Was the economy good under Biden? Yes for me, because I happened to have money invested in it; but no for me because the cost of groceries spiked. Even for just myself I can't give a straight answer because it's so heavily dependent on social context. The problem with all these statistics is that they're averages.
Economists have an ideological desire to not talk about "distributional effects". Talk about the size of the pie, not the size of your slice, and things like that. Look deeper at the distribution and you'll find that most countries are actually two:
- An indispensable elite of well-connected firms, their talent-level employees, contractors, and anyone else economically dependent upon them, and,
- An expendable periphery of... everyone else not on that list.
Because the elites are indispensable, they get the lion's share of profit from new economic activity. They can negotiate away everyone else's margin, they can lobby for favorable regulation, and will make sure as much money as possible stays in the hands of the elite. The periphery is thus slowly marginalized into worse and worse conditions until they either revolt or die.
We see this pattern everywhere. The UK has London's financial sector, and everyone else. South Korea has the chaebols, and everyone else. America has Big Tech, and everyone else. We no longer live in rich countries, we live in countries with rich people.
Liberal politicians can't do anything to stop this because they all bought into neo-"liberalism"[0]. Their job is to make the numbers go up, and the easiest way to make sure the nation has a good day is to make sure the elites have a good day. This results in profound corruption almost immediately. I mean, why bother spending money fixing bridges in Dresden when that money isn't going to make the Mercedes-Benz group richer?
But neoliberals also have to still pretend to be liberal, so they'll pursue policies that virtue signal well while still finding ways to screw over the periphery. Neoliberalism runs on predatory inclusion - i.e. breaking the US labor movement by giving Mexicans all the shitty jobs Americans are striking over. Far-right populists are profiting because far-right populism is more efficient at sucking money out of the periphery. Even when the far-right talks about getting rid of the elites, they're still serving the interests of the elite. They just want to thin their ranks and assume direct control. And the periphery voting for them have been lied to; they are being told that they can't eat their freedom, but they can eat their privilege.
Economists have an ideological desire to not talk about "distributional effects". Talk about the size of the pie, not the size of your slice, and things like that. Look deeper at the distribution and you'll find that most countries are actually two:
- An indispensable elite of well-connected firms, their talent-level employees, contractors, and anyone else economically dependent upon them, and,
- An expendable periphery of... everyone else not on that list.
Because the elites are indispensable, they get the lion's share of profit from new economic activity. They can negotiate away everyone else's margin, they can lobby for favorable regulation, and will make sure as much money as possible stays in the hands of the elite. The periphery is thus slowly marginalized into worse and worse conditions until they either revolt or die.
We see this pattern everywhere. The UK has London's financial sector, and everyone else. South Korea has the chaebols, and everyone else. America has Big Tech, and everyone else. We no longer live in rich countries, we live in countries with rich people.
Liberal politicians can't do anything to stop this because they all bought into neo-"liberalism"[0]. Their job is to make the numbers go up, and the easiest way to make sure the nation has a good day is to make sure the elites have a good day. This results in profound corruption almost immediately. I mean, why bother spending money fixing bridges in Dresden when that money isn't going to make the Mercedes-Benz group richer?
But neoliberals also have to still pretend to be liberal, so they'll pursue policies that virtue signal well while still finding ways to screw over the periphery. Neoliberalism runs on predatory inclusion - i.e. breaking the US labor movement by giving Mexicans all the shitty jobs Americans are striking over. Far-right populists are profiting because far-right populism is more efficient at sucking money out of the periphery. Even when the far-right talks about getting rid of the elites, they're still serving the interests of the elite. They just want to thin their ranks and assume direct control. And the periphery voting for them have been lied to; they are being told that they can't eat their freedom, but they can eat their privilege.
[0] Slow fascism