Political statistician Nate Silver buried a popular argument that the media is ignoring how great the is economy under President Joe Biden and many on the left reacted with bilious anger online.
Silver pointed out that many Americans are being squeezed by high inflation that is eating into the gains made in wage growth.
“Real wages are declining and real disposable income has declined for 7 months in a row. The idea among some folks on here that voters are silly to be concerned about inflation and that Actually The Economy Is Great But The Media Won’t Tell You is ridiculous,” he tweeted.
To support his position, Silver posted the latest report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showing a decrease in real average wages for most workers from January to February. Also, he added a graph showing real disposable income spiking after the pandemic but dropping steadily from the middle of 2021.
“This economy is creating weird distributional effects and there are certainly some winners but there are also lots of losers, e.g. people on fixed incomes or who haven’t recently been able to renegotiate wages/salary,” he added in a second tweet. “Not the media’s doing that some people are unhappy about it.”
Biden supporters were angry at Silver and lashed out at him for blowing up the anti-media narrative.
“Someone should maybe explain to Nate what the data he just shared actually shows. While the media lights it’s hair on fire over *only* the annual inflation rate, nearly 70% of the increase was offset by wage gains. This dude is a horrible analyst. Horrible,” said another popular anonymous liberal tweeter.
“If the media is telling it straight, why are people so wrong about the state of the economy?” replied another critic.
“Media loves bashing Democrats on economy in name of ‘both-sides'” read another tweet.
“Economy is booming massively; media ignoring it to get access to Republicans they think will win,” claimed another detractor.
Economist Paul Krugman tried to argue against Silver’s position, calling it a strawman argument fallacy.
“As of February 28 percent of the public had heard unfavorable news on employment, only 13 percent favorable news. Pretty amazing amid a jobs boom,” said Krugman, citing a poll.
“Maybe this isn’t the media’s fault, just people hearing what they want to hear. Maybe it wouldn’t make any difference if people knew the reality. But just dismissing the issue feels like bad faith,” he concluded.
Neither included an estimate from economists that inflation would cost the average American family at least $5,200 in increased costs just this year.
Silver could have been referring to people like Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post who was lambasted for a column claiming Biden’s economy is doing incredibly well as long as you ignore inflation.
Here’s more about the Biden economy:
4 Disgusting Ways Bloomberg Wants You To Cope with Inflation | @Pat Gray Unleashed www.youtube.com