership change and it quickly became the worst job I'd ever had. So stressful I developed a few stress related health conditions. I tried looking for other jobs that I had the qualifications for only to be met with "Well that's retail management though." I couldn't get out of my situation because of one word, retail. I had recruiters telling me I need to diversify my resume and my only response was I can't do that until someone hires me. I made a fateful decision since I was single, no kids, and no girlfriend borrowed $50k to get a computer science degree, that was the only option. I did get an internship which did lead to good jobs. I have been laid off a couple of times to be replaced by cheaper labor and make Wall Street happy. I was able to find a job within a few weeks. What's saved me is adapting to the job market changes. Here's what I've done. I've found that if you know enough to talk about things and demonstrate some working knowledge, that's been good enough and in fact my employers liked that fact that I was taking initiative to do it on my own. No one is expecting me to be an expert, just to have enough knowledge to jump in and start doing things. So what I've had to do is after the family goes bad, several times a week I do something for maybe an hour or so. Nothing requiring a huge effort. You can go on Udemy.com and when classes go on sale, you can buy one and work through it on your own time. Have you worked with recruiters in the tech field at all? I've read about new people in the trades too having the same problems you mentioned. It's a royal mess.
@@donaldhipple4921 I'm a software engineer and I like the trades. I've had some tradesman teach me enough to where I can do a lot on my house. I don't know anything about cars though. I have some saws, joiner, and a planer so at some point i'll do some basic wood working with my boys when they get older. I'd like them to learn about the trades and see if they'd be interested in it. I like doing electrical the most, followed by carpentry, and plumbing being my least favorite.
@@donaldhipple4921 I agree, I am a retired aircraft mechanic and in my first 10 years, I had to work two jobs or grab the available over time to just stay afloat. After a few lay offs, more schools and more of the lower paid jobs I finally got there.
When I graduated and started my first job in 2016 I could afford to pay for rent, all of my utility bills, get myself a car go to college(with the help of a Pell Grant) and spend ~$300 on luxuries a couple different times over the year after I got my job on just $7.25 with hours varying between 28-40 each week. Now following Trump's actions as president and Covid 19 I'm living in a smaller apartment that is in a much poorer condition in most aspects, eating only 1 meal every other day and walking 2 miles to work each day because I had to sell my car for bill and food money. And that walk is a miserable one because there aren't even any decent quality items to buy if I end up with money to spare for new clothes or shoes. I own 1 pair of pants that didn't literally turn to dust in the washer or rip themselves apart when worn out of those I've purchased since 2018. And I just bought a new pair of shoes for the now minimum(WHY?!) price of $40 last month and they already have split open and nearly turned themselves into sandals. This country is anywhere from abysmal to barely substandard, even with the recent improvements, if you're not someone born into a rich family.
Hi, Ms. Dawn. I have a suggestion for you. It may appear very costly up front but in the long run you would be saving money over a minimum of 4 years. I think you will have to put money aside as it is obvious you are not being paid enough. Anyway, here it is. When I had to have back surg in 2000 I had to stop wearing the "regular shoes" because I needed more firm support. I bought a pair of Brooks Walking shoes for $90 but am now paying $130. I have bought new shoes every 4 years, mostly because the heels get worn down as I tend to scuff my heels - trying to fix that. I always hang onto my old shoes because they are good for working around the yard and gardens. When I need to buy new shoes again the old ones I have now will go in the bin. My "good" shoes will become my garden shoes and my "new" shoes will start their job for the next 4+ years. I'm retired now and living on a limited income but I will always have money for these shoes even if I have to give something else up to get them.
Inflation doesn’t include rents or the cost of buying a home, the latter of which is compounded by rising interest rates. Housing is the largest portion of most household budgets, and the cost of housing is very impactful on people’s perception of the economy. We also need action on the consolidation of power among few players in most economic sectors (monopoly or oligopoly). We need increased clout for workers, and the best way to achieve that is unions.
6:27 Americans don't think the economy is doing well because THEY aren't doing well. They're living paycheck to paycheck, grocery costs are skyrocketing, and rent is out of control. Even if it's going down, people are skeptical that they'll ever get ahead again. That's despair.
