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But what is the response that works? Average: I can't afford groceries at the store. Inflation sucks. Response: Well, inflation plays a part, but grocery stor

But what is the response that works? Average: I can't afford groceries at the store. Inflation sucks. Response: Well, inflation plays a part, but grocery stores are still recording record profits despite inflation. Average: Are you suggesting grocery stores shouldn't make as much money as they can? Free market hater! Communist!

spankalee 2y ago
I think there are two things: 1. Try the Trump/populist playbook on the topic: identify the problem, empathize, be mad, let them vent, but don't really focus on a solution. 2. Advocate austerity as a solution to inflation. Might be less economically ideal, but more politically viable. edit to add: iow, Harris and other Dems could have thrown Biden under the bus a bit to try to avoid some of the blame. It's cold, and Biden directed an actually decent response to the supply-shock-driven inflation, but it'd be a kind of shrewdness like getting Biden to drop out that might have helped.
- UncleOxidant 2y ago
  > Try the Trump/populist playbook on the topic: identify the problem, And ideally put the blame on people who don't have any/much political or economic power within the country, like immigrants. Us vs them. "If we just get rid of 'them' everything will be fine"
pie_flavor 2y ago
There isn't, really. Inflation is irredeemable and you just have to be overwhelmingly better in other aspects, which she wasn't. The solution is to not have allowed it to happen in the first place.
- spankalee 2y ago
  > The solution is to not have allowed it to happen in the first place. How, exactly? The biggest causes of inflation were stimulus, supply-shock, and housing prices. Stimulus started under Trump and was the correct response to COVID. Without it we would have had even worse economic suffering that we did. Inflation was the lesser-of-two-evils. The supply shock was global, and there probably wasn't much to do about it, besides maybe some more supply-side stimulus. Housing is just a shit-show, but people have been grinding to get more built to address the problems for years. But stimulus was the thing that could have been changed the most, yet it kept us from having a much, much worse recession.
  - mistermann 2y ago
    Perhaps the operating system we use (and worship, and tell lies and untruths about, etc) is not bug free.
ComplexSystems 2y ago
Well, for starters, a response that would have worked won't involve both of these contradictory positions at the same time: Position 1: Prices can never go down again unless inflation is negative and we get "deflation." Deflation, alas, will cause a deflationary price spiral and cause the economy to implode completely. Why? Well, reasons. Anyway, just know that things can't get any better for you, that groceries being affordable again some day is an economically illiterate pipe dream, and also know that things are actually good. Position 2: Also, we'll just force stores to lower prices. Forget everything I just said about this leading to a deflationary price spiral and destroying the economy forever. Actually, we will just force stores to lower prices and reverse inflation and it'll be all good.
- EricDeb 2y ago
  The best solution imo would have been 1. to run a candidate not associated with Biden. 2. To say "inflation happened globally" and double and triple down on that. Half baked solutions like you're suggesting from someone associated with Biden + gaslighting the public that its not that bad were not the answers people wanted.
- carom 2y ago
  More reasonable would be to explain the grocery prices will likely never come back down but we can increase workers' wages through certain policies. Biden's policy of opening the border to undocumented labor is not a policy that I believe will help increase the wages of those concerned about the cost of groceries.
  - Izikiel43 2y ago
    It could lower cost by having cheap labor, but only if that labor was AG focused, otherwise it's a race to the bottom for other jobs.
    - throwaway48476 2y ago
      Ag is waiting to wages to rise for investment in automation to become profitable.
burningChrome 2y ago
You know what doesn't work? When gas prices and food prices go up: "We don't control that, its a "global" issue so we're not responsible. When gas prices and food prices go down: "See everybody! Look! Our economic policies ARE working! You just have to trust us!" This all we heard the entire four years Biden was in office. People are not stupid. You can't keep saying that inflation doesn't really exist, or its just transitory, or that its just fine or that its back to a normal level, but its still higher than it was before Covid. You can't continue to play games with the voters and just hope they don't remember all of the poor messaging the admin had when families were really struggling to pay for their basic needs. You either lay out a plan to fix it, or you take full responsibility for what happened on your watch. Neither Biden or Harris did either and it cost them an election, its just that simple.
- michaelmrose 2y ago
  There isn't a way to fix it and they actually aren't responsible. Taking fake responsibility would imply fault and suggest that voters ought to switch sides to the party which actually mismanaged the covid response which is absolutely nonsensical.
  - theGnuMe 2y ago
    In 4 years, Trump "inflation not my fault, not the tariffs no..."
  - burningChrome 2y ago
    >> There isn't a way to fix it and they actually aren't responsible. "Google, how do you fix inflation?" We know inflation is the consequence of many factors, but it can be controlled by different entities at each stage. The two groups most instrumental in the fight against inflation are The Federal Reserve and the government. The Fed using interest rate increases to make lending and investing more expensive is an example of monetary policy. The Fed misread warnings in the spring of 2021 when it was clear to some that inflation was spreading. The Fed argued that inflation would be transitory and that it resulted from unusual circumstances, ranging from supply chain issues related to the abnormal demand that came from the end of the pandemic. The government can use fiscal policy to fix inflation by increasing taxes or cutting spending. Increasing taxes leads to decreased individual demand and a reduction in the supply of money in the economy. As you can imagine, fiscal policy isn’t very popular because raising taxes is a difficult political move. The last thing that we want to hear when inflation is rising is that our taxes will also increase. The government could use other fiscal policies to lower inflationary pressures. If Congress were to limit pandemic relief spending and focus on not making the deficit worse, that would assist in reducing inflation. So no, there absolutely is ways to fix it and they 100% were responsible for it. The problem is when you constantly act like there isn't a problem, by the time they realized they had to fix it? It meant the cure is going to be worse than the disease - usually in the form of either cooling off the economy with interest rate hikes, or pushing the economy into a recession or increasing taxes or gasp cutting spending. This is not graduate level economics we're talking here - its pretty common knowledge stuff. But if you say Biden wasn't responsible for the inflation on his watch, then by your logic you would have to excuse every president who had a poor economy because "its not their fault" and "there's no way to fix it." Unfortunately, most people (like myself) know that's a load of poppycock and voted accordingly.
phtrivier 2y ago
The response should have been : "You're right, prices are too high, and wages too low. Especially housing prices, and wages for young men without a college degree. It's in part the consequences of some things we did. Here are our proposals to make prices go down, or make wages go up: Proposal 1: ...." My deep belief is that the hard part, and the reason Democrats did not do that, is not in the difficulty to find solution. The hardest part is that it meant recognizing they were, at least in part, responsible for the problem. The second hardest part was recognizing that the problem was hurting a category of people that's "outside of the tribe". So, faced with a complex problem, they decided to deny the problem existed altogether, focussed on something else (not necessarily unworthy issues, but, simply, not the one at hand.) "Ventre affamé n'a point d'oreille." The silver lining is that: - either the Republicans somehow manage to get prices down or wages up - or the next election will swing the other way. It's still, after all, no matter what, "the economy, stupid" - just, the real economy, no the the fake financial one.
- phtrivier 2y ago
  Also, it's striking that one of the problems on which the Democratic Party focussed did win in the ballot : if I read it correctly, in most of the places where women's reproductive rights were on the ballots, the position of the Democratic Party prevailed. Why they decided to be myopic, and assumed that they had to defend the rights of women _or_ the rights of workers, and could not do both, is a bit beyond me.
- Izikiel43 2y ago
  It feels like democrats were talking to women, LGTB people, and some elites. They completely forgot about the other half of the electorate, and when reminded of their existence and issues, they considered the other stuff more important. This result shouldn't surprise anyone.
- hanniabu 2y ago
  You do realize the high inflation is due to actions Trump made....
  - 2y ago

