The boots on the ground aren't marching to the beat of the propaganda drum

 

We keep hearing relentless propaganda from the Biden administration and its shills in the mainstream media about how well the US economy is doing.  The Treasury Secretary was the latest to proclaim the official message.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made a robust pitch in the swing state of Nevada on Monday that President Joe Biden's policies are powering historic job growth and rebuilding competitiveness, despite polls showing Americans remain skeptical.

Speaking at a union hall just off the famous Las Vegas strip, Yellen underscored the importance of the climate-focused Inflation Reduction Act, which marks its anniversary on Wednesday, especially in a summer that has made headlines with record heat and climate change-related disasters.

"It’s our nation’s boldest-ever climate action. And it is beginning to spark an economic renaissance in communities that had been left behind," Yellen said at International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 357, after touring a nearby training center where workers learn to work on clean-energy projects.

. . .

"I feel very good about U.S. prospects overall," Yellen told reporters, noting that inflation and the unemployment rate had both dropped below 4%, and that the U.S. economy was continuing to expand.

The U.S. economy has outrun recession warnings with record-low unemployment, strong wage gains and better-than-expected GDP growth, but many voters who backed Biden in 2020 think the economy has fared poorly, and may not vote for him in the 2024 election, a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.

There's more at the link.

That was on Monday.  On the same day, I learned that a number of diners and independent restaurants in our small town are cutting back their hours of operation, because people are spending so much less on eating out than they used to.  Some who worked there are losing hours of work or being laid off altogether, and they don't know whether or when they'll find another job to replace what they've lost.

Yesterday, after taking our car in for a routine lubrication service, we found that we have to spend a couple of thousand dollars on front suspension and steering components.  That's not a surprise - the vehicle has almost 150,000 miles on its odometer - but it was unpleasant from a financial point of view, to put it mildly.  Fortunately, we've built up an emergency fund for such occurrences, and we were able to tell the service center to go ahead with the repairs (compared to the cost of a replacement vehicle, they're trivial!).  They were pleasantly surprised.  According to the service technician with whom I spoke, more and more of their customers are simply unable to afford such repairs, and go into panic mode when confronted with the need for them.  A few, he said, have even abandoned their cars, because they can't pay the cost of getting them into a safe enough condition to drive them away.

When collecting a prescription refill at the pharmacy a couple of days ago, the assistant sounded almost embarrassed when she told me that the co-pay was $50.  I didn't complain, but paid it - and that was an obvious relief to her.  She told me they see more and more older customers like me who can no longer afford their prescription medication, because they don't have enough money to cover the increased co-pays that are becoming common.  Indeed, some have had to stop their medical insurance altogether, because the rates have become so high as to be unaffordable.  The stringent conditions attached to Obamacare prevent them from getting subsidized coverage instead - and it doesn't help that Medicare is not covering a number of the more recently introduced drugs, because of their expense.

There are other signs and symptoms visible all around us, but they all add up to one thing:  ordinary people like you and I are having a harder and harder time making ends meet.  The only way some people are surviving is to cut back on everything except essentials, and even those may be unaffordable some months.

It's all very well for the powers that be to proclaim that the economy's booming.  If you're in receipt of government subsidies or payouts, it may well be - for you.  However, many (most?) of us don't get such largesse funneled into our pockets or bank accounts;  and, for a lot of people like us, things are a whole lot more difficult than the propaganda would have us believe.

How are you finding current economic conditions, dear readers?  I'd love to hear from as many of you as possible, to find out how things are looking "on the ground" where you are.  Please let us know in Comments.

Peter