This is really great. I love this economic policy, the inclusions and more holistic view focusing on empowering workers - it's the right direction for this country. Biden 2024!
I like how they are happy inflation is 60% less than last year, but ignore how inflation actually works. With inflation prices increase, and increase, and increase, and so even when inflation drops you are still paying prices which include all those increases. As for unemployment some folks have quit looking and others are forced back to work to pay for the inflated prices. Never the less how many people are working but could careless if they do anything but the bare minimum. Why is there such a disconnect between leadership like the folks in this video and the reality people are living?
I’m so glad to see this video! It’s great to know that the person working on the economy has the same vision as you! I feel even more confident that things will really improve with 4 more years!!!!
These men are economic illiterate. They were telling you everything is fine while the Titanic is sinking. Remember, everyone in the USSR had a job, but everyone was poor.
Thank you, thank you - we need more content like this about the Real Change for Real People that the Biden Administration has accomplished and continues to accomplish!! I'd love to see this info swamping the news and social media - pass it on!
Biggest amount of deficit spending biggest debt record levels of illegal immegration why do you not pay enough taxes to cover the social programs Biden wants instead of adding it to our debt our children will have to pay for why do Democrats hate our children
10 years ago my family made $65k combined, and we had enough left over each month to put about $1k into retirement investments. Today we earn $120k, and are barely able to break even. We still have the same vehicles (all paid for), the same home and mortgage (although refinanced to 2.4%). Health insurance premiums and every day expenses have risen at a rate that indicates the govt's inflation figure is a complete lie, and they are destroying us.
Government has a huge incentive to lie about the real inflation numbers. The methodology is deliberately designed to understate real inflation. If we use the methodology of the 80s, inflation would be clocking in at about 9%. The government uses inflation as a tool, to keep their debts manageable. When the government creates inflation, it pushes asset prices higher, forcing every day people it’s a higher tax bracket, particularly when it comes to your home. Prices would come down rather quickly, if government with simply get out of the way. More supply brings down prices. Let’s surprise pushes up prices. There are plenty of businessman entrepreneurs, who want to add more supply to the market to make a profit, but the barrier to entry is just so expensive things to the bureaucracy, and the government created monopolies such as the department of agriculture.
Great discussion. However there are two big pieces missing. Firstly, getting the wealthy and large corporations to pay their fare share of taxes which until they do is having a huge impact on our economy. And the second very connected piece is getting social security solvent. Those are two very important issues that should not be left out of any administration's economic policy discussion. Otherwise pretty good!
I moved out of NYC, I'm here visiting family for the holidays, the rent is sky-high, I went to the supermarket to buy food for my items for Thanksgiving dinner 🥴 most items are at least 75-$1.00 higher. And the metro card single ride went from $2.75-2.90 it all adds up.
@ThunderTheBlackShadowKitty wow you really don't understand how goods are priced. Quick business lesson it's cost of materials + cost of manufacturing labor + cost of shipping + cost of retail labor + cost of floor space × profit margin (figure single digit percentage on food). And let's not forget how many businesses didn't pass along cost increases.
@@tfde1 Nope. Corporations have been raising their prices since the pandemic out of greed, pure and simple. They hide behind excuses. Billionaire profits are soaring. They aren't paying workers enough.
@@ThunderTheBlackShadowKitty I'm 47 years old and a unionized municipal worker for 12 years, I make $18.30 an hour. My 20 year old nephew has been in the work force fir 2 years, non union and works retail, he makes $25/hrs plus bonuses. Tell me again how corporations aren't paying good wages.
@@tfde1 They aren't paying good wages because of pure greed. It's just that simple. They hide behind the excuses of inflation all the while making their biggest profits in decades. Your nephew got lucky. Unions have been getting the shit end of the stick for 40 years man. It's about time they started fighting back and striking for higher wages, stronger benefits, decent fucking working conditions. Young people like me are fighting for progressive and anti corporate change to help workers like you.
