So...I wrote an article like this under Biden, but it deserves a discussion under Trump as well. I'm so sick of hearing about what the jobs reports say. Libs love to rub it in and use it to attack Trump as if they're really owning him by pointing out that there isn't much job growth any more. The reality? While yes, Trump's terrible policies are largely responsible like that, and his tariffs and war with Iran definitely aren't helping the economy positively, the fact is, our economy is still at "full employment" and functionally has been since Trump took office. Seriously, "job creation" stops mattering when you're under 5% or so. In the macro, you can't really do much better than 4.something percent. And it doesn't make sense to celebrate creating more jobs when you're at that level. Because, again, capitalism is a giant game of musical chairs. It's designed to never have enough. We celebrate them creating more, but after that point it doesn't matter and can actively be harmful to the economy. If we have too many jobs, we end up getting inflation instead, which is bad in another way. Then you got like, the "worker shortages" of 2021. You don't want that either.
Honestly, we should stop celebrating jobs, and the left should stop trying to lean so hard in the direction of job creation that the right leans into. Rather, we should lean into doing more to reduce poverty and create economic stability for people. Jobs are one solution to that, but the end all be all.
I get it when dems try to say they do a better job than republicans at it, given the past 40 years, but to be fair, we just got lucky. The republicans ended up with all of the recessions while we havent. It doesnt mean we did much to "earn" having stronger economies though. I mean, if your idea is to sit on your luarels while the private sector creates jobs, that's...the private sector doing it. Government policy has a little to do with it, but not much. And it's gonna happen under either party.
The only real reason to attack Trump for his weak economy is because he's the first president we can honestly say is kinda suiciding the economy. Because he is screwing everything up with his tariffs, wars, etc. But all things considered? If you really care about jobs, we're still at full employment, despite Trump's weak numbers. That's just how the economy works. if you have a problem with there not being enough jobs, you should also be critical of Biden. But also not, given he started out with, ya know, WAY TOO MANY at the same time.
Again, I just wish we'd think beyond job creation. We can talk jobs jobs jobs all day but it's not gonna meaningfully make a huge difference. The problem is the economy itself. It's the fact that we rely on a bunch of self interested people who dont care about us to be responsible for providing for the well being of everyone else in the first place. Ya know? Jobs arent made to give people paychecks. I mean, they do, but businesses want to pay people the least amount of money for the most labor. And that's fundamentally, why the economy sucks as much as it does. And it's always been this way, but it seems like we'd rather than talk about anything else, but that fact.
Idk, if you wanna blame trump for screwing up a perfectly "good" economy, have at it. I just think that the left should offer more than just "better private sector job creation than republicans." I think it's fine, given THEIR fixation on jobs as central to their ideology, all dems need to really do is prove they're just as competent at it (and they are), and then offer more beyond that. I dont want the job creation to be the central goal of the left, rather, it should be the cherry on top. Like "oh yeah, we can manage economies too, and we're actually a little better than you, but we also offer far more than just that." That way we outflank the republicans on literally everything. Instead of catering to their stated priorities. Like, when the democrats run on just creating more jobs than conservatives, they're basically saying they can govern like conservatives better than conservatives can. Which is great if you're a member of the third way and fundamentally conservative, but I'm not, and want something different.
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