Icarus27k

Disposable income is rising at a faster rate than pre-pandemic. I don't think it's a case of them not being able to afford a burger. It's more complaining about the higher price than they are used to.

I have heard those claims are about McDonald's in European countries. I never got around to fact checking that, or finding out how it's achieved. It would be great if true. I assume that living wages for fast food workers would cause prices to increase, but then say it would be more than worth it. I'd be happy to be wrong though.

I didn't intend any derision. And additionally, I don't think it's my responsibility that others react fiercely to two sentences on the Internet. I'm now too old to care about that crap. I was making a legitimate point about labor costs effecting the prices of things, and that we previously benefited from low cost labor and didn't seem to care at the time. If people want to interpret that as elitist or any of the other adjectives you called me, then f*** them. I'll still engage with them on topics but I will dismiss their opinions about me.

The actual subject of food prices is indeed interesting. But also, fast food menu prices isn't an indicator of the health of the economy which what is implied here. GDP and the unemployment rate (mentioned in the OP) are definitely better indicators.

Something I didn't do, of course. You're imagining things that I said and then accusing me of silly stuff. Setting the record straight on that.

Oh, so this is a personal thing about "how I come off", in which case I don't care what you think. It wouldn't be reasonable for me to care, stranger on the Internet.

Blatant onomatopoeia violation.

The argument naraku seems to be making is similar to "why doesn't anyone want to work at these fast food restaurants anymore" that was said right after the pandemic when workers had the power NOT to. I take it about as seriously as that.

People protecting their capability to go to restaurants? Interesting.

If this is a serious question, there are many reasons for that. For my entire adult life, people have been saying workers deserve living wages. But those same people also like 89 cent burritos.

This could be a problem for him. Rich donors aren't giving because they know it's going to his legal expenses, and small dollar donors aren't showing up yet.

Huh, it seems it be about the wealthy of India.

It's good it seems. You have to marvel at America’s economy. Not long ago it was widely thought to be on the brink of recession. Instead it ended 2023 nearly 3% larger than 12 months earlier, having enjoyed one of the boomier years of the century so far. And it continues to defy expectations. At the start of this year, economists had been forecasting annualised growth in the first quarter of 1%; that prediction has since doubled. The labour market is in rude health, too. The unemployment rate has been below 4% for 25 consecutive months, the longest such spell in over 50 years. No wonder Uncle Sam is putting the rest of the world to shame. Since the end of 2019 the economy has grown by nearly 8% in real terms, more than twice as fast as the euro zone’s and ten times as quickly as Japan’s. Britain’s has barely grown at all. America’s expansion is all the more striking when you consider the many things that could have killed it. As the Federal Reserve has fought inflation the economy has endured the sharpest rise in interest rates since Jimmy Carter was in the White House. The covid-19 pandemic, an intensifying trade war with China and the fight against climate change have together reshaped supply chains, labour markets and consumer preferences. Wars in Ukraine and Gaza have aggravated geopolitical tensions and worsened the strains on the global trading system. https://www.economist.com/leaders/2024/03/14/americas-extraordinary-economy-keeps-defying-the-pessimists

My issue is more that I'm surprised when someone is into me. I don't love myself enough to take action whenever someone is.

Twitter goes offline. Nation's mental health improves within weeks.

Me in 2000: "Her name is Pink? And she has pink hair? That was totally her decision and not some music agent who thought they had an idea?"

Periodic perspective: Russia has dedicated practically its entire army to conquering Ukraine, and it's still not enough. They have to mobilize Russian men and change the entire Russian economy into a defense industry focused on the war. And they can't take over the Donbass, much less all of Ukraine. The USA was able to dedicate only a portion of its army to two theaters of war (Afghanistan and Iraq) for 10-20 years. And average Americans never saw any change in their daily lives the entire time. Also, Russia has had hundreds of thousands of fatalities while the USA had like 10,000.

Tirzepatide, trade named Mounjaro for treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus and Zepbound for treatment of obesity, supposed causes an average loss of 21% of weight in 72 weeks. It's supposedly more effectively more effective than semiglutide (Wegovy) because it effects two hormone receptors whereas semiglutide only effects one.

What this means: Fani Willis will continue prosecuting Trump and the other defendants in Fulton County. The one special prosecutor (Wade) referenced here will no longer be part of the case.

One of my new things is searching the Twitter accounts of Nate Silver/Nate Cohn/Dave Wasserman/every other expert on elections from early 2020 and see how much they commented on the general election. It wasn't much. Almost like it wasn't important yet.

The average error among averages of presidential polls (the topline numbers you see on aggregators such as RCP and FiveThirtyEight) is about 8 percentage points this early in the election year.

The change among African-Americans and Hispanics over 25 years has not been from Democrat to Republican but from Democrat to independent. I'm willing to bet they very much distrust the GOP.

I read that Financial Times article too. The evidence is partially based on crosstabs of current Biden vs. Trump polls, which have huge margins of error and aren't predictive of the November general election. The subgroups of African-Americans and Hispanics in such a poll can have a MOE of plus or minus 10 points. Keep in mind it's March, and in past election cycles we didn't pay attention to general election polls yet. My conclusion is a FT reporter is searching for a story and finding information to craft the story he wanted.