We have chronic long--term unemployment -- that's where negativity comes from. I paid virtually nothing for college in the 60s. I worked summers for $3+/hour. What would that be now -- $25/hour? Health care puts people into bankruptcy. Climate is alarming -- the more you know, the more alarming! That's where negativity comes from. We could be Denmark or Finland. My favorite economists are Stephanie Kelton and L. Randall Wray.
All this talk of buying power does not balance out the fact that history shows that in every economic crisis (2000, 2008, 2020) prices on consumable goods such as gas and groceries have gone up and never go return to pre-crisis numbers. There are numerous industries that can be evaluated showing how they increase prices saying its because of the crisis to mask them maintaining year over year profit margins; then find there is no reason to lower their new high prices because people have to buy those goods regardless which yields to even more profits. Overall prices keep going up and the hope is that people get more "buying power" to maintain what they had before?
Your comment is spot-on, and I think the culprit is more advanced algorithms used by retailers to determine price points. When there was a huge price spike in groceries during the GWB administration, blamed on increased transportation costs when the price of gasoline and diesel nearly doubled, prices stayed high even after fuel prices returned to normal. The increased prices offered large amounts of data about how high prices could go before demand starts to decrease, and retailers determined their "sweet spots", the highest prices for every commodity that would maximize profit margins without destroying demand.
@@cruelty6368 Let's not even mention oil and gas industry which can artificially limit the supply by reducing production at will to maintain those high profits. Anyone wanting to learn how fuel prices could be lowered in the United States; look up what % of oil the US drills is sweet light then look up how many sweet light refineries the US has.
Governments and central banks, create inflation. Private industry simply response to that inflation. Government creates artificial shortages, through layers of bureaucracy, regulation, and taxation. This is simple stuff, if you want prices the fall, we simply need more supply. There are plenty a businessman and entrepreneurs who want to add supply to the market to make a profit. But unfortunately, it is very expensive to bring products to market such as food and energy. the department of agriculture as a government created monopoly that makes it extremely difficult to bring new food to the market. Do utility companies are protected by the utility commissions that is a government created monopoly protecting very few energy producers. This is simple stuff, more supply equals lower prices. Capitalist are greedy, and they want to enter the marketplace to provide you the things that you want so they can make a profit. We need more S not less.
@@peterponcedeleon3368 This would be true in a system of true supply and demand but that is not reality. Since 2000 we have had three financial crises and history shows the trend of how corporations have used the situations to increases prices and keep them there for increased profits. Heck, corporations went so far as to double down on profit making that they had to come up with a new term for charging more for less... shrinkflation. In 1932 to 2000 the Dow went from zero to around 2k and since 2000 it has gone from 2k to 30k through artificially inflating value through sstock buybacks.
This is disappointing, because food, energy, health care and everyday costs are killing us "working poor" (that class I used to rhink was middle class)! No real wage growth from what I have seen. Tax increases, wage stagnation rents/mortgages and inflation at the cash register WE ARE NOT SEEING GAINS ON MAIN STREET!!!
7:51 *“Cars are a Disaster for Society”* Most people live in urban areas. More money needs to be invested in public transportation, and high speed rail. Such investments are good for the economy and the environment. The conservative estimate is that car travel in the United States costs 5 trillion dollars annually. Remember, car travel requires substantial infrastructure investments every year.
You are stealing from our children here is the proof if you draw 1500 dollars a month till your eighty in ss that's over two hundred thousand dollars and you did not pay that much in ss taxes and the average person draws out three dollars for every dollar paid in medicare taxes the difference in what you pay and what you will receive is added to our debt our children will have to pay for and you want more don't you care we are leaving our children a bankrupt shell of a nation because you won't pay enough taxes to cover the cost of the social programs democrats want why is that vote out handout Democrats before it's to late and pay your fair share of taxes for the ss and medicare you will receive
You are right it is. The answer to high prices for food, is simply more supply. Unfortunately, the department of agriculture makes it extremely difficult to bring more food to the market. It’s government agencies that you created and nurtured private monopolies that keeps prices high. The same goes with housing, if we want prices to fall, we simply need more houses. And in order to have more houses, government needs to get out of the way. There are many contractors and builders out there, who would love to build homes and make a Living doing so.
