Wednesday Open Thread [12.3.14]

Filed in Delaware, National by on December 3, 2014

Americans are narcissists. Self centered. Especially when it comes to their income, economic well being. They know how much things cost, and the costs usually always rise. They know how much they make, and that usually doesn’t rise, especially in this Reagan Anti-Middle Class Era that began in the 1980’s. When they are making enough money to afford things, Americans are happy. See mid to late 1980’s and mid to late 1990’s and early 2000’s for proof of that. When they are not, they are not.

First Read: “It’s possible — though hardly a certainty — that lower gas prices over a sustained period of time finally begin to change the public’s perception about the U.S. economy. After all, the economy has produced 200,000-plus jobs in each of the past nine months; GDP for the last quarter was revised up to a healthy 3.9%; and the unemployment rate has declined from 7.0% in Nov. 2013 to 5.8% now. But many Americans haven’t been FEELING that improvement, due in large part to wages not keeping up with the cost of living.”

“Politically, an improving economy helps the president and his party. (It also makes it harder to say the health-care law has stifled the economy.) And in macroeconomic terms, lower gas prices serve as a kind of economic stimulus — which Congress doesn’t have to pass or finance. Yet more importantly, they’re an easier way for Americans to ASSESS the state of the economy. The monthly jobs report might not mean a thing to them, but they can see when it costs just $35 to $40 to fill up their tank each week when it used to cost $50.”

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  1. kavips says:

    Ironically the low gas price is just due solely to price cutting by the Arabs to shut down global production so they again have their monopoly. They’ve read J.D. Rockerfeller. Without warning we will one day experience a new crises because of no alternatives, and with increased demand over 2008, the price soars to around $4.25. The Russians are suffering now; the US oil industry begins getting hit this week with under $70 a barrel. This means those fracking job-growths return to nothing in states with nothing else to give… It will get ugly. Question: on whom will America pin the blame?

    But that said, it does show the colossal fail in Schwartzkopf-Longhurst not mustering a gas tax so we could have at least fix potholes in our roads after this winter is over.

  2. Jason330 says:

    Schwartzkopf doesn’t even know how to spell “fix” “potholes” “in” “our” “roads” “after” “this” “winter” “is” or “over” and he seems proud of it.

  3. ben says:

    Kapvis, you have to wonder if Americans (or the rest of the humans for that matter) will ever wake up to the Oil game. Right now, they are trying to get everyone hooked on “cheap” “safe” natural gas….. Oil and gas were driven up artificially, you gotta know NG will go the same way.

  4. bamboozer says:

    Actual source of the oil glut is American fracking, America may well surpass Saudi Arabian oil production this year. The Saudi’s are continuing to produce oil at a high rate to hurt their competitions profits and market share, think Russia, Venezuela, Canada etc. Lowered oil prices may well make Americans and the world feel “good”, but not that good. Low wage jobs make no one happy, but that’s what we’ve got and are likely to get, 200,000 a month increase or not. I actually think income inequality is getting some traction and may become an issue for the 2016 election.

  5. SussexAnon says:

    ” I actually think income inequality is getting some traction and may become an issue for the 2016 election.”

    Here’s to hoping.

  6. Jason330 says:

    “I actually think income inequality is getting some traction and may become an issue for the 2016 election.”

    I want to think that, but “income inequality” doesn’t really play as a concept.

    We need something that makes wrecking the world economy and being a bloated plutocrat sound like bad things. People hear “income inequality” and think, “Yes please, I’ll take some of that. No more Hardees for me. From now on it is all Ruby Tuesdays!”

  7. mouse says:

    How much of gas prices is commody traders?

  8. mouse says:

    When when you listen to the maggots spinning BS on talk radio, they are telling their uneducated followers that income inequality means that fry cooks should make as much as CEO’s …

  9. Steve Newton says:

    @jason: “income inequality” doesn’t really play as a concept.

    Bingo. Even as a term it doesn’t begin to compete with the ingrained cultural acceptance of “by your own bootstraps” that has more than a 160-year history in American political culture. See Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men–The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War–an oldie but goodie.

    http://www.amazon.com/Free-Soil-Labor-Men-Republican/dp/0195094972

  10. Joanne Christian says:

    Maybe I’ve lived too long, but I swear when gas prices are up every American acts and feels economically challenged. When the price goes down, it’s all green grass and high tides forever. It’s the most narrow myopic out there, that sucks us all in to our perception of economic well-being. Meanwhile, college tuition sky-rocketed, cell phones are like buying a piece of furniture, and a box of cereal may as well be kept in the imported foods aisle.

    Contact lenses are disposable, photos are pennies, and McDonald’s still has a Dollar Menu. Long-distance telephone charges are inconsequential, my husband’s haircut is 10 bucks, but the teen’s pedicure is 30 greenbacks. Sweaters are cheaper now, than what we wore in the 70’s, and my airfare is just about the same. But mess with the gas price and it’s either an atmosphere of doom and gloom, or everyone is looking to caravan to Lake Wobegon. America goes from the Waltons to the Windsors on a feeling tied to a gallon of gas.