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ProudNewEnglander's avatar

No, wrong. Comments like these just show how out of touch so many Democrats are. Frankly, inflation is still getting worse - just in the past few weeks, the price of a pound of 80% lean ground beef went up once again, from $3.99 to $4.49. It was $2.99 in 2019.

Comments like these really make me understand why so many people, even some who don't like Trump, were too disgusted with Democrats and their aloofness on inflation to vote for Dems.

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Tigercourse's avatar

Is it you straight up expectation that prices will never rise again? Or that after a period of inflation they will return to what they were before? The level of inflation in this country dropped massively over the past year

Wages increased, particularly for the bottom brackets. These are just facts. I'm not talking about perceptions but reality!

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ArcticStones's avatar

And as for perceptions, Republican voters are suddenly "feeling good" about the economy – without the core reality shifting recently. In other words, this has everything to do with "the vibe economy".

https://www.axios.com/2024/11/13/consumer-sentiment-republican-democrat-switch

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rayspace's avatar

This is exactly what I was getting at yesterday in saying that racism and sexism were factors in Harris's defeat. If voters say they voted on the economy, which they say was in bad shape on November 5th, and two weeks later--without any change in that economy--they say it's now good, then they're voting on something other than the economy.

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ArcticStones's avatar

They may well be voting on the economy – but the "vibe economy" rather than the real one. Come January, I betcha the economy will suddenly be widely seen as "fantastic", even if the actual parameters by which it is measured don’t change by one iota.

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Toiler On the Sea's avatar

Record number of people flying this holiday season even though airline prices have remained elevated; struggling my ass.

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rayspace's avatar

There's really no such thing as a "vibe economy"--either eggs and gas are priced too high or they're not. If people can say that the same prices are okay when their candidate gets elected and not when the candidate they don't want is in office, then they're voting on something other than the economy/prices. We have to see through the rationalizations people make to reporters and pollsters and acknowledge that there are other reasons, including racism and sexism, that are driving their votes.

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ProudNewEnglander's avatar

To answer your second question, yes, prices should return to what they were after inflation. If a product doesn't change, then in the medium/long term there's no reason why the price should change. And in fact, in the long term, technological advances in production, distribution, and transportation should result in prices going down!

And like I said above, wage growth does NOT make inflation OK. Wage growth is earned, and to have all the effort of earning a higher wage be taken away by inflation is a terrible feeling!

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Tigercourse's avatar

That is not how inflation works. It is not how inflation has ever worked. Inflation is basically always happening and the prices of goods and services, except maybe for airline tickets, do not drop over time. Furthermore, once heavier inflation starts, it is very hard to stop it. Usually, a recession is needed. Biden created an economic miracle in which inflation was stopped without a recession.

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Paleo's avatar

Because this was a supply problem not excess demand. The economy wasn't overheated to start.

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Tigercourse's avatar

The economy was, and is, on top of a 10+ year bull run.

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Paleo's avatar

The stock market may be, but the economy, after several years of mild growth, underwent a major disruption in 2020.

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benamery21's avatar

More of a bullish crawl out of a deep morass for most of that time, tho...

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ProudNewEnglander's avatar

And the American people have said that “the way things have always worked” isn't working for them. It's why institutionalism hasn't worked for Dems, because people don't think the institutions are helping them.

Telling the American people “we can't do what you want us to do” is possibly the worst electoral strategy ever devised.

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Tigercourse's avatar

What you want is fundamentally impossible. If the Democrats have to do the impossible... That's it.

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TheDude415's avatar

So Democrats should lie to the voters?

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Andrew's avatar

It works for Republicans. I remember one year for Xmas getting some generic cheap ass version of a My Little Pony. I was unhappy at first but that shit still worked.

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Blomstervaenget's avatar

Prices haven't gone down during the past 100 years except for during recessions.

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benamery21's avatar

Gasoline prices have, more than once.

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Andrew's avatar

They don’t really count. They go up and down every day. A 12-pack of pop went from a solid $4.99 to $5.49 and I had questions. Then came Covid and it went to $8.49 and hasn’t budged.

You could argue those go on sale while gas doesn’t it. So pop fluctuates week to week depending on the store/s you go to.

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benamery21's avatar

Yes, price changes and underlying inflation are different things economically. Gasoline prices are widely overweighted in public opinion and have been and could yet be significantly lower absent economic devastation and economy wide deflation. This is terrible policy, but great politics.

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Ben F.'s avatar

That's deflation, and that is a sign of an actively bad economy.

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Kevin H.'s avatar

Well it's an issue that will be going away so there's that. I mean i think the issue was unwinnable because yaknow there was a dem president for the last 4 year even though we all remember this stuff starting under Trump. I suppose dems could just lie and say we'll lower prices.

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Tigercourse's avatar

As I was saying yesterday, it"s apparently important for Dems to lie as much as possible because even our own partisans don't believe the truth

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ProudNewEnglander's avatar

Democrats need to 100% say that we'll lower prices. And then, if we retake power, we should bully, threaten, and if necessary force CEOs to lower their prices.

Remember, like I said yesterday, Dems need to position the party in opposition to greedy billionaires and CEOs

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Blomstervaenget's avatar

Inflation is 2.5% though some items are above and some are below (ironically the inflation rate under Trump in 2028 before Covid was 2.4%). This is not talking down. This is trying to have a fact based foundation for a discussion so it doesn't become what you just heard on Tic Toc. Then we should understand the pain that many are feeling and think about solutions especially about the housing/rental prices. Also, we should point out that all of Trump's so-called financial policies will dramatically increase inflation.

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culturejammer's avatar

The food is one thing, as is gas. What never gets talked about is housing and rents.... in many places shitbox studios going for $800/month are now north of $1200.... even historic wage growth won't help with that...

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