Need a government for the people…. Still waiting for that government…. Still waiting for a raise, after 15 yrs. Merica, richest poor country in the world.
The lack of a raise is the fault of your employer, not the government unless you work in the public sector. Current federal employees in fact DO receive the $15 minimum wage as opposed to the $7.25 minimum private workers are entitled to since 2009. Many workplaces still refuse to offer a $15 minimum.
@@ThunderTheBlackShadowKitty Its the fault of the government that the employer can do that! The dems needed to completely restructure the economy and get the state in charge, they needed to FDR it and further, they didn't. They kept the disastrous free market mayhem that is destroying us all and plunged Europe into chaos over Ukraine. Being petulant over Ukraine and refusing to negotiate has crippled the EU permanently and handed the keys of power to the far right, Well done dems!
@@ThunderTheBlackShadowKitty unfortunately, yearly review is just to keep the worker accountable.... for their employers, there is no repercussions for the illicit or immoral activities they may partakes in.
Somebody needs to tell the Biden Administration how to message their very good accomplishments. It’s apparent that negative messaging by right wing media and their politics seems to stick in the minds of Americans regardless of their realities. It’s the boogeyman effect of economics. Keep telling me how bad things are and eventually I’ll believe it. In spite of my reality of doing well. This administration needs to figure out how to make the truth worth listening to. 🤔😏 This economy is rockin!
That requires tens of thousands of voters using the presidents contact form. It is not just right wing media who is using negative messaging. 40% of the local news sources are owned by Sinclair!!! ABC, CBS local affiliates are doing the same thing Fox entertainment OAN, Newsmax etc are doing.
You are clueless, I work in real estate, the economy is shit right now. No one can afford a home except the 1%ers. The right wing media is doing anything but reporting how the country is doing, don't blame them if their facts are not good enough for your soft ego, go blame the party in charge! How about we talk about the cost of building homes and the materials to do so? The Biden administration hasn't done a damn thing and if they did, we wouldn't be in this situation right now. You are nothing but as person who tows the party line no matter how bad things are.
What *I* and many others would like to see - lower grocery and consumer prices - lower rents - fewer layoffs from quality jobs To many voters the economy is only as good as they feel about their situations and many voters are scared of tomorrow.
And lower grocery bills are a result of higher supply. Government hinders the supply of food through the bureaucracy of government agencies such as the Department of agriculture. Lower rents would be a function of higher supply and housing. Government hinders the growth of housing through massive regulations as well. you would have fewer layoffs and more hiring if government would get out of the way and allow capitalism to work. The more the government intervenes in the economy the more stagnation you will experience. The government will go even as far as to issue you money. But the government cannot promise. Those dollars will buy much of anything. I wish more Americans would understand the basic economic principles.
How about cracking down on price gouging by the big corporations. It's bad enough when the food companies drink the package size but then the retailers still increase prices so once again the consumer gets screwed twice over. There is NO reason for gas prices to still be above $4.00/gal. and groceries still costing 2-3 times higher than they were.
I would be interested how you think about the idea to bind all wages, pensions and benefits automatically to the inflation rate? Meaning they have to rise at least by the inflation rate automatically once a year so. This would make inflation almost neutral to people on earned income (= working people). And made inflation mostly a problem for money hoarders.
I get sick of hearing how low unemployment is. Almost anyone can drive for Uber, door dash, etc. there are millions of people out of work but because they pick up a few rides every week to make ends meet, the government counts them as gainfully employed. There are also a huge number of people who were pushed out of the labor force entirely during the pandemic. 20% of unemployed people have been without work for 6 months or more, labor force participation is still below pre-pandemic levels, 4.3 million people are working part time but would like to be working full time, and 5.4 million people who are not in the labor force want a job. The U 6 unemployment rate includes these factors and currently stands at 7.2%.
