Too bad prices are up 20% on average since 2020, and aren't coming back down. That the 2023-2024 inflation rate is only 3% doesn't matter when wages never caught up with the giant price jumps from the pandemic.
Prices have risen 20.8% since the pandemic-induced recession began in February 2020, with just 6% of the nearly 400 items the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks cheaper today.
That’s well above the historic average for a four-year period. For comparison, inflation rose 18.9 percent in the 2010s, 28.4 percent in the 2000s and 32.4 percent in the 1990s.
wages never caught up with the giant price jumps from the pandemic
I’m gonna have to go ahead and sorta disagree with you there
I was gonna link you to wage numbers or find something in my post, but it’s actually right there in your link, in the quote from Mark Hamrick. “ Will consumers suddenly feel relieved from the burden of elevated prices? No. But they are supported by a still robust job market that supports employment and wage gains rising above the recent pace of inflation.”
Hm - I interpreted "recent" as one way, but yeah, that's fair, you could interpret "recent" as him meaning the last year or something. Here's a summary, then, of how wages at the bottom end have kept pace with inflation over the last few years. "Real wages of low-wage workers grew 12.1% between 2019 and 2023." Cumulative inflation over that time span has been about 18% (which is massive), but low-end wages in current dollars also grew by 35% cumulatively in that time, well outpacing inflation.
What numbers are you looking at that say low income wages haven't kept pace with inflation? Like what kind of cumulative current-dollar wages, and what cumulative inflation, are you claiming? If my stuff is propaganda numbers, then what are the real numbers?
Inflation-adjusted wages have ticked very slightly down at the median (like a few percent), gone down a bit at the top end, and gone up significantly both at the bottom end and in the average. It's a complex topic and you can find a variety of numbers both on the income and inflation sides, but they generally all paint that same story (which is, itself, complex enough that you can paint a bunch of different narratives from it, by putting up the numbers for average vs. median vs. lowest-quartile or etc).
Not to be rude, but do you even read your own sources?
Wage rates remain insufficient for individuals and families working to make ends meet. Nowhere can a worker at the 10th percentile of the wage distribution earn enough to meet a basic family budget.
It's literally at the top of your article, under "Key Findings", probably because they knew that it's easy to misunderstand statistical data, or to claim it says what you want it to.
So the percentiles you are talking about still cannot keep their heads above water, despite the growth of wages in many of their jobs, and the other percentiles haven't seen that level of wage growth, or have even lost ground to inflation, but you're over here going, "I've got great news for you, you're actually not in a bad financial position, stop taking your actual lived experiences over my big numbers!"
I mean, sure. 🙂 I was trying to consolidate comments into a single stream of conversation since it's already sort of turning into a bickering sprawl, but if you'd like to reply to it here instead of there, then I'm fine with that too:
Yes, lower income people in this country are still fucked. If anything I was saying made it sound like I thought they were not, that was not the intent. My point was that Biden has been helping them get out of it, to a certain degree, in a way that's actually very unusual for an American president (they generally don't give a shit about the working class). And that happened even during a historic level of economic challenge to tackle his way out of. And therefore that attacking him by pretending that the opposite is happening is erroneous at best and openly dishonest at worst.
Dude if you have a disagreement with the article, let's have it. You tried to disagree with it in economic terms and it seems to me like you got tripped up on basic understanding of inflation-adjusted dollars versus non-inflation-adjusted dollars, which is why you're recasting the whole thing in emotional terms like "not some kind of economic saviour," but this new framing doesn't leave a lot to actually discuss. It just takes it into the realm of bickering and fact free opinion judgements.
The majority of people in the country believe that Trump is better on the economy than Biden, even though Trump is a fuckin trade war starting PPP fraud factory closing disaster. The idea that Biden is hurting the economy is not just un-heard-of, it is a majority view, which makes worthwhile a factual discussion of whether or not it is true.
The last article I posted before this morning that dealt with Biden in any capacity was almost a month ago. The thing about me posting article after article you are literally just making up. Comments, I post a lot of.
The article is a little bit explicitly "rah-rah Biden," I'll grant you that. On the other hand, if it's true, then that's legit, and I haven't really seen anything to illustrate that it might not be true other than a pretty large amount of obfuscation in the comments arguing other points that have more convenient answers (like "are low income workers doing okay yet" which they are not).
My disagreement with the post's article is that it is conflating the stock market with the economy, and the financial news sector is pushing this narrative very hard, or even saying it openly.