spankalee 2y ago

I think there are two things: 1. Try the Trump/populist playbook on the topic: identify the problem, empathize, be mad, let them vent, but don't really focus on a solution. 2. Advocate austerity as a solution to inflation. Might be less economically ideal, but more politically viable. edit to add: iow, Harris and other Dems could have thrown Biden under the bus a bit to try to avoid some of the blame. It's cold, and Biden directed an actually decent response to the supply-shock-driven inflation, but it'd be a kind of shrewdness like getting Biden to drop out that might have helped.

UncleOxidant 2y ago
> Try the Trump/populist playbook on the topic: identify the problem, And ideally put the blame on people who don't have any/much political or economic power within the country, like immigrants. Us vs them. "If we just get rid of 'them' everything will be fine"

pie_flavor 2y ago

There isn't, really. Inflation is irredeemable and you just have to be overwhelmingly better in other aspects, which she wasn't. The solution is to not have allowed it to happen in the first place.

spankalee 2y ago
> The solution is to not have allowed it to happen in the first place. How, exactly? The biggest causes of inflation were stimulus, supply-shock, and housing prices. Stimulus started under Trump and was the correct response to COVID. Without it we would have had even worse economic suffering that we did. Inflation was the lesser-of-two-evils. The supply shock was global, and there probably wasn't much to do about it, besides maybe some more supply-side stimulus. Housing is just a shit-show, but people have been grinding to get more built to address the problems for years. But stimulus was the thing that could have been changed the most, yet it kept us from having a much, much worse recession.
- mistermann 2y ago
  Perhaps the operating system we use (and worship, and tell lies and untruths about, etc) is not bug free.

ComplexSystems 2y ago

Well, for starters, a response that would have worked won't involve both of these contradictory positions at the same time: Position 1: Prices can never go down again unless inflation is negative and we get "deflation." Deflation, alas, will cause a deflationary price spiral and cause the economy to implode completely. Why? Well, reasons. Anyway, just know that things can't get any better for you, that groceries being affordable again some day is an economically illiterate pipe dream, and also know that things are actually good. Position 2: Also, we'll just force stores to lower prices. Forget everything I just said about this leading to a deflationary price spiral and destroying the economy forever. Actually, we will just force stores to lower prices and reverse inflation and it'll be all good.

