Americans have had 50 years of “progress” where all the great things Democrats say they do don’t seem to help. Technocratic improvements and even material improvements don’t even register with people anymore. Voters (regardless of what they might say) want transformative change. Forgiving some student loans is good, but free college is transformative.
Republicans offer transformative change. In the absence of anything on offer from the Democrats, the culture moves right. 50 years later and here we are.
Really? I think you might be the only one that doesn’t see the decline. I’ve been making these points for years, and I’ve never had to defend the notion that things have gotten worse for workers. Sure, there are specific things tht have improved, but not the whole. Even a lot of the big improvements like the ACA have made the economic picture worse overall.
Union membership in 1975 was around 25% compared to 10% today. Wealth inequality has absolutely exploded, as has the percentage of Americans living paycheck to paycheck. Personal debt has also exploded. People used to borrow to buy a house. Then they started borrowing to buy a car. Then they started paying for college with debt. Now people are financing their groceries.
By every relevant measure, economic outlooks for everyone but the wealthy have crashed in the past 50 years, and Democratic solutions have done dick to stop it. In many cases it was even Democrats making things worse.
Even if there were a magic politician who did everything right, people would still saying “oh things feels worse because x y and z stats have declined”. Things can decline and progress at the same time. The average american has access to far more luxury than ever before. Some things have gotten worse, of course no one would deny that but I think on average things have improved and if we were talking about this pre covid i’d probably be extremely optimistic.
Even if there were a magic politician who did everything right…
And even an apologist for Adolf Hitler might fall back to this vibe based argument.
Things can decline and progress at the same time.
Which is explicitly in my comment that you replied to.
The average american has access to far more luxury than ever before.
TVs are thinner (and cheaper), computers are faster and fit in your pocket. Technology moved forward, and you could even try to wrangle that into an argument for capitalism. (Which I would reject, but the bones of the argument are at least there). How you tie that to anything Democrats have done, I have no idea.
but I think on average things have improved
And you are delusional. Many things have gone well for some people, and some things have even gone well for almost everyone. That doesn’t change the fact that the vast majority of working Americans are in way worse shape than they were 50 years ago.
You haven’t wrestled with any of the facts above, but here are some more. The average personal savings rate in 1975 was over 12% and today it’s below 6%. Nearly half of American households today have no retirement savings at all. Appliances now last less than half as long as they did in 1975. Jobs are far less secure than in 1975. Educational requirements are far higher than in 1975. College costs are way higher, as are medical costs - even for those with insurance. Even streaming media has been enshitified to where cable TV was cheaper and more convenient.
These are the kind of conditions that reliably turn neoliberalism into fascism.
Americans have had 50 years of “progress” where all the great things Democrats say they do don’t seem to help. Technocratic improvements and even material improvements don’t even register with people anymore. Voters (regardless of what they might say) want transformative change. Forgiving some student loans is good, but free college is transformative.
Republicans offer transformative change. In the absence of anything on offer from the Democrats, the culture moves right. 50 years later and here we are.
Seriously, you think there has been no progress over the past 50 years? Theres a million things i could point to that suggest otherwise.
Really? I think you might be the only one that doesn’t see the decline. I’ve been making these points for years, and I’ve never had to defend the notion that things have gotten worse for workers. Sure, there are specific things tht have improved, but not the whole. Even a lot of the big improvements like the ACA have made the economic picture worse overall.
Union membership in 1975 was around 25% compared to 10% today. Wealth inequality has absolutely exploded, as has the percentage of Americans living paycheck to paycheck. Personal debt has also exploded. People used to borrow to buy a house. Then they started borrowing to buy a car. Then they started paying for college with debt. Now people are financing their groceries.
By every relevant measure, economic outlooks for everyone but the wealthy have crashed in the past 50 years, and Democratic solutions have done dick to stop it. In many cases it was even Democrats making things worse.
Even if there were a magic politician who did everything right, people would still saying “oh things feels worse because x y and z stats have declined”. Things can decline and progress at the same time. The average american has access to far more luxury than ever before. Some things have gotten worse, of course no one would deny that but I think on average things have improved and if we were talking about this pre covid i’d probably be extremely optimistic.
And even an apologist for Adolf Hitler might fall back to this vibe based argument.
Which is explicitly in my comment that you replied to.
TVs are thinner (and cheaper), computers are faster and fit in your pocket. Technology moved forward, and you could even try to wrangle that into an argument for capitalism. (Which I would reject, but the bones of the argument are at least there). How you tie that to anything Democrats have done, I have no idea.
And you are delusional. Many things have gone well for some people, and some things have even gone well for almost everyone. That doesn’t change the fact that the vast majority of working Americans are in way worse shape than they were 50 years ago.
You haven’t wrestled with any of the facts above, but here are some more. The average personal savings rate in 1975 was over 12% and today it’s below 6%. Nearly half of American households today have no retirement savings at all. Appliances now last less than half as long as they did in 1975. Jobs are far less secure than in 1975. Educational requirements are far higher than in 1975. College costs are way higher, as are medical costs - even for those with insurance. Even streaming media has been enshitified to where cable TV was cheaper and more convenient.
These are the kind of conditions that reliably turn neoliberalism into fascism.