My issues with the article you linked about wages, in the comments, is that you're omissively citing bits and pieces to different people in order to support the idea that the economy is doing well, as the post article claims, when the post article is really about the stock market, not wages or living standards.
If the wage growth at the bottom 10th percentile doesn't mean they're not fucked, why would you even cite it?
The article talks about "growth" which is presumably GDP, which is a bullshit metric absolutely, but the overall context is:
The growth rate is high, the unemployment rate is at historic lows, household wealth is surging, and wages are rising faster than costs, especially for the working class. There are many ways to define a good economy. America is in tremendous shape according to just about any of them.
The stock market is based on total crap and can swing up or down by like tens of percents on a whim for literally no reason at all. The only reason stock market even got mentioned tangentially was because Trump said something about the stock market, and they mentioned that at the end of the article.
IDK why I've spent so much time on this. Honestly man it seems like you're literally just saying anything, casting about for some thing you can poo poo or disagree with that has nothing to do with what I or the article are saying.
The bottom 10th percentile covers people making less than $22,880, according to BLS.
That firmly excludes the median mode of American households, by wages. The vast majority of Americans were not helped by that number. Is it good that it happened? Yeah, absolutely. It wasn't Biden though. And it isn't most Americans. And it isn't the economy as a whole.
Not sure what that has to do with the potential for shenanigans given the public news of a sentencing date being 4 days before the nominating convention, but ok.
Far be it from me to defend YouTube “prank” creators, but for all people talk about “responsible gun ownership”, this person was clearly not responsible and should be forever prohibited from owning a gun. If you were in no way touched or threatened, how the fuck can you justify discharging your firearm in a public place?
I first heard this trial while I was still on reddit and I was sickened by the comments there. Most people seemed to feel that the shooting was fully justified and that they’d wish the shot had been fatal. A site that claimed to be progressive was openly arguing for escalation and killing. Just because the person is a shitty prankster.
Of course, I don’t know the full details of the case, but I find it so difficult to sympathize with the shooter here. They had options, but instead chose to pick the deadly last resort. They could have run or even pulled out the gun as a deterrent if they were really desperate, but instead jumped to lethal measures.
Afaik that’s actually illegal. You don’t brandish a firearm unless you’re ready to shoot someone. Additionally, I’d highly recommend looking more into the case. The short of it is that their “prank” was shoving a phone into his face that played, “hey dipshit, stop thinking about my twinkle” repeatedly. He told them to stop repeatedly and tried to push the phone away, but they continued to push it into his face.
Furthermore, keep in mind that the US is going fucking insane. We have public demonstrations by neo-nazis. The KKK’s membership is increasing and klansmen have been seen waving their membership cards at pride parades. Now, I don’t really know what was going through the shooter’s head, but personally? Personally I wouldn’t roll the dice and bet that someone who’s shoved a phone into my face saying, “stop thinking about my twinkle” and won’t back off when I tell them to isn’t about to murder me because they think I’m gay.
Pulling a gun as a deterrent, would be “threatening with the use of deadly force”… which could be legal if you were being equally “threatened with the use of deadly force” against you.
someone who’s shoved a phone into my face saying, “stop thinking about my twinkle” and won’t back off when I tell them to isn’t about to murder me because they think I’m gay.
IANAL, but I think… that would require a jury to decide. If you (or rather your lawyer) convinced them that you saw it as being threatened with the use of deadly force, then brandishing a weapon as a response could possibly be seen as fair and legal.
If the report is accurate, there’s absolutely no way a reasonable person could see that level of force as justifiable. You walk the fuck away, you go to security, or if none of that works, you call the cops. Imagine thinking that possibly taking someone’s life is a reasonable response to them waving a phone in your face and making pretty soft insults.
He’s not a victim, he’s a snowflake that responded to someone being an asshole with deadly force. His life was never in danger. If you believe this was justifiable self-defense, you’re a fucking sociopath.
Spare me the fake offense. I’d wager my house that if this didn’t involve a gun, and this dipshit prankster posted a video of him harassing this guy and the guy getting upset, you’d be calling the shooter a pussy and laughing at him. But the second a gun is involved the 2A jerkoffs begin Olympic level mental gymnastics to justify the most ridiculous bullshit. Miss me with your bad faith bullshit.
If you were in no way touched or threatened, how the fuck can you justify discharging your firearm in a public place?
U fukken wot M8? He shoved a phone into the guy’s face that repeated the phrase, “Hey dipshit, quit thinking about my twinkle” and when the guy told him to stop, repeatedly and tried to push the phone away, the guy kept egging him on. That’s a threat at that point. If someone is making you feel like you might be in danger, that’s a threat. It doesn’t matter their intent, if they’re making you feel threatened, then they are threatening you.
