Even as democracy is at risk — so much so that traditional Republicans like this one are urging everyone to vote blue (and when has that ever happened before?) — the irony is that a ton of things are going right.
And so, as I ended yesterday’s post — “you can’t listen to Kid Rock, watch January 6, and read Picciolini’s warning, and not be deeply concerned” — I promised something brighter today.
To wit:
Investment banker Bill Derrough argues in the Columbus Post Dispatch that It’s time to give Joe Biden his due:
. . . Personal bankruptcy filings are at the lowest levels since 1985. Unemployment is down to 4.6% from nearly 7% when Joe Biden was elected president and average hourly wages are the highest for Americans than they have ever been.
. . . Notwithstanding many naysayers, under President Joe Biden’s administration, the United States economy is not just back on track to tremendous growth, but, thanks to a number of legislative and administrative measures, is on its way to being less trickle down and more bottoms-up. Perhaps the most significant of these so far is the Biden Administration’s infrastructure bill. . . .
And the story will, I think, be even better, when that landmark physical infrastructure bill is joined by its counterpart, the human infrastructure bill, very possibly this coming month.
Together, they will go a long way toward revitalizing our economy — and righting the imbalance that’s grown ever more extreme over the past 40 years.
Namely, the imbalance between ordinary Americans, who have been doing most of the nation’s work . . .
. . . and those at the very top, who have been reaping most of the rewards.
I’m a fan of Jeff Bezos, as I’ve acknowledged before. But would he or anyone dispute that much of his $200 billion net worth derives from the labor of others?
The economic squeeze most Americans find themselves in, that Trump tapped so successfully, is brutal. Voters have every reason to be frustrated and angry. But the culprit are not Jews or blacks or asylum seekers hoping to pick our tomatoes. The culprit is a party whose signal achievement in recent decades has been lowering taxes on the very rich while blocking progress, wherever it can, for everyone else. The culprit is not Benghazi, that consumed so much of their attention, but the oil-industry-inspired invasion of Iraq — on the drawing board before 9/11 — that wound up costing us trillions.
And no, these two infrastructure bills will not meaningfully prolong or amp up inflation.
It’s a singularly strange time. So much to be worried about — and so much to be hopeful for.
