Trump is very good at highlighting partial information to favor his policies. The realities are that his policies take away much more than they give. It is dangerous that some Progressives sometimes allow themselves to buy into Trump’s narrative.
Trump wage increase misinformation answered
Progressives cannot allow Trump to create a false narrative about a small increase in wages lest we send the wrong message.
Victor Tiffany recently appeared on Politics Done Right to discuss his new book “Bernie or Bust, Pioneers of Electoral Revolt” and other issues with the movement. It was an informative and entertaining discussion.
I had to take exception with a comment that Tiffany made that later we cleared up. Victor repeated the narrative about the working class finally realizing a substantial wage increase. Here is the truth from PolitiFact.
This data shows that after Trump entered office, wages initially went up, then fell. For the fourth quarter of 2017, the figure was $345. That’s slightly below the $349 mark in the fourth quarter of 2016, before Trump entered office.
Even if you allow for some quarterly blips, however, Trump’s statement is also misleading in another way. The “years of wage stagnation” he refers to didn’t end with Trump’s presidency — wage growth began under President Barack Obama. Wages hit their post-Great Recession low in the second quarter of 2014, at $330. They climbed, with just a few blips, for the rest of his presidency. …
By the most common measure, wages did go up for the first three quarters of Trump’s presidency, but they fell in the fourth, wiping out all the gains on his watch and then some. And even if you ignore this fourth quarter figure as a blip, his assertion ignores that wages — by two different measurements — began their climb during the final years of Obama’s presidency.
It is essential that we do not allow the Trump narrative to go unanswered. Most importantly, Trump’s policies make the poor and the middle-class poorer as he transfers wealth to the wealthy.
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Our people should not be satisfied until we have living wages, and only we progressives are suggesting federal mandates to raise the minimum wage that high that quickly … as it comes to years of wage stagnation, that would be over 50 years now … http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2014/10/Wage_stagnation.png
Right, because nothing says “I don’t know a thing about economics” more than pushing federal mandates dictating to private businesses, since you all claim to know how to run their businesses better than the actual owners do.
I have a better idea. How about getting government out of business, and instead have laws that people can use if someone wrongs them. That will spur competition among customers, and lower prices. Lower prices boosts buying power, without having to boost wages. It also keeps inflation in check, which robs people of their savings buying power too. A win-win all the way around.
Of course that’s too simple of an idea for leftists. Leftists far too often want a totalitarian or authoritarian government, to dictate how people will live. Don’t say this isn’t true, when you gave a prime policy example by the wage mandate. Seriously, nothing but dictators on the left.