You're probably referring to that sham infrastructure bill, where there exist provisions such as "public-private partnerships," which gives some incentives to private companies (tax incentives, bonds, perhaps even the potential to charge toll fees) for investments in public infrastructure and "asset recycling," which is the selling of older infrastructure to private companies in order "to coup costs new infrastructure." Both of these are examples of privatization that have been largely ignored - at least in terms of public debate. Rest assured that Wall Street and the corporate circles were quite pleased by the inclusion of these provisions. Hope that helps.
I think if most people are pessimistic about the economy it doesn't matter that the GDP is up and unemployment is down. Not saying those aren't good things, but there's something deeper going on to make people feel like they have less spending power
I live modestly on retirement income (mostly just SSRI with COLAs), so I'm doing fine even with a little inflation, but I imagine many people living below the poverty line are hurting. The solution to that is a livable FEDERAL minimum wage nationwide, increased union membership, support for college and technical education, support for child care, etc. Bidenomics is working, but we need to give him and second term and majorities in congress so he can continue the good work. The GQP's 'trickle down economics' has never worked for the lower and middle classes.
If you can drop out of school get a low skilled job and live good why would anyone work hard enough to get a skilled job under communist leader mao rich people's money was taken and gave to the masses and low skilled workers wages rose dramatically result millions starved now in china under capitalism low skilled workers make low wages and there are billionaires result china has one of the fastest growing economies in the world explain that
Biden economic policy is not working it is simply being backed up soley by deficit spending joe Biden is running a higher deficit spending then trump which is astounding because trump had a world wide pandemic to deal with Biden does not this is unsustainable our children will inherit a bankrupt shell of a nation because you won't pay enough taxes to pay for the handouts democrats want why is that
What bugs me is how forgetful Americans are! I'm 73 and I remember mortgage rates of 9% going to 12% and credit card rates of 20% and higher! I remember gas prices going from 25cents a gallon to a dollar then hitting two dollars a gallon! I also remember the scams of sugar and coffee prices rising to where they are now with the companies responsible blaming bad weather, but even after the weather improved the prices remained high. All of this at a time when the minimum wage was less then three dollars an hour and I was making four dollars an hour. Fifty years ago America was under a whole lot more stress then they are now!
My first house in1986 my mortgage was 10.3% and when I sold it in 1988 to buy our second home it was at 9.5%. If I bought my first home before 1986, the mortgage interest rate was above 12% or more. Back then I had to work two jobs, one full time and the other 20 hours a week. It's funny when I hear that we had it so easy back then, yeah right!
its true. i remember my dad hoarding gas in the 1970's, and democrats never admit now that the middle class keep over spending-- which is a large part of their problems.
For me, it’s simple. Things cost more than my wage has increased (which is $0). I just paid $1,500 for a CT scan after insurance. Now I have student loans payments again. The economy is not good for me or others I know.
Everybody who lived in the USSR was employed. Unemployment was basically zero. However, most people were poor. We don’t want jobs for the sake of having a job. A job as a means to an end. Unfortunately government statistics allows government officials to do a victory lap based on low unemployment numbers. Yes inflation has been coming down, at least the way the government records it. But prices are simply going up less fast. And the price games we experienced the past year and a half have not gone down to 2020 levels. It’s funny how the government will claim. It’s raining while they’re pissing on your back.
While I voted for Bill Clinton, Looking back the trade policies that were sold to us were abused (contained no guardrails) from a USA worker standpoint. I was involved with international corporations all my professional life, one USA based, one UK based. After NAFTA I watched jobs leave the USA with no backfill of jobs coming back in. Overseas enjoyed the influx of jobs and our rustbelts continued rusting.
When he says that the American people have been through A LOT, he isn't "just whistling Dixie" as they used to say. When you are still suffering immense trauma, it's hard to feel good about anything. Empathy will hopefully heal. Vote for people who HEAR you and help you. Vote for the ones working and delivering and we will get through this. Don't vote for the ones who do nothing but talk about grievances. Results, people. Americans are CAN-DO people.
The middle class disappearing can be traced back to decades of Republican policy and obstruction of Democrat policy. If we actually vote in a clear blue supermajority we could actually see growth in the middle class for the first time in decades.
