President Joe Biden goes into next year’s election with a vexing challenge: Just as the U.S. economy is getting stronger, people are still feeling horrible about it.
Pollsters and economists say there has never been as wide a gap between the underlying health of the economy and public perception. The divergence could be a decisive factor in whether the Democrat secures a second term next year. Republicans are seizing on the dissatisfaction to skewer Biden, while the White House is finding less success as it tries to highlight economic progress.
“Things are getting better and people think things are going to get worse — and that’s the most dangerous piece of this," said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, who has worked with Biden. Lake said voters no longer want to just see inflation rates fall — rather, they want an outright decline in prices, something that last happened on a large scale during the Great Depression.
“Honestly, I’m kind of mystified by it,” she said.
First off, if what you are describing is based on personal experiences, then I am truly sorry that it happened to you. Secondly, what you say about victim blaming doesn’t sit well with me. I feel nothing but rage towards the companies that would steal wages from their employees. My girlfriend in a past life worked at small-town Frisch’s that regularly took advantage of their employees. They weren’t just stiffing them on compensation for inadequate tips, they also constantly told them they had to clock out at closing time and clean up after. I hope their management rots in hell. After all, they did this just to save a few bucks for their regional restaurant chain while screwing over their own team.
My point, which I admit, was better articulated in other strings of this post, is that saying $2.13/hour is the tipping minimum wage is absolutely unacceptable. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 for everyone. If you are a tipped employee who is not making $7.25/hour after tips, your employer is stealing from you. Everyone deserves to know this, and by repeating the incorrect claim that $2.13 is somehow legally acceptable, it normalizes behavior like the theft against someone whom I had a close relationship with.
I understand that sometimes the system doesn’t work as intended. I wish this wasn’t the case, but what you say about groups of employees winning anything against their abusive employers gives me hope. These employers don’t deserve to get away with it. However, when you say that the majority of restaurants fail within a year and the vast majority is closed within 5 years, it sounds like an argument that this behavior is somehow necessary for their survival. I don’t agree with that. I believe that any company who cannot adequately compensate their employees, should not be in business. Everyone is entitled to a fair wage (but seriously, a $7.25 minimum wage is not enough to live off).