 People need to stop referring to "the economy" when they actually just mean "having a good job that pays the bills" or simply "having a good life where I am thriving." Because when politicians and pundits refer to "the economy" they are talking about the stock market or GDP. For too long we've accepted the lie that those things are correlated, but they aren't. Talking about "the economy" is just gaslighting. Be explicit about what you want from the people in power. 26 comments
@RenewedRebecca Yes, exactly. It's not a "recession" or "inflation" they are just fucking us over to make more money!  @malcircuit I think there needs to be a word other than ‘inflation’ for ‘companies raising prices artificially to get more profits.’ I mean, I have a few words for it, but you know…  @RenewedRebecca @malcircuit Well, this is what one gets in a capitalist so called free enterprise economy. However, a depression or a major recession still is pretty effective in bringing down prices as it did during the Trump era. But he acts like it resulted from something positive he did.  @tmstreet @RenewedRebecca @malcircuit Bringing down prices isn't any good if nobody has any money to take advantage of the reduced prices. Newsflash: You deserve to have a good life regardless of whether or not "the economy" is "doing well." In fact, you deserve a good life *especially* if the economy is shit. @malcircuit@thingy.social  @malcircuit Most of the time if you substitute "rich people's money" for "the economy" in the press or politician speak, it all makes sense. You are 100% correct. @virtualbri @malcircuit When one hears discussions or reporting on the economy, one rarely hears about number of people in poverty or the latest figures on the how more of the gdp and wealth the rich have.  This, all day long. Since the word economy has already been stained by the greedy, we need a new word/phrase to indicate everyone not grossly wealthy. Quality of living, perhaps; but a one word identifier would be better.  Of the various abominations and absurdities of text book and orthodox economics is the use of interest as a way to control economy. Usury, as I prefer to use the term, is wealth distribution. It diverts income from labor, up thru business and into the creditor class. It is also inflation and austerity. Inflation from those who can raise prices and austerity from those who cannot. Usury, profit and the belief human existence can revolve around it is a millennia old social cancer.  @malcircuit Yes! The health of “the economy” (especially GDP) has nothing to do with quality of life. For the vast majority of people, “the economy “ is only relevant when it affects consumer credit card interest rates and nothing seems to make those better, ever. Tell politicians that you want a better quality of life. I’ll bet you can easily come up with five examples of exactly that. @malcircuit To repeat a refrain from Marketplace's Kai Rysdal The Stock Market Is Not The Economy @malcircuit We need a metric that measures: - Can I afford the rent?  @malcircuit Yeah, weakly correlated on average, and frequently strongly negatively correlated, like when me being laid off means the startup can get flipped for big bucks showing low wage bills. @malcircuit Very true. Actually, the markets and the economy are doing great for the wealthiest as I have said for the longest time now, even before signing up here. That's not a reflection upon the rest of US in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, China, Russia or most everywhere in the world. Everyone should keep that in mind. [Apologies for getting a bit academic, but I am an ex-Prof] There is some really good work on the invention of the idea of a single national 'economy' and how this depiction of social life distorts out understanding or politics & economics. The entity 'the economy' as such doesn't exist other than a manifestation of data collection... but it is treated in a reified manner as it it exists & is subject to a unified influence via policy.... its a system not a thing!  @malcircuit @malcircuit someone, I forget who, suggested every time we hear about "the economy" in the media we should imagine they are saying "the billionaires" and it will usually make more sense @malcircuit Saw a post a while ago saying we should replace all instances of "the Economy" with "rich people's yacht money". It works quite well for my brain and puts things into perspective. 😊 |
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@malcircuit And people need to get away from calling an unfair economy a ‘recession’. There’s a specific meaning to that word, and misusing it just makes it easier for the rich & political classes to screw everyone else over.