If you have MORE money and less spending power. You actually have LESS MONEY

https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/compensation/pages/inflation-rate-hits-7-percent-year-over-year-driving-real-wages-down.aspx

Adding more pressure on employers to raise wages, consumer prices rose 7.9 percent year over year in February, another four-decade high, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on March 10, 2022.

The latest figures show that inflation continues to grow. The consumer price index (CPI) had risen 7.5 percent in January from a year earlier and was up 7.0 percent in December 2021 year over year.

Real (inflation adjusted) average hourly earnings fell 2.6 percent, seasonally adjusted, from February 2021 to February 2022, BLS also reported on March 10.

The Producer Price Index (PPI) hit double digits, rising 10 percent for the 12 months ended in February, up from a 9.7 percent year-over-year increase in January. The PPI is a key leading indicator for the prices that consumers eventually pay.

I'm experiencing this first-hand in my personal finances and have seen it over the years. Good cuts of beef and fresh fish I used to buy years ago have been replaced by chicken breast and hamburger, and 'assorted pork chops' 5 days a week. 10lb sacks of chicken leg quarters used to be 0.49 a pound, now are 0.89 a pound, for garbage. No beef under $5 a pound is fit for human consumption. Good steaks and prime rib are about $15 a pound and I thought they were a rip-off at $9 a pound. I'm eating more canned beans than I ever have in my entire adult life. The price of hamburger where I live has doubled from the same time last year. A dozen large eggs used to be 79 cents, are now $1.89 or more. 89 octane gas has gone up past $1 a gallon since Biden was elected. So what, you say? My salary hasn't gone up that much, and I commute to work. I don't buy fast food, soft drinks, or convenience foods like those microwave 1 serving muffin garbage thingies. Whatever you want to call it, it sucks. Taxes, go up. insurance, always goes up and covers less. Electricity, up. I don't know how they calculate the so-called 'inflation index' but someone is cooking some numbers to make it look better than it really is for the average person.

Thanks for explaining. There seems to be a lot of rage about the economy, and lately I’ve been trying to get some real anecdotes about what people out there are experiencing economically. Mostly, the rhetoric hasn’t matched up with the reality. But I can see why you’re frustrated.

The current shape of the economy is still defined by the impacts of the Covid pandemic, the most significant economic event in my lifetime and probably since the Great Depression.

However, the interesting thing about this 5-year graph of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (encompassing both Trump and Biden years) is how stable it is, in the long run, even accounting for 2020.

About that 2020 — 2020 sucked. It was a miserable year in every respect, including economically. There are saved meme tags about how terrible 2020 was. Will “2022 sucked” be a meme? Unless Putin nukes the world, I don’t think so. Almost everyone is better off today than they were 1-2 years ago.

Consider:

—Covid cases/deaths are down. A new variant could still change the game, but right now there’s a justified sense that Covid is in our rear-view mirror. That will boost consumer confidence and spending, and help the most impacted industries return to normal.

—Inflation notwithstanding, and I agree it’s a problem, the economy is on a clear upward trajectory. You may or may not feel it in your bones by November’s midterm elections, but the sky’s the limit by Nov. 2024. When we assess Biden’s economic record at that time, if he runs for a second term, the current doom-and-gloom narrative about his economy will be hard to sustain.

If I’m wrong and Biden produces a Great Depression through failed Leftist policies then feel free to roast me. :)

I hope I'm wrong.

And wages

Here's a hard math problem for liberals:
If little Billy makes 12 thousand dollars a year in 2019 incorrectly flipping burgers and rent is 12 thousand dollars a year: little Billy will die. Little Billy has no money.
If little Billy makes 30 thousand dollars a year in 2022 (still incorrectly flipping burgers) and rent is now 4k a month? How much money does little Billy have left after he pays half his salary to uncle Sam and gets kicked outta his appartment for inability to pay rent? If the van he now lives in (down by the river) runs on fossil fuels is little Billy now a tool of Putain for complaining about 6 dollar gas? Discuss.

Hypothetical Little Billy is getting shafted by capitalism, no question. He ought to have a living wage, affordable healthcare, affordable housing options, extended tax credits/childcare if he has children, reliable public transit if he can’t afford a vehicle or the current price of gas, etc.

I only hear one Party talking about these initiatives that would genuinely help the lowest income brackets — and it ain’t the one headed by a New York billionaire.