@@5353Jumper cope, both parties are complicit in screwing the american people. the war machine is what makes money in this country because thats all we produce. weve made america fat, therefore sick, therefore medicated to an unprecedented level, production will never go up as we cant even educate the youth correctly. youve voted how many years and you think the new dems will change things around?
Property taxes in many states are getting so high that people on social security and fixed income will eventually be unable to stay in the home they own. This is very wrong!
You bring up a great point. The government creates inflation for a couple of reasons, one of which is the help keep their debt loads manageable. When the government creates inflation, the inflation pushes asset prices upward. Real estate is an asset class that will rise in a high inflationary environment, putting those homeowners in a new tax bracket. Inflation is an allusion that governments use to pay off their debts. Inflation, robs the saver and the producer, and rewards the speculator and the debtor.
The banks are one of the most detached from market forces of any of the American sectors. So them laying off people pretty much doesn't have any implications for the larger economy. Most haven't made a profit in decades and rely entirely on government subsidies.
Greed. Simply because they don't care. They are PRIVATE BANKS, they exist to make PROFIT. They do whatever they can to INCREASE THEIR PROFIT, and they don't care who gets hurt or laid off, as long as they function and make money.
Raising the minimum wage makes it hard for young, less skilled men (and people with less skills) to get a start. It also makes it harder for small businesses. This is a significant problem. How do you reconcile that with the need to pay workers fairly? Is minimum wage too crude a tool?
Who worries more? The 1% about poor people cutting into their massive profits gained through zero labor? Or the 99% about the wealthy taking their hard-earned money. Housing, Education, utilities, food: the things essential to civilized life, are being exploited for maximum profit at the expense of the poor.
@@scifirealism5943 They can, with grass roots support. We've already seen the first Gen Z elected to congress in Florida, Maxwell Frost. AOC isn't rich and yet she got elected in a landslide. Bernie Sanders did not grow up rich, he grew up poor - look at him now.
It’s a good thing has prices are going down. I’ve had zero purchasing power for so long I get sticker shock on just about everything that’s not in the produce aisle. But the real fear is housing. I used to be able to find cozy safe apartments for less than half my income. No more. If I had to live alone ( which I prefer, btw), rent would take all of one paycheck plus a good chunk of my second paycheck. Kinda hard to eat, heat, or beat feet with so little to work with. Perhaps you could address the problem of rich people from out-of-state investing with groups that buy up all the affordable housing, then turn around & rent said housing to low income workers for California prices?
It's kind of obvious why there is widespread concern, which Robert Reich has even touched on in other videos: wage growth for most Americans has been lagging relative to inflation. People may be mostly employed, but not sufficiently to get many of the basic expectations of life, like a home. In 1960, the average age of first time homebuyers was 24. In 1970 that increased to 29, and 1980 to 31 yo. In the early 2020's to today I see varying average ages from 33 to 47 yo. This delay is not primarily a cultural shift, it is mainly economic.
Mainstream ideology has twisted the meaning of "free market" into the opposite of what the classical economists like Adam Smith intended. The classical economists defined a free market as free FROM economic rents (unearned income), extracted by feudal landlords. The classical role of government is to keep natural monopolies in the public domain and tax away economic rents to use it to lower the cost of production. This is done through subsidies for such things as public infrastructure, education, and health care, not raising the cost of living and therefore the cost of labor, as with neoliberal monopolistic privatization. Mainstream Austrian and Libertarian Chicago School neoliberals have no role for the government in the economy, leaving the market free FOR economic rents, extracted by monopolies and the banks (FIRE, finance, insurance, and real estate). Because the economy does not stay out of government, the result is rule by the rentier oligarchy, otherwise called feudalism. These two approaches, industrial capitalism and financial capitalism, are what the new cold war is all about, and it is the story of financial capitalism sucking ever more life out of once vibrant US industrial capitalism.
