The reality of the Trump economy

[struggle4progress]

BY JUAN WILLIAMS, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 04/29/19 06:00 AM EDT

... After almost two-and-a-half years with Trump in the White House — including two years with Republican control of both houses of Congress — the middle class is getting squeezed to a pulp.

The rich got their Trump tax cut. GDP looks good. And the stock market is doing great for people with money to invest. But it is only the rich who get the big rewards in Trump’s economy ...

Wages remain stagnant. Trump’s trade wars are hurting farmers. Coal mines keep closing. Teachers in several states have been on strike.

Housing prices are up; prescription drug prices and healthcare costs are up; gas prices are up and student debt is soaring ...

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/441071-juan-williams-the-reality-of-the-trump-economy

[Iliyah]

1. K & R

The stock market has not trickled down in many years.

[Recursion]

2. 2015-2018 saw the fastest real wage growth on record, concentrated at the bottom

Look, if we're just going to say "wages remain stagnant", no matter what the actual truth is, OK, but this is getting ridiculous. The wage increases particularly at the bottom of the income scale have been huge in recent years, as states and localities have adopted higher minimum wages.

[struggle4progress]

3. Real Wage Growth Is Actually Falling

Sep 25, 2018, 01:19pm
Patrick W. Watson

... Real Wages Are Flat

Aside from employment data, the Bureau of Labor Statistics also compiles the Consumer Price Index (CPI), our primary inflation gauge.

In the same period in which average hourly earnings rose 2.8%, the CPI rose 2.7%. That’s how much the cost of living went up, on average ...

So, a 2.8% wage gain is essentially no gain at all. Inflation-adjusted wages are flat since last year. It is certainly not the fastest wage growth since 2009, or even close ...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickwwatson/2018/09/25/real-wage-growth-is-actually-falling/#64b0bc747284

[Recursion]

4. The chart he posted shows I'm right, but his little graphic is utterly dishonest.

Falling wage growth is still wage growth. That is not falling wages. That is wages increasing more slowly. The y axis is percent change, not actual level. That chart shows rising real wages.

That's tremendously fast inflation-adjusted wage growth between 2015 and 20128: again, the fastest on record. Thanks for pointing out a chart that shows that!

[leftyladyfrommo]

9. I don't think that is happening around here.

If wages go up they cut hours. I guess it makes it easier for people to get a second job.

Walmart is paying $11 but lots of employees are getting cut. I hear them talking about it when I go in there.

[TexasBushwhacker]

13. That's true about Walmart

Average weekly hours for full time hourly workers at Walmart is 34 per week.

[Recursion]

14. That was true before the payraise, though

I don't think there's any evidence they're cutting hours after raising people's pay

[leftyladyfrommo]

15. I am just saying what I heard when I was there.

They are trying to get people to use the self checkout. I think they are hoping people won't want to stand in line for a long time.

I also have seen where they are trying to use robots to clean the floors. That's too bad. Those are the jobs that the handicapped people were able to do. Walmart was always good to hire the handicapped. They still need people to stock and straighten things up and clean the bathrooms. Some handicapped people can't read so they are pretty limited.

[Hoyt]

5. While I certainly don't think any of this is trump's doing, it's hard to argue most people aren't

doing better, even if not "better" enough. Point is, the economy is likely going to be a tough issue to use against trump.

Healthcare, resurgence of white wing hatred, global relations, immigration, climate change, the Deficit, the future, etc., are good areas.

[Recursion]

6. That's why I think it was a mistake to concede the economy in 2016

The 2016 economy was slightly better than the economy now. But people get so invested in how the US was some kind of dystopian hell-hole in need of radical economic change that we handed that straight to him. He's not going to do us the same favor.

[ooky]

7. Another good area is the voter to answer this question.

How are YOU doing economically?

What good is a "3.2 GDP" to you, when you still struggle to make it from paycheck to paycheck, still can't afford your health care or your prescriptions, and the new tax law was pretty much negligible in your life?

[Recursion]

10. Here's the problem. In 2016 we won voters worried about the economy, resoudingly

Clinton won voters who listed "jobs" or "the economy" as their chief concern by 12 points. We've never needed an "economic pivot".

The problem is she lost voters who listed "immigration" as their chief concern by 40 points, and there were a whole lot of them. We need to make people care less about immigration. The problem is, when there's a good economy like there was in 2016 or probably will be in 2020, people start caring about stupid shit.

[ooky]

11. Actually there was significantly less concern about immigration until Trump exploited it.

I don't disagree with your point about economy voters in the 2016 election but if he's talking about the economy and taking credit for it, which he is (of course) lying about, we do need to point out the truth, because most people aren't doing any better in his so called great economy, and a lot of people have been hurt by his economic policies and unkept economic promises. And, incrementally it could matter a lot in the end, because immigration is and has become a different animal altogether. Immigration wasn't such a big issue to so many people until he started exploiting it with his hate rhetoric to ignite his political support, and THEN it became another "guns" to the red meat consuming right voters. That 40 points is coming from a pretty much inflexible voting base of "wall" humpers, who are the same voters as the "gun" humpers, just looking for more reasons to hate the left. I don't see many of them caring less about immigration in 2020 no matter what we say about it, like guns. For that I believe we just have to focus our efforts on turning out greater numbers of our own voters at the polls.

[underpants]

8. "You have to be wealthy in order to be great."

That pretty much tells you everything you need to know

[uponit7771]

12. 11 million people had to pay more in taxes

[Joe941]

16. Things are going pretty good for me...

No thanks to tRump. I'll admit to getting huge raises in the last couple years. Taxes are down but refunds are down too because of the stupid withholding rules in the tax laws. Anyway the point is your individual finances don't have to follow the bad decisions by the president. You can overcome and be successful while tRump drives the country into the ground. Good luck!