The numbers are clear: The American economy is in extremely good shape. And yet according to the polls, the public overwhelmingly has a bleak view of how things are going.
I have a theory about why.
I think it’s partly because the news coverage of official reports – like the wildly positive jobs report issued Friday morning, which showed hiring blowing past expectations – lacks human faces.
When’s the last time you saw an interview with someone who just got a job, or a raise?
Or who got their student debt expunged, or who owns a home that has appreciated in value, or who finally has health insurance?
My point is that without viscerally experiencing the upsides of the Biden economy, people are overly susceptible to the constant message of doom and gloom they get from Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
A line graph doesn’t do it – even when it shows that net worth, wages, home prices, and stock gains have all exceeded inflation from Q4 2019 (pre-pandemic) through Q2 2024:
My guru when it comes to critiquing American economic coverage is Dean Baker, the co-founder of the progressive Center for Economic and Policy Research, whose “Beat the Press” blog and Twitter feed are among my must-reads.
I asked him what stories the news media should be doing to give the public a better sense of how well things are going, contra the Trump version.
A top priority, of course, is for newsrooms to produce articles featuring people who have gotten new jobs in the Biden economy. They shouldn’t be hard to find. There are something like 16 million of them out there.
Another priority would be articles featuring people who have seen substantial increases in their real wages. Baker suggests finding multiple workers, particularly including those in low-wage occupations — some who have stayed in the same job, others who have changed jobs.
Low-wage workers and historically disadvantaged groups have seen particularly strong growth in real wages (taking inflation into account):
What else?
“Another piece should focus on people who can now work from home. That number has increased by almost 20 million (one-eighth of the workforce) since the pandemic,” Baker wrote to me. “They are saving hundreds of hours a year in commuting and thousands of dollars in commuting related costs.”
What else?
“A piece on people who have benefitted from the low mortgage rates of 2020-22 (pre-rate hikes) and refinanced their mortgages,” Baker wrote. “These people are saving thousands a year on interest payments. They have also benefitted from the run-up in house prices. We hear endlessly about how high house prices are making it hard for first-time buyers, but the number of existing homeowners (86 million households) dwarfs the number of people looking to buy a house at a point in time. Many of these people will be looking to retire in the not distant future, so having the value of their home increase by 30-40 percent is a big deal. You can add in the run-up in the market, since many homeowners also own some stock and these people are hugely better prepared for retirement than they were five years ago. “
What else?
“A piece on the increase in the number of people getting insurance through the ACA as a result of more generous subsidies put in place by Biden. That number is up 10 million from 2019.”
And what else?
“A piece on people with student debt who either had it forgiven by Biden or are now in his income-driven repayment plan (people earning less than $33k a year don’t pay a penny).”
The sad reality is that good news about the Biden economy – when it doesn’t get quickly buried – is almost always delivered drily, and with caveats. The coverage needs a human touch.
And I should add: People doing well in the Biden economy are not the only large group routinely ignored by the media. Biden supporters are a rare find in media coverage. So are people of color. So are ordinary people terrified for our democracy. It’s not a coincidence.
The “people with new jobs” aren’t real. If they were, they’d be on r/recruitinghell.