That’s a really strong point, though it sure looks like a strongly COVID-lagging response, leading me to wonder what % of the US GDP went to companies that were exactly how vertically integrated … post-lockdown?
In other words, has the effect of any post-COVID rise in the degree of vertical integration among large corp’s and/or in economically-substantial industries (eg, healthcare) had a quick or slow response in pricing and profitability?
ETA: we may be getting a bit too OT here. I’ll let this drop, but do find it interesting.
So, I’m not going to say you’re wrong here. There’s a worst-case scenario that’s not nearly as unlikely as many would think. And in fact, I’m contemplating leaving the country. I do think Democrats have a chance to turn the tables in 2026, and at least win back the House. That will make a big difference in my view on whether or not “it’s over.” Also, in 2028, Trump will not be running. To me, the 2026-2028 timeframe is when I’ll feel more comfortable in knowing just how far gone the US is. If Trump-ism remains even in the absence of Trump, then I’m not sure the US can remain a great nation long-term, because we’ll always be in danger of one of our parties exercising authoritarian rule.
I think the key was in the disinflation. It occurred without a recession. That points to supply-chains unsnarling, and not an over-heated economy going through layoffs. When the Fed raised rates, everyone expected an induced recession. When we didn’t get that, the only remaining explanation is supply-chains. The 3 links I provided back that up.
The poorly educated (white) people Trump pretends to love, and who do love him are (dare I say it?) not usually very smart. This creates problems, because computer technology increases the relationship between intelligence and income.
Trump’s cult followers like to blame non whites at home and abroad, Jews (who they do not think are white, although Jewish skin as is light as mine) and liberals for their problems.
The real problem facing the members of the Trump Cult is that the better paying jobs they are able to learn are being replaced by computer technology and automation.
And that dangerously increases political polarization. As intelligent, competent people desert the GOP, we arrive in a situation where the only people capable of doing complicated, mentally demanding jobs well are, almost by definition, Democrats. Which increases the perception of the have-nots that the “elites” running society hold fundamentally different values than they do.
If I may junior-mod a bit, this thread isn’t a Covid-inflation-Bidenomics thread.
I can agree with this. The Democratic Party and DNC spent years warning that a Trump second term would be a massive inferno, but didn’t spend that time actually installing fire hydrants or acquiring fire engines, hoses, firefighter training, etc. to put out that blaze if it did happen.
And when they have the chance to change up some of the moribund geriatric leadership–say in the Oversight Committee–instead of going with somebody younger they go with a septagenarian with esophageal cancer.
Democratic leadership has shown they’re no different from those billionaires who figure they can somehow hide out in a bunker in New Zealand.
The problem with that argument is that democracy and institutions which sustain it are ultimately dependent upon the will of the electorate to support it and remove elected officials who try to undermine it. In this case, the electorate—at least, a substantial plurality of them—decided to set the entire institution on fire and see what happens.
There is nothing that ”The Democratic Party and DNC” could have done in the last four years that a GOP dominated Congress and a Joker-ish president along with a totally compliant Supreme Court couldn’t undo in a fraction of the time.
But not the ones Americans are willing to do at any wages; backbreaking labor in unsanitary and brutal conditions, or taking care of the elderly at shit wages necessary to keep private equity-owned care centers profitable…
This isn’t actually true. There is a lot of construction work that my generation and prior generation did do that immigrants have taken over and undercut. I knew a lot of people that did sheet rocking in their 20s as an example.
Seasonal farm work? Yep, you’re right. But there are jobs currently taken over by “outsiders” and dismissing these jobs is part of why Trump makes hey with the uneducated.
That was then, this is now. The crops just rot in the fields anywhere the racists get their way and drive out “illegal immigrants” (which always includes a lot of people who aren’t immigrants in the first place, just brown).
That’s sort of true. I mean, I know that the money would rather cut off their nose (in the short term) to spite their workers and keep their labour costs low.
But it’s also true that if we really needed the work, and if we really needed the food, we’d do it. My grandfather was a (white, anglophone) migrant laborer in the Depression, hitchhiking from harvest to harvest in the season. There’s a certain point where you no longer have the luxury to refuse work.
It is nearly impossible for contractors to find competent people to show up sober and do sheetrock installation or other ‘menial’ construction tasks, much less skilled carpentry, electrical, tile and hardwood floor installation, et cetera. I did roofing in college in the ‘Nineties and most of the ‘legal’ workers who showed up were stoned as fuck. I’ve also worked with itinerant Mexico workers picking apples who did bang up work for what I assume was the same fraction of minimum wage that I was getting paid as ‘seasonal’ labor. Thank the press to push everyone into getting a four year college degree and tens of thousands of dollars of inescapable student debt whether they wanted to study or not.
We went through this on the last go-round with the orange fuckstick deporting Hispanic laborers, and farmers left fruits and vegetables rotting in the fields because they couldn’t pay ‘American’ workers enough to perform that tedious, back-breaking labor.
