Editorial | So much for a bad economy

The litmus test for any difficult presidential election for an incumbent party is the economy. The truth is, if you’re the incumbent president and the economy is doing poorly, your chances of winning become increasingly unlikely.

While many of us worry about the future of abortion, climate change, gun control, healthcare, civil rights and Social Security, Americans continue to show that they care even more about their own wallets. In a country based on liberal economics and individualistic ideals, this makes sense.

When Kamala Harris ran as the Democratic nominee for the 2024 presidential election, she faced what many called “terrible economy.” Although the other option is one convicted felon, convicted rapistclear racist, misogynistic and patrons, people became even more concerned about their own financial situation. The economy was “bad,” so they voted for a felon.

But let’s take a step back and really think about the state of the nation. In a country whose average reading level is not above a Sixth grade levelOur collective understanding of economic nuances fits on the back of a Target receipt. We have to ask ourselves: Was the economy really that bad? I mean, that The price of eggs is $3.37 and the The real estate market is absurd. It feels like you can’t buy one New cars for less than $50,000.

Albert Einstein, whose theories admittedly go over the heads of many of us here at The Pitt News, introduced the theory of relativity into a scientific framework. But in a sense, Einstein’s theory of relativity explains that space and time form a unified structure that bends in response to mass and energy, meaning that the flow of time and the distance between objects depend on the observer’s movement and gravitational influences. Simply put, we need to understand that things are relative to each other. The context changes a situation that millions of Americans seem unable to see beneath the surface.

Black Friday spending is up this year 20% compared to the previous year across tax brackets. The employment growth has an average of 217,000 per month since 2022 and small business applications have increased to 144,000 per month since 2022. Wages exceeded the annual inflation rate Price in 2023. The stock market is booming and is likely to end the year on a high note 10% increase from the year before, which was the case increased by 23% from 2022 to achieve profits for three years in a row. The unemployment rate has increased 4.1% in Oct., a decline from the peak of 8.1% during the pandemic. In the summer of 2022, inflation was at its highest level in four decades at around 9%, but earlier this year in the United States reach 3%.

And yet, the economy remained a top issue for voters in 2024.

Talking about relativity is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it’s easy to understand that things are still not going well. The The cost of living is exorbitantly high and federal minimum wage has not increased since 2009. This all sucks – it really does. It makes it hard to survive and live life the way we want. But we also have to remember that almost five years ago we experienced a pandemic.

Hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs, Unemployment was at an all-time highbusiness slowed down and many have even closedinternational and national supply chains almost came to a standstill. We are five years removed from a generational event that impacted the economy tenfold, and under President Joe Biden’s administration, the United States is the one fastest improving economy in the world.

Relatively speaking, we’re doing pretty well. Yet we elected a man who did it six bankruptcies And a riot He has made it his mission to repair an economy that was booming under a different man. Pretty soon, Consumers will have to bear the brunt of its tariffs – a situation in which virtually everyone involved loses, except the economic elite. Most Americans base their perception of the economy on their grocery income, gasoline prices and their impact on their economy own wallet. Their expertise and willingness to research Trump’s policies ends before they understand that tariffs will steal every last bit of change left in their piggy banks.

Maybe it’s not that Americans don’t understand the economy – it’s that they understand just enough to panic, but not enough to put things in perspective. And so when we select leaders, we choose sentiment and grocery bills rather than actual financial policy.

The Pitt News editorial is a weekly article written by the opinion editors in collaboration with all other editors. It reflects the collective opinion of the current Pitt News editorial board.