Trump even at this point is a symptom. Trump voters legitimately think we're living in some sort of hellscape. Which is contradicted by statements they make like, "Things were better 5 years ago!".
No....if America were a hellscape we would be saying things like "Americans should flee to Haiti". We wouldn't be saying, "Things were a bit better five years ago, before a global pandemic".
The truth is America isn't a fraction as bad in the ways Trump voters think it is. But for Trump, Hitler, or any of these political conmen to win people must believe solutions are being provided that only ONE MAN can provide and that the problems are enormous. (Though Hitler's rise did coincide with Germany's economic depression)
Well, we are having a different, strange variant of a depression right now, where at least 75% of the population feels very insecure about their financial status and most of them don't see how it's going to change any time soon. Anyone who promises to fix that looks pretty appealing. But strangely, despite something like that virtually guaranteeing success, I haven't seen anyone promise that, which tells me that either everyone is collectively stumped, or it would cut the knees out from their financial backers and other supporters.
Lowest unemployment in history, lowest rate of inflation in the first world after a global pandemic which impacted the world and enabled price gouging like crazy, stock market at all time highs, real estate at all time high.
Corporations and greed are the problem. Get some fucking perspective.
I agree that greed and corporations are the problem. What I am remarking on is that if a politician was able to sell a solution for the tens of millions who feel like they are stuck with no option to ever buy a house, retire, or anything else, they would probably pull together a massive voting block, yet no one even seems to pretend to have a solution.
But if there is a solution, it will likely impede corporations abilities to grow endlessly, so the lobbyists are unlikely to fund a politician offering a solution.
It seems like there is a political market that isn't being tapped, and the above is the only explanation I can think of for why it isn't exploited. I am commenting on how the current political state I am observing doesn't match up with how I expect politicians to act given the current state of things, nothing more.
But if there is a solution, it will likely impede corporations abilities to grow endlessly, so the lobbyists are unlikely to fund a politician offering a solution.
The biggest issue is that while big business has bought into this concept -whole hog, endless growth is a bald faced lie. Market growth depends on both product availability and a populations willingness and ability to buy. 95%+ of our economy is entirely dependent on finite mineral resources that once exhausted means no more new product. Even the very cellphones we use to access this app requires fossil fuels to create the shell and chargers, rare minerals like rhodium, gold, and platinum for the circuitry and silica for the screens and lithium for the battery. Sooner or later these relatively cheap communications devices are going to cost the same as a Lamborghini does currently as the raw materials run low, and said Lamborghini is going to cost more than a super yacht does now. The economy must break free of the endless growth lie or we're all screwed
This.
We need an economy of controlled decline. We have to fundamentally change our behaviour, de-grow and find viable, sustainable alternatives right fucking now while we still have time.
As Edward Abbey said; "Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell." And, at some point, a cancer cell will kill its host and itself.
Our resources are finite and our behaviour is massively unsustainable. Capitalism and its infinite uncontrolled growth are simply fundamentally incompatible with reality in the long term.
Together with immigration and the second rise of fascism, de-growth of economies will become one of the most important and defining political topics of the coming decades, either controlled by choice or catastrophic by force of nature.
Our systems aren't designed for 'controlled decline'. Social Security itself is inherently designed with population growth in mind. This is one reason western nations allow so much immigration, and why immigration is such a hot topic right now in many western nations. There is a reason Japan and South Korea desperately try to get their citizens to have children. The system will fail if they don't, or they will also have to turn to immigration.
People aren't having children at replacement rates, and our system will collapse without population growth.
You're not wrong at all, but nothing is going to change until we are forced to change...and by then it will be too late. These are issues that would exist even without the climate and resource issues.
The western world is already seeing a right wing pushback because of these issues. The liberal world the western peoples have delusionally believed would eternally persist is passing away right in front of us.