The Party headed by a New York billionaire wants to abolish the minimum wage, slash benefits, has no plan for healthcare, no plan to move people around that doesn’t involve cars, no plan for climate change, and generally wants to turn America into Mad Max.

Discuss

Talk is cheap. The left never did anything for me or any of the working poor and certainly not hypothetical "lil Billy."
So since Joe's war on the US dollar & US energy caused the inflation that's destroying our economy, why the heck would anyone believe "his" plans to "help" the poor?
Bills like 'Burn back broke' & the 'Green new steal' would print trillions to send to China and the third world and shutter US manufacturing because of imagaginary 'clean energy.' So the best the left can cum up with is spending money they don't have to fight inflation they caused and this in Fat Donny's fault because time travel?

Read the title and then explain how if Americans have more money and LESS SPENDING power, Americans have more money.
Explain how the price of housing, food and energy going up 50% in 2 years is offset by your 3% raise. That fancy college education didn't include basic math? Ok. Thanks for playing.

The cost of food isn’t up 50% over 2 years, that’s an exaggeration.

https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-price-outlook/summary-findings/

Housing? Depends on your city, but I haven’t heard of rents rising that much. But if you own your home, you’re laughing, since home values are through the roof. But homeowners winning, renters losing is the story of the last decade at least — not a Biden thing.

Energy? Yeah if you compare gas prices today, where we’re near record highs, to the rock-bottom of the pandemic in mid-2020, it looks bad. But there were other bad things going on in 2020 that caused that precipitous price drop.

I was alive for 2020! I remember!

If you’re worse off today than you were in 2020, you’re atypical.

Record breaking inflation destroying the economy. But you're gonna defend it, because of course you are.
So instead of arguing with you, I'll simply ask: at what point is Joe's economy Joe's fault?

Joe can take credit for Joe’s economy.

We’re in the midst of an economic recovery, actually, but one that you’re not being made aware of because of the negative and partisan news you consume.

Here’s an alternative perspective that you’re likely to dismiss as fake for whatever reason or blow right past because you’d rather be angry.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-12-20/president-biden-s-economic-performance-has-proved-unbeatable

Inflation sucks, it’s putting a damper on other good news — that said it’s being driven by real factors of supply (supply chain still being impacted by Covid) and demand (consumer demand is way up from 2020), not artificial ones like the Fed printing money.

●As long as Joe takes credit for destroying the economy and stops trying to get 4 years outta blaming Trump, Putin and Covid, ok.
● The fed IS PRINTING MONEY. Printing money DOES CAUSE INFLATION. Where'd the mad money for the 3 trillion dollar infrastructure bill come from?
● The Bloomberg article is a paid OPINION piece. You think I'm spending 10 bucks to read a link you sent me?

Joe Biden will, of course, run on his economic record in 2024, assuming he does run again — the U.S. economy is already is better than you think it is, and by 2024 will be better still.

I’m not convinced the Fed is printing too much money. The Fed is a perennial punching-bag for libertarians, but I see current inflation being driven by other factors: Covid disruptions, etc. The Fed is raising interest rates for the first time in awhile, an acknowledgment that fighting inflation is a priority. You can afford to do that when the labor market is tight, as it is now.

I linked an article offering you a different perspective. If you don’t want to hear a different view, don’t read it.

Hilariously, I'd actually vote Democrat in 2024, if the economy was better FOR ME.
Note I said: FOR ME.

2021: I don't know what you're talking about. There's no inflation!
2022: I don't know what you're talking about. Inflation is a good thing!

https://i.imgflip.com/69jfia.jpg Only jack-asses would think that inflation is a good thing. Everyone else sees it differently when you go shopping and have to spend more money for less stuff.

Yeah, I don't think the "inflation is good" line is gonna fly. But I've been hearing it a lot, so I figure they added it to the playbook.

Inflation on the order of 1-2% per year is normal and expected. The alternative to inflation is deflation, which has its own problems for the economy.

https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/111414/how-can-inflation-be-good-economy.asp

Inflation of 5-8% per year like we’re seeing now isn’t “hyperinflation,” (defined as 50%+ per month) but it is still an issue, and the Fed is taking steps to fight it.

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/03/21/powell-says-inflation-is-much-too-high-and-the-fed-will-take-necessary-steps-to-address.html

When the labor market is good, like it is now, we can afford to fight inflation.

I'm gonna assume you did enough research to know what's coming after inflation & the fed raising interest rates to "combat inflation" and not respond to this comment.