The classical economists sought to reduce and eliminate the “free lunch” and thereby bring prices more closely in line with costs. This would unleash economic productivity by eliminating the parasitism of the rentier class. At the dawn of the twentieth century, the application of classical economics combined with advances in technology led people to believe that a golden age of human progress and prosperity was approaching. But the reactionary rentier class used its rentier fortunes to launch an economic “Counter-Enlightenment.” As Michael Hudson summarizes, To deter public regulation or higher taxation of such rent seeking, recipients of free lunches have embraced Milton Friedman’s claim that There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. [. . .] The actual antidote to free lunches is to make governments strong enough to tax economic rent and keep potential rent-extracting opportunities and natural monopolies in the public domain.26 The point here, articulated by Orwell, is that technological progress in production and in economic planning should have ushered in a golden age of civilization. Instead, activist elites recognized the implications of this dynamic and responded by using their wealth and power to maintain the inequality and material insecurity that are preconditions for their continued dominance over society. Good, Aaron. American Exception: Empire and the Deep State (p. 180). “It is suggested that the tipping point for being a rentier economy is when 40 per cent of income comes from rent. Even if just interest and dividends are counted as rent, the USA is already at that point.” Standing, Guy. The Corruption of Capitalism (p. 114). 2016
If the US had majority rule, i.e., a democratic form of government, we would have a decent minimum wage, Medicare for all, free education, parental and sick leave, legal marijuana, workers on corporate boards, lower credit card interest, not allowing politicians to own stock or immediately graduate to becoming lobbyists, public funding of drug research for public drug patents, and some kind of green new deal, just at first glance at the polls. We have institutionalized opposition at best, not representation at all. The central planners aren't in the government. The transnational rentier oligarchy at the top of wall street (the deep state) does central planning for their private benefit, and they are the employers of politicians. The job of the politician is to deliver voters to the oligarchy by campaigning on whatever gets them elected with oligarchy funding, then do whatever the oligarchy wants, and they are taken care of whether they are reelected or not. "Reagan’s election marked the ascension of deep political forces to a position of sovereignty. Practically speaking, what emerged was an exceptionist tripartite state comprised of (1) a feckless public state, (2) a sprawling security state, and (3) the anti-democratic deep state to which they are subordinated. This consolidation and institutionalization of top-down power was such that US governance could thereafter be described as a deep state system." Good, Aaron. American Exception: Empire and the Deep State (p. 260).
As it is today, "the government" is a synonym for "the corporations". Mussolini spoke of “that great, immense, living organization which is the national Corporate State of Fascism”, but ours is an inverted totalitarianism where economics bests politics (1). Corporations spend more lobbying than the combined payroll and other costs of running both houses of congress, and this doesn’t include money in political campaigns (2). Congress only votes on laws written by corporate lawyers. Public opinion has no effect on legislation (3). 1.) Look for “The Powell Memo” 2.) Look for “The Atlantic lobbying spending” 3.) Look for “Princeton Public Opinion Study”
The economy needs to be measured by how stable and secure the bottom 50% of the population is doing, not wall street. The economy is built on the backs of the poor. The healthier and more secure they are, the more productive the work force can be, and the better everyone else does. It also reduces crime rates, additions, and domestic violence.
The government can write you a check. The government can mandate a higher wage for you. But the government cannot issue you purchasing power. I wish Americans would wrap their head around this concept. The government can give you dollars, the government cannot guarantee those dollars will buy you much.
@@peterponcedeleon3368 You're wrong. The government can control inflation. The Fed has been doing it with interest rates. Nixon did it with price controls. The public can do it with boycotts. We do not have to tolerate runaway income inequality. We just do.
@@andrewwhite7210 yes, the government can manage inflation because inflation is simply the act of adding more money to the current money supply. If you take a look at M2, we are actually going through deflation, which is reducing the current money supply. Everything outside of that is simply market forces. if a cold plant burns down, and prices rise, because needs to be raised to fix the cold plant, that is not inflation, that is simply market forces. Yes, the government could place price controls on goods and services, but that was simply create shortages for those goods and services. And yes, people can boycott, and that is probably the least problematic way to reduce prices. But that also could backfire and create shortages. But you are right, government can control prices, but strictly in nominal terms. Not in terms of real value. Just as the government can write you a check, the government cannot promise that check will buy much of anything. So many people know the price of everything, but know the value of little.