EricDeb 2y ago
The best solution imo would have been 1. to run a candidate not associated with Biden. 2. To say "inflation happened globally" and double and triple down on that. Half baked solutions like you're suggesting from someone associated with Biden + gaslighting the public that its not that bad were not the answers people wanted.
carom 2y ago
More reasonable would be to explain the grocery prices will likely never come back down but we can increase workers' wages through certain policies. Biden's policy of opening the border to undocumented labor is not a policy that I believe will help increase the wages of those concerned about the cost of groceries.
- Izikiel43 2y ago
  It could lower cost by having cheap labor, but only if that labor was AG focused, otherwise it's a race to the bottom for other jobs.
  - throwaway48476 2y ago
    Ag is waiting to wages to rise for investment in automation to become profitable.

burningChrome 2y ago

You know what doesn't work? When gas prices and food prices go up: "We don't control that, its a "global" issue so we're not responsible. When gas prices and food prices go down: "See everybody! Look! Our economic policies ARE working! You just have to trust us!" This all we heard the entire four years Biden was in office. People are not stupid. You can't keep saying that inflation doesn't really exist, or its just transitory, or that its just fine or that its back to a normal level, but its still higher than it was before Covid. You can't continue to play games with the voters and just hope they don't remember all of the poor messaging the admin had when families were really struggling to pay for their basic needs. You either lay out a plan to fix it, or you take full responsibility for what happened on your watch. Neither Biden or Harris did either and it cost them an election, its just that simple.

michaelmrose 2y ago
There isn't a way to fix it and they actually aren't responsible. Taking fake responsibility would imply fault and suggest that voters ought to switch sides to the party which actually mismanaged the covid response which is absolutely nonsensical.
- theGnuMe 2y ago
  In 4 years, Trump "inflation not my fault, not the tariffs no..."
- burningChrome 2y ago
  >> There isn't a way to fix it and they actually aren't responsible. "Google, how do you fix inflation?" We know inflation is the consequence of many factors, but it can be controlled by different entities at each stage. The two groups most instrumental in the fight against inflation are The Federal Reserve and the government. The Fed using interest rate increases to make lending and investing more expensive is an example of monetary policy. The Fed misread warnings in the spring of 2021 when it was clear to some that inflation was spreading. The Fed argued that inflation would be transitory and that it resulted from unusual circumstances, ranging from supply chain issues related to the abnormal demand that came from the end of the pandemic. The government can use fiscal policy to fix inflation by increasing taxes or cutting spending. Increasing taxes leads to decreased individual demand and a reduction in the supply of money in the economy. As you can imagine, fiscal policy isn’t very popular because raising taxes is a difficult political move. The last thing that we want to hear when inflation is rising is that our taxes will also increase. The government could use other fiscal policies to lower inflationary pressures. If Congress were to limit pandemic relief spending and focus on not making the deficit worse, that would assist in reducing inflation. So no, there absolutely is ways to fix it and they 100% were responsible for it. The problem is when you constantly act like there isn't a problem, by the time they realized they had to fix it? It meant the cure is going to be worse than the disease - usually in the form of either cooling off the economy with interest rate hikes, or pushing the economy into a recession or increasing taxes or gasp cutting spending. This is not graduate level economics we're talking here - its pretty common knowledge stuff. But if you say Biden wasn't responsible for the inflation on his watch, then by your logic you would have to excuse every president who had a poor economy because "its not their fault" and "there's no way to fix it." Unfortunately, most people (like myself) know that's a load of poppycock and voted accordingly.

phtrivier 2y ago

The response should have been : "You're right, prices are too high, and wages too low. Especially housing prices, and wages for young men without a college degree. It's in part the consequences of some things we did. Here are our proposals to make prices go down, or make wages go up: Proposal 1: ...." My deep belief is that the hard part, and the reason Democrats did not do that, is not in the difficulty to find solution. The hardest part is that it meant recognizing they were, at least in part, responsible for the problem. The second hardest part was recognizing that the problem was hurting a category of people that's "outside of the tribe". So, faced with a complex problem, they decided to deny the problem existed altogether, focussed on something else (not necessarily unworthy issues, but, simply, not the one at hand.) "Ventre affamé n'a point d'oreille." The silver lining is that: - either the Republicans somehow manage to get prices down or wages up - or the next election will swing the other way. It's still, after all, no matter what, "the economy, stupid" - just, the real economy, no the the fake financial one.

phtrivier 2y ago
Also, it's striking that one of the problems on which the Democratic Party focussed did win in the ballot : if I read it correctly, in most of the places where women's reproductive rights were on the ballots, the position of the Democratic Party prevailed. Why they decided to be myopic, and assumed that they had to defend the rights of women _or_ the rights of workers, and could not do both, is a bit beyond me.
Izikiel43 2y ago
It feels like democrats were talking to women, LGTB people, and some elites. They completely forgot about the other half of the electorate, and when reminded of their existence and issues, they considered the other stuff more important. This result shouldn't surprise anyone.
hanniabu 2y ago
You do realize the high inflation is due to actions Trump made....
- 2y ago