He was carrying a gun because he’d read about delivery drivers getting robbed, and even if that wasn’t why he was carrying a gun, I’d still be on his side. Someone who’s planning to jump you isn’t going to be nice and spell it out for you. Combine that with an insane rise in anti-lgbt violence and a phone shoved in your face playing, “quit thinking about my twinkle” and I’d 100% believe that I might be about to get killed by some neo-nazi bigot because they’ve decided I’m gay and need to be “taught a lesson”. And yeah it was in public, but considering neo-nazis in the US have been holding public demonstrations recently, the last thing I’d want to do is bet on them not having the balls to murder me in public.
Is that what was going through his head before he shot the guy? No idea, but sorry, the US has gone completely fucking nuts and there are too many assholes with murderous intent to be willing to roll the dice when someone gets in my face and won’t fuck off. They had plenty of chances to disengage and decided not to. If they’d stopped when he said, “stop” then I’d be a lot more sympathetic; but they didn’t. They kept pushing.
If they’d stopped when he said, “stop” then I’d be a lot more sympathetic
The prank guy got what he was looking for… but there is a problem: they were not out in the desert, they were inside a mall full of other people. You shouldn’t go “pew-pew” when every shot you miss can hit an innocent bystander.
Heck, even a shot that you don’t miss, can go all the way through and hit someone totally innocent on the other side.
You shouldn’t go “pew-pew” when every shot you miss can hit an innocent bystander.
Heck, even a shot that you don’t miss, can go all the way through and hit someone totally innocent on the other side.
You seem like someone who has absolutely no understanding of firearms and ballistics.
Assuming one follows the rules of firearm safety, including know your target and what is beyond your target, there’s no risk to bystanders. This person was clearly not firing wildly. This was a 9mm from a short barrel - there’s no real danger of over penetration.
9mm can penetrate well into human flesh and beyond, there is a always a risk of that bullet flying out and hitting someone else which I highly doubt this guy took into consideration in the moment.
Nevertheless, I agree with the charges. Not guilty for defending himself but guilty of firing in an occupied dwelling.
9mm can penetrate well into human flesh and beyond
So can .22lr - that didn’t mean it’s probable or likely. Even FMJ aren’t likely to over-penetration a center mass hit, and once more, so long as one is observing the rules of firearm safety, even over-penetration is meaningless.
Given the restraint shown, I have no reason to doubt the person took this into consideration.
It’s both very probably and likely. Watch some penetration tests on YouTube and see that 9mm has plenty of energy to rush through someone and continue going. This is true for 9mm FMJ and hollow points.
I’m well aware of the ballistics; that over-penetration depends on incredible assumptions. Try the ballistic dummy tests for a better representation as the factor in the bone. The human body is more than gelatin.
I suggest you watch some videos because you’re wrong. Garand thumb has a great video that shows exactly what we’re talking about and all of the 9mm rounds went through the ballistic dummies including through bone and continued past its target.
I have to suggest you take your own advice and, once more, highlight the absurdity of your position in baseless “lol no ur wrong”.
You’re right that Garand Thumb has great videos. You’re wrong that FMJ universally goes through human-form ballistic dummies. It can, sure. Is guaranteed to? Far from it. You seem to be pointedly ignoring the assumptions necessary for you to make such a ridiculous generalization.
Edit: had you mixed up with a troll; removed the irrelevant parts.
Lmao. Ok dude. I can’t take you seriously. I provided a source for my claims and they completely contradict what you’re claiming. You’ve yet to provide any proof for your position. I’m going to assume you’re trolling at this point.
As a lifelong gun owner, you clearly have no understanding of how firearms work and should probably seek out a firearm safety course if you own guns. Please stop spreading dangerous misinformation about firearms. The shit that just came out of your mouth would never be said by a responsible gun owner.
A responsible gun owner always errs on the side of caution. They know that discharging their weapon is an absolute last resort. They also know how loud a 9mm is when fired in an enclosed space, and that even if miraculously in a shopping mall there was no one down range of his shot, it very likely damaged the hearing of nearby bystanders.
Ah, the as an [x] / how do you do, fellow kids trope.
As a lifelong gun owner, you clearly have no understanding of how firearms work and should probably seek out a firearm safety course if you own guns. Please stop spreading dangerous misinformation about firearms. The shit that just came out of your mouth would never be said by a responsible gun owner.