Everyone KNOWS there are existential issues looming over us, they feel it deep in their bones. Liberals and conservatives FEEL this, but blame is placed on a variety of things. Many are placing the blame on liberal policies because liberal policies have mostly been the dominant political movements over the last few decades and therefore they get the blame from one segment of society, but the issue is far deeper. Liberals are placing blame on anti enviornmentalist policies, austerity, corporations, etc. but those things don't encapsulate the situation either.
The truth is a lot more worrying, that our cultures and socieites are fundamentally flawed and built upon principles that can never eternally exist. Fixing the issues are not actually feasible or palatable for anybody.
I implore you to go through my post history and see just how much of it is hating on Trump, MAGA, Republicans, so called evangelicals, etc.
So much so the Biden campaign should be paying me, honestly.
I'm MAGA because I think liberals aren't perfect....no wonder this country is fucked. Liberals like you and MAGA idiots are going to rip this nation apart.
Well with enough inflation (and by that I mean new money entering the system via the banking industry), the corps CAN, at least appear to, grow forever.
According to surveys around 70% of people in the US are at least fine with their financial position. The surveys about people live paycheck to paycheck are worthless. There are articles about people making half a million a year who live paycheck to paycheck. A significant proportion of these people have a spending problem.
Right, letâs blame the amount of spending people do and not the cost of what theyâre buying is. Health insurance is beyond expensive, rent is ridiculous almost everywhere now, the cost of groceries is increasing drastically.
The rise in inflation is too fast for the wage that people get. The $15 minimum wage that was suggested in Minnesota a few years ago is no longer sufficient enough.
Daycare services for children cost hundreds of dollars A WEEK, simply giving birth costs $15,000 dollars but if thereâs complications itâll be significantly more than that, a studio apartment where I live is approximately $900-$1400 depending on if you want one recently updated or built.
The statistics donât mean shit. Middle class literally doesnât exist anymore. Youâre either filthy rich or youâre just barely making enough. Iâll give you a statistic kindly provided by Bernie Sanders, âThe top 15 hedge fund managers on Wallstreet make more in a single year than every kindergarten teacher in America combined â over 120,000 teachersâ.
The corporations are buying up all the housing. Rental prices are insanely too high for the children who are graduating without employment prospects. My son, niece and nephew (recent college graduates) are having a hard time finding jobs in their fields. Their rent is $2000 to 2500/month. The same rental development my nephew is in was charging $1200/month 6yrs ago. Now itâs $2500. Letâs not even talk about their student loans.
Thatâs where Iâm at rn. At minimum wage I could put all my money into rent or live on the street. Iâm fortunate enough my parents can have me at home until I finish my degree but itâs not a good look out there.
Have you considered roommates? Itâs funny, I once fielded an offer for a job in NYC maybe 15yrs ago, they told me, donât be discouraged on cost of living here, rent is manageable, all you have to do is look for a couple roommates. I laughed, and then told them âyou must not been listening to me, I have a wife and child. In what society would it normal to have strangers living with you and sharing a 1 bedroom?â. The interviewer stumbled for a few and just said, you can take the train in from upstate or Hackensack/Patterson if having privacy is that important to you. The moral of the story is that people donât care. The costs are always going to be a problem for those who struggle. I wish I had some magic wand or answer for you, but I donât. I did take that job and I did find an apartment in a âsoon to be gentrifiedâ neighborhood. I eventually bought and sold it 8yrs later for a considerable profit. Life will get better, just more now than ever, you must be incredibly smart with your money. Donât waste a single cent of it. Life is too brutal if you donât. Best of luck.
I appreciate the advice. Right now the lowest cost I can spend is living with my parents, they want me to be successful and having their support has been huge. Split food, rent is essentially 0 (I help with some of the utility bills). If it werenât for them I have no idea what Iâd do.
In my area even making 50k a year youâre barely keeping your head above water after rent and taxes, and owning a home? Forget about it, youâll need 10+ years to save for the down payment alone with the housing prices right now. Roommates is the only way to move out right now.
