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@lowqualityfacts As much as I'd like to find a candidate other than Biden that I like I just cant... Biden is still the worst but I feel like I have no options.
@freemo That's okay. You don't have to marry him. Just have to trust that he won't actively set our country on fire and then in 4 more years, you'll have a whole new crop of morons to choose from. 😀
@LouisIngenthron Sadly I am not sure I can trust him to do even that... I left for most of his reign and when I got back so many things got so so much worse that I dont think I can stomach another round.
I am not saying everything getting worse is his fault per se, but a lot of it, some in very indirect ways, others direct, is his fault.
@freemo Well, you were also gone for the last guy's tenure too, right?
In my experience, everything turned to shit in 2020, and since Biden took over in '21, most things have been slowly improving.
@LouisIngenthron I was only gone in israel for 2 years. I was here for the last year at least of Trump... Some things like enviromental stuff like i mentioned has improved under biden... but so many things have gotten worse. Healthcare is the worst I've ever seen it (and there are a few actions biden's administration took that led to this), and that is a big one for me... Economy isnt looking great with unemployment up 20% under biden and inflation is still out of control... But the biggest issue for me, and the most important for the USA seems to be the polarization which biden and trump seem to make a pair at fueling that.
@freemo Wait, what are you talking about? Unemployment is down, and wage growth is currently outpacing inflation. Signs are good for the future, from what I hear. Plus I love all the pro-union stuff happening under Biden's tenure.
Sorry should have been more clear, im not counting the lock-down spike under trump since that was out of his control. Also considering under trump that the recovery rate of unemployment was the highest ever in recorded history, and well on its way to reaching 3.2 again before biden took office (3.6 he got it back down to) I cant fault him for that.
Under trump pre lockdown he got unemployment to 3.2%. Biden caused it to skyrocket again when he got elected, trump post-lockdown got it down to 3.6 and then when biden took over it shot up past 8% in the first month. It then tried to go down again but he never got it below the 3.6% value at the end of trumps reign and never got even close to trumps 3.2%. Right now it sits at 3.8% which overall is a 20% increase from trump's pre-lock down number, and an increase from trump's final numbers as well.
@freemo I don't fault Trump for the entire COVID spike, but I do think his poor handling made that spike much bigger than it would otherwise need to be, and can't be discounted entirely.
But also, that 3.2 minimum he got was clearly riding on the coat tails of Obama. The curve actually started to flatten during Trump's early tenure.
And 0.6% seems like a silly gap to quibble over when it's been as high as 10% or 16% in the last decade.
Trump handled covid poorly in a ton of ways, not the least of which was his completely idiotic statements he made on it.
But Im a numbers man, and we are talking unemployment. The truth is he had the biggest unemployment improvement rate post lockdown that has ever been seen in USA history, not to mention combined with achieving the lowest unemployment rate seen in a century...
He may have been an idiot who handled COVID bad in a lot of ways, but the economic impact was not one of them, in fact, his economy was record breaking on unemployment in 2 seperate ways.
Biden would have bankrupted us for sure and while he would have tried to cure COVID more than Trump he likely wouldnt have had too much success as he is a bit of a populist and said what people wanted to hear, rather than what scientists know worked.. for example he probably would have extended the lockdown despite it being ineffective and ultimately harmful long term.
@freemo @LouisIngenthron Am I missing something here? The lockdown started while while Biden was in office. Yes, it hurt the economy, but Covid would have hurt a hell of a lot more if we had continued with Trump's plan of "do nothing and let them die". Anything that happened "Post lockkdown" happened under the Biden administration. And yes, unemployment is at record low levels. As is inflation.I think you may be mixing up your administrations.