Man, if these are the points made to make us feel better, then it's actually more grim than thought:
Real earnings, while theyve come down from the recent years pandemic-infused turbulence, are on par with pre-pandemic levels, noticeably higher than ever before.
I mean, good that we are back to pre-pandemic levels, but those levels also weren't good. Because "higher than ever before" is a good statement in a vacuum, and economics doesn't work in a vacuum. Wages are worse than ever before compared to executive pay, and Purchasing Power of households have fallen thanks to inflation, unchecked rent and housing markets, etc. Getting more money only matters if everything else isn't also getting more expensive.
Inflationa nominal rather than real metric that worries households much more than it does economistsis also coming down.
I know it's the Economist, bug big yikes brushing off inflation as just more of a problem for households...you know, the ONLY THING THAT MATTERS. No one cares what economists think about it when it objectively is making life harder for everyone sans the rich.
The U.S. economy, as a share of the G7an international grouping of the United States and seven other rich economiesis larger than it was 30 years ago. Adjusted for purchasing power, only those in ber-rich petrostates and financial hubs enjoy a higher income per person, concludes The Economist.
This is a big "who cares", since it doesn't matter to the actual people and working class.
The poorest states in the United States are on par with the richest European countries.
Lel, this is factually false. California is rich enough on it's own to be the 3rd richest country in the world, only behind the rest of the US and China. But states 2-50 after CA do not beat our Germany and the like. In fact, it's much of the opposite: the best Alabama has to offer is likely on par with the worst of Germany. What a ridiculous statement.
The stylized facts about U.S. and European economiesfound in economics textbooks or old social policy reportsused to be that Americans work harder and longer for higher income, but Europeans live better lives with better social safety nets. These days even that seems to be changing, as the U.S. welfare state is approaching European levels both in comprehensiveness and total spending. Richer Americans spend more of their resources, public and private, on social ills. According to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development statistics, government social spending (as a share of gross domestic product) is above Australia, Iceland, and Norway, trailing socialist Sweden and Canada only by a few percentage points. (America is second only to France when adjusting for net social spending that includes private spending and tax breaks for social purposes.)
Man, this is such an intellectually dishonest article. Yeah, pure dollar amounts, the US spends a lot on healthcare...because US healthcare is ridiculously and needlessly expensive. It's not being spent on Universal Healthcare or proper safety nets, but to deal with the vast amount of poor and lower class, caused by our expensive and unfair healthcare system. SS and stuff like Medicare counts, but is grossly inflated by our for-profit system.
That article is trash.
@CyborgSage00x0 I'll be damned. Thanks for the insight. I don't think I'll be reading The Economist from here on out. (I'm not being sarcastic btw!)
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Sit-up champion of the 27th century. #BlackLivesMatter #IStandWithUkraine