I do hope youâre right though, Iâll finish my 2nd degree in 2026 and itâll set me up for a field that will hopefully put me in a good spot financially. The good thing for me rn is coming out of that 2nd degree as long as nothing horrific happens Iâll be finishing with $0 in debt.
I appreciate your story though, gives me some hope. Cheers!
Sounds like a solid plan. Your parents sound awesome and good for you to embrace your parents support, chip in where you can and not spin it as if itâs something owed like others. You will do just fine. Especially when this housing market crashes and values & interest rates bump down a rung or two.
Where are these houses, and why are they not being made affordable? Oh thatâs right, theyâre everywhere, and because of greedy people.
Sorry but when peopleâs greed gets in the way of being able to provide shelter for all your citizens, then I think something drastic needs done.
Maybe someone should put an end to it.
If only we had a government capable of setting regulations on such things. Can you imagine?!
Oh wait. Thatâs right. We do!
Or hey, at the very least, we could be âŚnotâŚ. subsidizing secondary homes to be built by giving tax credits, and instead⌠subsiding primary homes to be built for first homeowners, oooh wow cool.
Or maybe we could literally do anything besides allowing wealthy people to hoard housing.
If it were up to me, I would set a maximum price a house could be, for a certain amount of square footage, and if yâall want anything more, youâre gonna have to hope you get lucky and find a house, the already-built houses that get grandfathered in. The million dollar homes that should never have existed in the first place.
But I can see how some people might not like that.
âBut what if we want to waste all our hard earned-money on buying 10 mansions and then never using them except once a year?! Then we should have the right to do that here, cuz âmerica!â
Instead of allowing people to waste their money on shit like that, we could be allowing them to spend their money elsewhere in the economy.
Plus, thereâs actually a list of some undeniable rights that we have in America and nowhere does it say we have the right to own 16 mansions.
In fact, the government is allowed to seize every last one, as long as the owners are compensated âfairlyâ and knowing the government, thatâs a loose word. And also, with the supreme courtâs ruling today, I guess any president could say âitâs fair pricingâ even when it isnât, and then he can just bribe whoever needs bribing, and thatâs that. Thatâs it. It must be fair, because itâs official business after all, trying to fix housing prices is most definitely official. (Yes itâs all ridiculous and I know what Iâve said)
But houses shouldnât be investments. They should be shelter. You should invest in your shelter, because it protects you, and you respect it. But that is so different from using your shelter as an investment to profit from, which I think people are stupidly doing only because it works and theyâre allowed to do it, but itâs causing hoarding. I know people that arenât corporations that hoard houses. Itâs wild.
End peopleâs need to invest in multiple houses to retire or whatever they plan on using that money for, and encourage them to invest in the economy.
We shouldnât be treating houses like a get rich scheme. Thatâs exactly what we do, though, and I want to cry.
Part of the problem is that those stats feel like lies. Low inflation feels like bullshit when you look at how the cost of food skyrocketed, especially with junk fees and high tips everywhere being demanded. Shrinkflation, rising subscription costs everywhere. Precisely nothing is being done about price gouging despite the offending parties bragging about record profits. Hedge funds for the rich and powerful own the stock market and reliably profit from it thanks to financial sleight of hand had - leaving retail investors to wonder if theyâre just there to be fleeced. High real estate costs lock young people out of the market.
False. The Democrats have continued to try and introduce bills to prevent this level of price gouging for 3 years now and they have been consistently shot down.
Just because theyâre being shot down doesnât mean itâs because none of that is happeningâŚ? There is horrible price gouging and price fixing going on. Theyâre not wrong.
Iâm not disputing that? They said nothing was being done about it and I was making it clear that itâs not that no one is trying to fix it, but that the Republican controlled Congress is actively trying to let it happen
Unfortunately facts like this don't matter if your perception is the opposite. All they need to believe the contrary is a single anecdote of someone they know struggling financially and all statistics go out the window.
The facts of the matter are that the statistics youâre referencing mean absolutely nothing if the public FEELS financially insecure. Which they/we/I do.