Given my direct reference to one of the rules of firearm safety - one which agrees with your point of err on the side of caution - I’m interested in how you jump from erring on the side of caution to criticizing a victim for erring on the side of caution in defending themselves.
Feel free to highlight how anything here - in this individual’s situation or otherwise - is dangerous misinformation. Take all the time you need to support such a position.
A responsible gun owner always errs on the side of caution. They know that discharging their weapon is an absolute last resort.
And, as shown by both the video, the arguments in court, and the jury’s ruling, this person acted perfectly in-line with such. And, as highlighted, the individual gave due consideration to the shot taken.
They also know how loud a 9mm is when fired in an enclosed space, and that even if miraculously in a shopping mall there was no one down range of his shot, it very likely damaged the hearing of nearby bystanders.
You seem to be talking entirely to baseless hypotheticals, to the complete neglect of the situation at hand. This, entirely aside from quibbling about loud noises when one justifiably defends oneself complete with respect to duty to retreat.
Im pointing out how absurd of a claim it is that small rounds run no risk of over penetration. Feel free to go find sources on no human over penetration, though you’ll find that even .22 pistols have been found to overpenetrate.
It’s funny how much of a thrashing you’re getting for spreading this misinformation. Hopefully you consider it before the next, or first, time you pick up a gun.
Im pointing out how absurd of a claim it is that small rounds run no risk of over penetration.
Oh, so you’re addressing something other than was actually stated?
You might want to revisit what I had actually said. Run no risk? Hardly.
It’s funny how much of a thrashing you’re getting for spreading this misinformation. Hopefully you consider it before the next, or first, time you pick up a gun.
I’m not sure I’d consider a handful of randos making absurd, baseless claims to be a thrashing - one could call it dogpiling, sure. Thrashing implies some sort of beatdown, though… and all you’ve brought is nonsense. If you’d been able to back up that misinformation nonsense in any way - say, by addressing and refuting points made - you may have had a point.
So you agree he shouldn’t ever have a gun again, and probably shouldn’t have had one to begin with. Glad we got to the same result through a different path.
If someone is making you feel like you might be in danger, that’s a threat. It doesn’t matter their intent
That’s a risible argument. The standard is what a “reasonable person” considers dangerous.
Whether an action is criminal can’t be based on each individual’s personal opinion of their own behavior. The perpetrator believing that they are right does not make it legal.
Yes, and in this case the jury decided that a reasonable person in like circumstances could have felt threatened to the point where they feared imminent bodily harm, thus justifying the self defense
I’m trans and living in the south. I have a very good reason to be afraid for my life. You’re looking at this with the benefit of hindsight. You know it was a harmless “”“prank”“” but can you really tell me that if someone came up to you looking like this (supposedly that’s a picture of them right before the shooting happened) and started harassing you without stopping when you try to push them away, that you wouldn’t be scared too?
He tried to disengage but they didn’t let him. That’s fucking terrifying when you don’t know what is going through the other person’s head.
Edit: to explain why me being trans is relevant: I’m putting myself in his shoes. I’m pretending I’m a delivery driver, I have a gun for self-defense, I show up to deliver something and two guys who are taller than I am start harassing me while playing a sound clip that mimics the kinds of phrases homophobes yell before beating the shit out of someone. You’re damn right I’m going to shoot them. I don’t know if they’re white supremacists or a dumbass “prank” YouTuber, but from my perspective, the risk is that if I guess wrong then I’ll probably be in the hospital with significant medical bills or dead.
Comments about this case are always wild, you can tell what commenters are American from the argument always being the same gist of “People in America are crazy bro! I wouldn’t risk NOT shooting either”. This country is so fucked we have fast food delivery drivers carrying pistols on them for safety and unloading on some obnoxious asshole blaring stupid bullshit in their ear, and people will hear that and think “Honestly a very fair and measured response IMO”. Worse part is those comments aren’t even entirely wrong! We are NOT doing okay over here y’all lmao
If only incidents like this put a stop to all the annoying “pranks” on YouTube and the people that make bank off them. How many more moronic pranksters have to be seriously hurt before they realize they should stop, or at the very least stage the videos with some friends or some people you pay on Craigslist? It’s not like the 12 year olds watching are gonna be able to tell the difference anyways.
In later interviews, this guy says he’s gonna keep doing these “pranks”. Getting shot won’t even stop him, so there’s no hope that it’d stop potential copycats.
Really hope that her trial will find her not guilty. I’d have a hard time imagining a jury would condemn a teenager for driving her mother to the hospital for an emergency.
