Have you noticed that the MSM reports the economy is doing well….apparently based on market information not reality….in other words as long as corporations are turning a big profit the people should be happy and compliant.
If all that is true and the economy is going great why is one of the biggest issues in the upcoming election the economic woes we are facing those days?
If the economy is working so well how come child poverty has risen yet again?
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin and congressional Republicans faced fresh backlash on Tuesday after the U.S. Census Bureau released new data showing that the nation’s child poverty rate more than doubled in 2022 compared to the previous year, thanks in large part to the expiration of the boosted Child Tax Credit.
The expanded CTC, an American Rescue Plan (ARP) policy that sent eligible families up to $300 per month for each child and eliminated the original CTC’s regressive phase-in, helped push the U.S. child poverty rate to a record low of 5.2% in 2021.
But the program expired at the end of that year after Manchin (D-W.Va.), who supported the ARP, opposed an extension, baselessly claiming that some parents would use the money on drugs instead of their children. (Survey data showed that most families, including those in West Virginia, used the money to buy food and help with rent, along with other essentials.)
Congressional Republicans, who unanimously opposed the ARP, also rejected calls to support an extension of the boosted CTC, part of a broader pandemic-era safety net that is now collapsing.
The result of the program’s expiration, as predicted, was a devastating surge in child poverty. According to the new Census Bureau data, the child poverty rate rose to 12.4% in 2022—the largest single-year increase on record.
The overall U.S. poverty rate also increased, rising from 7.8% in 2021 to 12.4% last year. More than 37 million people in the U.S. lived in poverty in 2022, the Census Bureau said.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/manchin-child-poverty
No one I talk with seems to hold the belief that the economy is doing good.
How about you?
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
I am not saying that the economy is really bad because I am getting by relatively comfortably, but I will say that it could be doing a helluva lot better because I am getting damned tired of rising prices that do not seem to want to stop rising and The American people aren’t doing a damned thing to hold it in check…We should be boycotting greed everywhere but no, we just roll over and pay the price and think it is an inevitability. That is total bullshit but it is American apathy at its best and I think we are stuck with it until there is a really big recession or depression to wake idiots out of their self-destructive slumber.
The economy problem is a lot more complex and nuanced than just having to pay more for goods and services. There’s an age problem in congress, as in, average age of senators and representatives are well over retirement age. Diane Feinstein should have retired a long time ago, but pushed through to the end and died as a SITTING legislator until 90 years old. Corporate greed can start to be tackled once the ones in the legislature aren’t leaning on corporate mindsets. Comes down to who is voting and who they’re voting for that will impact real change. I don’t subscribe to the “I have to pay because I can’t make a change on my own” ideal that most are falling back on. It’s going to take decades to root out the corruption that Reagonomics started in the 1980’s…..
Dear Andrew — It is so great to have found you again. I have no added you to my favorite blog list on “American Liberal Times” and thank you so much for taking the time to comment today — I appreciate it so very much and what you say is totally on point.
I totally agree. chuq
As long as policy makers work against the majority, the “unwashed masses” – i.e., you and me! – and work to give themselves breaks that enrich themselves and the billionaire class, there will be this contradictory economy news. I am relatively OK, but still feel the price of gas, food, and rent are all going up faster than I and my resources can handle comfortably.
Doug you are right and how does that not make the inflation rate go up….magic numbers I guess chuq
I don’t think any western economy is doing well, except perhaps for some Scandinavian countries. Oil and food prices are high, taxes are high, interest rates are high. The war is still on in Ukraine, so nothing will improve until that changes.
(I managed to get into your post through the Reader)
Best wishes, Pete.
I see that I still am trying to find out what is happening….thanx for the heads up chuq
The GOP is imploding on themselves without any help from the Dems. It’s an amazing thing to witness but also incredibly frightening because those that have nothing to lose do the most insane and illogical things to hold onto power.
And in the end they will screw the rest of us to make their idiotic point. chuq