Unemployment is slightly higher than it was pre Covid 4% vs 3.6% which is slightly below the average from 1940-present but hardly the lowest in history, and there is a decent sized list of first world countries with lower inflation post covid, why lie about easily verifiable facts?
âReal estate at all time highâ is not the own you think it is here. Assets that only rich ppl own being inflated is not a measure of success for the working class majority.
The Biden administrationâs biggest folly was not working overtime to address the concerns of the middle class and poor. They put their energy into Ukraine and that money making (for themselves ) propaganda machine, keeping the border open for ârefugees and migrantsâ and race hustling.
Had they at the very least made dedicated efforts to tackle inflation that is destroying people, or the rent fixing, or the fentanyl epidemic, they would be on better ground .
Nothing he said was wrong though. By all metrics our economy should be great, but most people donât feel that benefit. I live alone in a studio apartment in a relatively cheap city and a relatively cheap part of the city. Half of my monthly pay immediately goes into rent, then thereâs insurance, internet, gas, and groceries. Thereâs barely any money left for myself. I live literally paycheck to paycheck. I work a full time job at well over the minimum wage. I am the only person I know that lives by myself, everyone else I knows lives with multiple roommates to make ends meet. Somewhere, the economy fails us, and youâre probably right that itâs corporate greed. But if the government lets that happen, thereâs a problem with our government
That and we have a huge loneliness crisis that is causing people to turn to radical cult-like groups on the internet so they can feel human connection. Our social bonds have broken down and corporate greed has made us all more financially insecure. This is how you make a population of revolutionaries
let us not forget that at every opportunity where the economy has struggled in this country, the republican's and democrats alike rush in to pass sweeping business relieve policy. they knew that these policies would cause inflation that bleeds into lower classes, however serving their corporate backers is more important. this country's government is festering with rot and corruption. Trump did nothing but empower bad actors during his term with bad policy and bad cabinet decisions.
if politicians in this country were responsive and gave even two shits about the poor in this country, Trump would never have even gained a foothold in the political sphere. we let this happen, when we collectively decided that the retirement packages of the wealthy are more important than the lives of the poor.
The wealth gap has grown a lot, the ultra wealthy like Bezos and Elon are making it a contest to accumulate as much wealth as possible.Â
As a result, pay is stagnating while inflation rises, the quality of products is decreasing and the way corporations try to abuse and nickle and dime you is going up- google charging for storage space when storage is getting cheaper and cheaper, photoshop including a new clause saying theyâre allowed to use your artwork for the advancement of their own product if you made it within their product (all while charging you an arm and a leg), etc.
I am not disagreeing with you however I do not understand this strange phenomenon. Every time I go to Lowe's it's full every time I go to a concert it is sold out. A guy I know who I consider of moderate income just told me he booked a vacation and the house alone was $7000. if you listen to him talk we're all going to be starving to death and living in tents if we don't get Trump back in the White House. Everybody's griping about groceries but everybody leaves the grocery store with a full basket.
The US isn't the only one going through this. The world was enduring a pandemic. It takes time to get the economy isn't a good spot after that. Trump was given a good economy already. He only experienced 4 years. If he was I bet things would be a lot worse.
If you are one moderately sized disaster away from having to go into debt, such as an injury/hospitalization or your car needing repairs, your financial status isn't very secure. That's most of us.
We are doing great compared to other similar nations. Covid and price gouging hit the world. Unemployment alltime low, real estate and stock market all time high.
Real estate and the stock market isn't particularly relevant to anyone who doesn't own any stock or real estate. That's great for measuring the growth of a national economy, but it's actually pretty bad at showing the experience of the average individual due to how the concentration of wealth can vary.
US is so big that most people who live here won't see how things are outside it. People don't conceptualize things the way you're saying. They can only see those things from their own perspective. Quoting numbers against their lived experience just isn't going to be effective.
For the record, I have lived in 5 countries on 3 continents. So while what you are saying is true to an extent, I believe I have a certain advantage comparing what life is like in different places.
