Dear Editor,
“You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.” This quote from Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927-2003), a straight-talking Democrat who served in several Republican administrations, came to mind recently while lining up objective data on the economy with much of its reported polling.
One obvious source of economic angst has been the loss in purchasing power from the post-pandemic surge in global inflation over recent years, which has now fallen back towards more normal levels. This past week, however, the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office (cbo.gov) released a report showing that household incomes have risen faster than prices since 2019.
That finding was true for all income groups.
In addition, the unemployment rate has been below 4% for 27 months (the longest period since 1952), and more than 15 million jobs have been created since Biden took office.
The only economic recovery since World War II that tops the current one was in 1949, making the recovery under the Biden administration the strongest in 72 years. All three of the nation’s foremost stock indexes hit record highs (last) week after the latest data showed inflation is slowing.
And yet, a recent poll found that three-quarters of voters thought the economy was “fair” or “poor.” Why is there this disconnect?
Understandably, the average voter has frustrations. High grocery store prices reflect many adverse global developments. But there are more serious domestic distortions that attract little focus. The pandemic drove corporate greed into overdrive.
Just 10 corporations in this country control most of the food production and distribution. Walmart made $155 billion in profit last year, yet it is laying off workers or forcing them to work fewer hours and paying low wages. The divide between reality and belief highlights just how much the way the media reports events matters.
And the sources we use for information matters. We all have busy lives, and at times do not have the luxury to dig “into the weeds” for the data, but in this day and age we need to, just to be informed voters who will not be gaslighted into voting against our own interests.
Sincerely, Philip Suttle Greensboro