Frankly I don’t like the “but we could be spending this better at home” argument because the people making that argument invariably would refuse to actually do so, and instead just give out another tax cut.
That money would never end up going in to a single payer healthcare system, SNAP, education or building out more sustainable infrastructure. We don’t do these things not because we don’t have the money for it, we don’t do these things because they would undermine the influence of large financial and corporate interests.
There is a much better argument to not fund Israel, and it is that they’re attempting to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip, have flaunted all of the treaties and agreements they made for near on 20 years, and they’re current leadership was undemocratically put in power.
Because Ukraine is generally a fairly popular foreign ally with little mainstream controversy around supporting them. So if you wanted to undermine support for them, easier to knee cap support for the bill from the other direction.
I don’t know: Does that framing take away from the international law argument? How long has that argument been in play and how has that worked so far? It’s a powerful framing in that it illustrates the power that money being used to fuel hate could instead have for some semblance of good. Even if it’s impractical among today’s US elected officials. Also, arguments like this are how to get negotiation leverage. In general in this political climate, while we might want to be prepared to compromise I challenge the wisdom of leading with a compromise. I say different strategies need to be tried until something sticks.
The framing is a poor one, it is built on a fundamental lie about how money works in the US government. It’s a very weak framing that only ever convinces people who already wanted to defund a foreign effort. More importantly, most of this bill isn’t tied to Israel, it’s tied to other efforts like Ukraine, so really what this is arguing for is to stop supporting Ukraine. Most of the funding for Israel comes through other channels.
So to support this framing is to just undermine support for Ukraine and do little to stop Israel. Support for Ukraine is non-negotiable.
Can you elaborate on what specifically the “lie” is? The logical side of me takes the words “truth”, “fact”, and “lie” very seriously, and I worry that we too often use them to express a point of view including pragmatism. I’m genuinely curious!
High-fiving each other in front of a cheering audience when asked if they’d been arrested. Party of law and order, everyone. A sprinkle of personal responsibility in there too.
It’s fine to be proud of being arrested for doing something you believe in. Like getting arrested for sitting at a Woolworths counter to protest segregation.
It’s an entirely different thing to be proud that you got arrested for failing to show up in court or for drunk driving.
I’m not arguing the finer points of when going against law and order is good or bad, I’m pointing out that they’re hypocrites to their professed ideals of being lawful
They are the party of hypocrisy and bigotry, it’s that simple.
Everything they claim they are, they do the opposite of.
Everything they rail against, they do in private with practiced ease.
The fact that they have the power they do proves that humanity in general is not rational or logical and we really need to stop pretending that everyone is.
“privately run immigration detention center” are words that should never be grouped in that order.
And if government officials are being denied entry, there is only one logical conclusion to that scenario, and it involves prison time for the people blocking the way, unless you’re saying you have no power over your own state.
Every time I see “company defies government, government rolls over and takes it” I get pushed ever closer to that guillotine lever.
Very happy with how Engoron’s been handling the case. He’s not done anything unceremoniously harsh, but has been very firm in how his court will be conducted. I’m glad to see it after 3 years of judges treating Trump with tender care.
Target has one of the most comprehensive shoplifter detection systems in place. It rivals law enforcement in its ability to track thieves across all their stores.
I don’t believe the claim of shrink being the issue. There’s virtually no way it’s the root cause.
Walgreens tried to do the same thing (close stores and blame shrinkage) and even walked it back later (and that's not even pointing out they had an SEC filing a couple years before where they planned on closing 200 stores).
True that! It’s ironic how they think they’re the “Lord’s Army”, when if we used their own obsession with Revelations as a comparison they’re clearly the false christians worshiping their false prophet that’s preaching the prosperity gospel, and following their anti-christ leader Trump.
Now they’re just waiting for their Third Temple so Jesus can reappear, completely oblivious to the fact that if they ever got their deluded wish they’d immediately just try to lynch him for being a “woke” liberal. Or that he’s supposedly supposed to come back “like a lion” instead of “like a lamb”, which I take to mean he theoretically wouldn’t be as gentle the second time as he was his first time around. And they’re specifically blaspheming in his name. It’s just dumb at every level, even if you do believe in the Bible’s teachings literally.
That these people think they are “in Christ” is a massive act of self-delusion. There is nothing Christ-like, or even godly, about their speech or behavior, even judging by the books they hold sacred.
So what they’re saying is the law only applies to Christians? Satanists are plenty happy with abortions and contraceptives, surely they’d get a pass if their religious texts encourage it.
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