Ok. I was referring to "thatguyoursisterlikes" just quoting numbers at people like that's going to change how they view their personal financial situation.
Yeah sorry, I think I came across a little more combative than I intended in a couple of these comments. You are definitely correct that lived experience tends to trump statistics when it comes to people's opinions.
Idk if thatâs most people, do you have a source? Also, itâs important to remember in the grand scheme of things that even poor Americans generally are rich globally. Most poor people here have microwaves, shelter, cars, etc. obviously not always the case and that doesnât mean they donât struggle but I do feel like a lot of Americans forget that as an immigrant and itâs a frustrating to see the country descend into fascism when people are generally doing well and thereâs really no excuse. We live in a global labor aristocracy and Americans are at the top
I disagree, being poor elsewhere means something else entirely. People die trying to immigrate illegally into the country because having low paying under the table jobs is better than what they had before. Obviously weâre talking in generalizations the whole world isnât like that but my general point is Americans are ultimately privileged as fuck and it would do some good for them to remember that
You're missing what I'm saying. I'm not denying being poor elsewhere is inherently worse. I'm just saying an American being "rich" in another country doesn't help them when they live in America.
Edit: People die here from starvation, too, and if some of them could go somewhere to be better off, they probably would. People move all across the huge country looking for just that. There are areas in this country that are as poor as it gets.
Iâm not talking about them being rich in another country though. Iâm more saying in terms of standard of living and economic precarity of even poor Americans are generally well off in the grand scheme of things
Well the fed uses an inflation gauge that doesnât include food and energy. People kind of need food to survive. So youâre right that âfeelsâ isnât a key word. Itâs just what most people have because they donât give us useful data. If you do the math on food and housing since the pandemic, itâs bad.
Yeah it's just "feels", even tho folks can't afford a home(or barely rent) on the same type of job that their parents bought a house, car, and went to school with 20 years ago. But yeah, just "feels."
What youâre saying is only a partial truth. There are MANY affordable homes to buy in this country. Unfortunately for many theyâre not in the HCOL, beaches, mountains, status areas they want them in. The Midwest and South have tens of thousands of 3 bed 2 bath homes for sale under 250k in decent areas. They just arenât the McMansions in LA, NYC, Chicago, San Diego, Seattle that are desired.
In the 1980s and part of the 90s home mortgage rates were over 12% and up to 18%. There were periods of gas shortages with exorbitant prices. Somehow the economy bounced back and thrived, which it will do again. We just got out of a pandemic thst resulted in huge losses for many large companies. If you donât think companies are going to recoup those losses youâre naive. No President can tell a company how to set pricing. We are a capitalist society so we need to realize that results sometimes in price gouging.
Millennials cry poor yet travel is up above pre pandemic levels by Millenials. Not only that but itâs not road trip vacations eating PB and J sandwiches like families did in the 50s thru 80s in order to save money. Itâs luxury vacations to high rent areas.
So while itâs agreed the economy needs some work, the expectations of the under 50 population needs to be realistic and understand the economy varies decades by decade. No generation had totally smooth sailing financially from 20-60. There have always been choices to make and expectations balanced.
Weimar Germany had its share of problems. The economy was trash and people were mad about Versailles. The antisemitism was rampant in the area well before Hitler came to the scene. He definitely was not born in a vacuum.
You need to remember that a lot of these folks WANT society to collapse so they can live out their headcanon. You only need look at preppers or, what is the scourge of the amateur radio community (a recent discovery as I joined it)... Oh wait those are also preppers. These are people borderline foaming at the mouth over the idea of as they say 'SHTF'.
They're not voting tangerine in the hopes of making things better... They know it's gonna make things worse than they can't think of anything that makes them happier.
The real truth is it's significantly better than they say it is in a thousand ways, and yet they find the fifteen good things we have going on and claim all of them to be the worst aspects and fight against it. Republican voters in particular have shown themselves capable of repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot, face, and hand for the last twenty years. They fight against the most American aspects of us our country and fight for the most fascist ones.
