sj_zero on Nostr: The past 4 years have really been a divide between those who own stocks and assets, ...
The past 4 years have really been a divide between those who own stocks and assets, and those who sell their labor.
Even people who got respectable raises for the past 4 years haven't gotten raises to cover the increased costs in food, shelter, transportation, and fuel. You can blame companies for that, but they can't just massively increase everyone's pay in the same way you can't fly just by denying gravity exists. Moreover, CPI shows 20%, but that's cumulative and a lot of things that didn't go up or went way down by CPI's measure. Smart phones went way down, but ever since phone companies stopped giving out free phones, a lot of people are still using their old phones. I'm personally rocking a Galaxy S10, released 6 years ago, and I'm not looking to upgrade any time soon. Personal computers went down, but I'm still rocking the gaming PC I bought pre-pandemic.
Stonks, on the other hand? They've been doing great in general! My (modest) retirement account has gone up double digits, and there were months where I made more on stonk increases than on my actual wages. (It's all set aside for the future so it isn't like that changed my quality of life for the better today, but it's something worth knowing). I'm not even invested in stuff like the AI trade, which has in some cases seen more than triple digit increases.
If you realize this scenario, then it perfectly explains how the Democrats (who are mostly elite multi-millionaires themselves and whose closest allies are at least that too) thought they could run on vibes and joy. If you're already rich, then it *has been* vibes and joy. The problem is most people don't live off of stonks, they live off of selling their labor, and those people have seen material drops in their quality of life.
Don't get me wrong, the Republicans are mostly multi-millionaires (Trump is a multi-billionaire) with at least multi-millionaire friends, but one other key thing of the past 8 years is that the Democrats reject anyone who doesn't agree with them as racist sexist homophobic transphobic fascist nazis, as deplorables, and the Republicans haven't taken to this strategy. I think that's one reason why despite their historical disadvantage with the poor, the Republicans won big among the masses including union workers.
Even people who got respectable raises for the past 4 years haven't gotten raises to cover the increased costs in food, shelter, transportation, and fuel. You can blame companies for that, but they can't just massively increase everyone's pay in the same way you can't fly just by denying gravity exists. Moreover, CPI shows 20%, but that's cumulative and a lot of things that didn't go up or went way down by CPI's measure. Smart phones went way down, but ever since phone companies stopped giving out free phones, a lot of people are still using their old phones. I'm personally rocking a Galaxy S10, released 6 years ago, and I'm not looking to upgrade any time soon. Personal computers went down, but I'm still rocking the gaming PC I bought pre-pandemic.
Stonks, on the other hand? They've been doing great in general! My (modest) retirement account has gone up double digits, and there were months where I made more on stonk increases than on my actual wages. (It's all set aside for the future so it isn't like that changed my quality of life for the better today, but it's something worth knowing). I'm not even invested in stuff like the AI trade, which has in some cases seen more than triple digit increases.
If you realize this scenario, then it perfectly explains how the Democrats (who are mostly elite multi-millionaires themselves and whose closest allies are at least that too) thought they could run on vibes and joy. If you're already rich, then it *has been* vibes and joy. The problem is most people don't live off of stonks, they live off of selling their labor, and those people have seen material drops in their quality of life.
Don't get me wrong, the Republicans are mostly multi-millionaires (Trump is a multi-billionaire) with at least multi-millionaire friends, but one other key thing of the past 8 years is that the Democrats reject anyone who doesn't agree with them as racist sexist homophobic transphobic fascist nazis, as deplorables, and the Republicans haven't taken to this strategy. I think that's one reason why despite their historical disadvantage with the poor, the Republicans won big among the masses including union workers.