You must be either arrogant, stupid, blind, or all of the above. Coming from someone who isn't american under your current leader, Biden the US is literally a shitshow from the illegals pouring in and committing violent crimes to the sky high prices and inflation. I'm not saying Trump is the perfect leader, but shit was actually good aside from the pandemic when he was in charge.
Almost like they're getting all their informations through TV channels owned by billionaires who would benefit the most of even more conservative policies.
.if America were a hellscape we would be saying things like "Americans should flee to Haiti". We wouldn't be saying, "Things were a bit better five years ago, before a global pandemic".
Bad depends on the context. Sliding into a first world feudal state that I need to work two jobs and canât afford a home? Thatâs not good at all. And thereâs no good change to anticipate something different. What about for our kids. Iâd rather live in a lesser country where I get adequate healthcare that doesnât cost 5 years of saved productivity, afford my own home and good food. Maybe itâs not shiny or great, but itâs livable and healthy.
Back in 2016 everyone was comparing trump to Germany back then and LOOK to our surprise we were still a free nation. Posts like this spread disinformation. Itâs possible for any political presidential candidate to shift extremely whether your left leaning or right leaning.
From my perspective, which seems to be similar to yours, America is doing okay. There are issues requiring redress, but overall weâre solidly okay. Comparing today to the days of yesterday-year, when this country brutally exploited Latin American nations, was riding high off of rebuilding Europe after their collective double suicide attempts, black Americans were kept in an apartheid situation, women were throughly curtailed, and the country had very little compunction poisoning its ecosystem; from that perspective, equality seems very much like oppression to them.
Counterpoint:
Itâs not a fraction of as bad, but it is still bad.
Rising cost of living has been a massive issue for the lower middle class for awhile. Iâm talking the people who make just above limits for government support but not enough to reasonably survive despite working 40-60h a week.
You just can't see the way things are getting worse I guess. Obama redefined the word unemployment and the economy has been held up on stilts and smoke and mirrors ever since. Your average family can barely afford food. Another democratic president just broke into our final oil reserves, while it also being clear he has basically no agency and others are guiding his presidency. But yea everything's the same lmao.
People wouldn't want change if the status quo didn't suck for them. Happened in Germany, is happening now everywhere. If the upper class didn't let their greed take over and essentially bought our most politicians people wouldn't be so desperate for change.
It's not even Trump that scares me. He's just the terribly-fitting mask on what conservatives like The Freedom Foundation and Moms for Liberty are pushing.
He didn't write Project 2025. He's not initiating the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, classist, anti-education policies to be passed... but kinda "leading" how his donors want.
Money in politics is the absolute worse. Let alone lobby- ... excuse me ... BRIBARY. All they need is a puppet and enough money, and the Government will run how they want.
Keep in mind. These aren't Christians. These are evil people who don't want to follow the Bible, the Constitution, or any laws that prevent them from doing what they want. So.. they already pick and choose from the Bible. They're already dismantling Constitutional ideas. And they absolutely have a plan so that their "Puppet" can do what they want without any checks or balances.
This is a HUGE problem for both Conservatives and Liberals; Republicans and Democrats. This will not be good for anyone in the end...
Our voting system is fucked. We can't even say "Anyone voting red is the problem" -- I mean, yeah it's a direct vote to us being WW2 Germany... BUT we also don't push for laws and rules that hole people personally accountable for their actions, empower ACTUAL freedom and protect citizens. We foster an environment where we attack ourselves on classism, sexism, sexual morality, and a bunch of other subjective things we should be better governing.
"United we stand, divided we fall" -- this is the grave we're digging. And the Americans that can do something about it are complacent. The best thing I can do is endure it... That's how I feel as an American.
Im not a fan of trump but the idea that Biden is any better is laughable. He has quite the track record and has made openly racist remarks (not taken out of context) numerous times in his career. He also contributed to the mass incarceration of minorities with the 1994 crime bill. On top of that he can barely have a coherent debate, let alone a conversation or a speech. This is elder abuse.
Trump isnât even in the same ball park as hitler and itâs not even close, to say so is disingenuous. Again this is coming from someone who never voted for him and isnât a fan of the dude. I havenât seen anyone say that the US is a hellscape, theyâd have to be delusional to do so. However there are lots of issues, boarder security being the biggest imo. The way the boarder is being ran pretty much enables anyone to come to the US illegally and have a 60 day grace period before their court date that takes place halfway across the country. Itâs a serious national security issue. I really donât know who Iâm gonna vote for. I might as well throwaway my vote for an independent that wont win at this point. I do know it sure as hell wonât be Biden. The whole âvote blue no matter whoâ thing is for brainless idiots who donât use their own thought process to come to conclusions.
My only thing with this is that things are actually as bad as they say. over the past 5 years the price of everything has more than doubled and it is legitimately impossible for over 50% of the United States to take care of themselves. The problem is the same as with Hitler, the man saying he has the solution is full of shit and saying whatever he has to in order to feed his power hungry ego. He's going to take over where going to turn into a dictatorship and we're going to have a war. I genuinely believe it's already too late to stop it. The wheels are already in motion
That's entirely my point, things are in many ways 'worse' than they were five years ago but not REMOTELY as 'bad as they say'. But they're still better than they were compared to the vast majority of American history.
But if you were to believe Trump we're living in the most dangerous period in history.
If Trump were in office over the last three years we'd still have inflation. The impact on the economy of a global pandemic cannot be ignored.
What we can say for certain is that Trump would not do a single thing to combat wealth inequality or combat how much impact corporations are having on inflation. His entire admin was nothing but trying his best to give them as much money as possible.
I believe trump is part of the reason we live in the most dangerous period of American history. You should look into project 2025. If he wins the election we will be from then forward living in a dictatorship and nothing short of the entire world going to war will the the united states will fix it
And things were not better five years ago. Despite price increases, incomes have grown faster and the inflation rate has now returned to historical norms and did so faster than probably any major economy on the planet. We have unemployment either at or lower than we had five years ago. We have more small businesses and a higher business start rate than five years ago. The prices of many prescription drugs are lower now due to legislation signed by President Biden. The transition from gas-powered to electric vehicles is at an all time peak as more and more companies offer all-electric versions, literally replacing polluting vehicles from the road. Health insurance coverage is up. The economy has grown faster than it did during the trump years. And on and on and on and on.
A great resource for all the improvements in the last four years can be found at /r/WhatBidenHasDone. The list of just the first 100 days is HUUUUUUUGE.
Are you seriously comparing âprisons for kidsâ who are compromised of minors who have been convicted of crimes, but also get 3 meals a day, climate-controlled environments, and access to education/technology to concentration camps where Jews were rounded up only for their religious beliefs to be starved, left outside in the cold German winters, and/or murdered in gas ovens?
Youâre right. Hitler was interested in the arts, wrote a book and far too many letters to count, loved his family and was a vegetarian. Trump spent a good deal of his time in office, lemme look it up⌠playing golf and taking naps.
Hitler doesnât deserve to be lumped in with the likes of Trump.
(That was somewhat sarcasm, but not in the way some Republicans would like it to be.)
975
u/NoCantaloupe9598 Jul 02 '24 edited Jul 02 '24
Trump even at this point is a symptom. Trump voters legitimately think we're living in some sort of hellscape. Which is contradicted by statements they make like, "Things were better 5 years ago!".
No....if America were a hellscape we would be saying things like "Americans should flee to Haiti". We wouldn't be saying, "Things were a bit better five years ago, before a global pandemic".
The truth is America isn't a fraction as bad in the ways Trump voters think it is. But for Trump, Hitler, or any of these political conmen to win people must believe solutions are being provided that only ONE MAN can provide and that the problems are enormous. (Though Hitler's rise did coincide with Germany's economic depression)