Chris Hayes: The core neoliberal article of faith was price stability Uber alles: Volcker, Reagan, Clinton, the IMF’s structural adjustment regime throughout the global south. Low prices in exchange for financialization, wage stagnation, skyrocketing inequality. This was the neoliberal social contract.

The online discourse on the Biden economy has some supposed “leftists” sounding like Andrew Mellon.

The core neoliberal article of faith was price stability Uber alles: Volcker, Reagan, Clinton, the IMF’s structural adjustment regime throughout the global south. Low prices in exchange for financialization, wage stagnation, skyrocketing inequality. This was the neoliberal social contract.

Maybe you think that’s good, and how we *should* orient our political economy - how can we make fast food delivery as cheap as possible - but that is a very weird ideological project to join for someone who positions themselves on the left.

tbh the food food bit is a canard with its inherent classism for social media when I think (hope) the general critique is over inflation on necessities like food (including fast food)

As ever, owning the libs makes strange (if predictable) bedfellows

Observing the way (some) on the left have reacted the last couple of years, it’s real easy to see how so many 60’s New Left types were Reagan Republicans by the 80’s.

Why do you view these things in isolation instead of as greater trends the way we are? Do you lack object permanence?

I think it's because these are the examples people use. It's actually good that wages are going up and people working fast food make more money. The trend of low wage earners making more money is good actually.

"...thus leads to a situation in which one section of the population is able to buy extra spare time from the other, and the latter is reduced to serving the former....A 'servile' class, which had been abolished by the industrialization of the post-war period, is again emerging." - André Gorz, 1988

"Critique of Economic Reason" An on-point prediction of our post socialist world. Recommended. I love the neo-Marxists. The green parties of Europe were very influenced by them. They were right.

i do think a lot of the "fast food is crazy expensive now" discourse is driven through the distortion of delivery app gouging, but in-store price increases of 90-150 percent seem well outside the margin of the wage increases we've seen for service workers.

Just did an experiment - on the McDonald's app, if I order a Deluxe Quarter Pounder with cheese, medium fries and medium drink it's $11.19. However, if I go to GrubHub and order the exact same thing, it's $13.39 for the meal combo PLUS a $2.01 service fee and $2.99 delivery fee and then add tip

Yeah if you're actually leftist enough to sneer at liberals, seems like you have ought not give your money to international megacorporations who exploit workers, resist unionization and minimum wages and OSH regulations, dodge liability for torts, and degrade the environment. Seems like bad praxis.

Did it ever dawn on you people that maybe their primary concern isn't how many cheeseburgers at McDonald's they can personally afford and more that this is a proxy point for the growing segment of working class and low income people who are extremely cost burdened by basic necessities

Then they should be complaining about the price of groceries, not that of chicken mcnuggets

Buddy I've got bad news for you about what kind of corporations own the grocery stores

Indeed. Please go back and re-read my posts, and those in the thread preceding them, as you seem to have missed a part of the foundational discussion.

Ignorance about how the American economy functions is partly to blame. Corporations are making huge profits at the expense of customers and employees. Because that’s the capitalist way. While it’s a far better system than socialism which has never worked properly, there still needs to be regulation.

consumer good price inflation has an influence but is more of a flashy distraction from the real reason why sentiment over the economy is lower than some of the broader numbers: the very real and sustained problem of rent/property costs

I just continue to not understand how neoliberalsim is at all a liberal policy position. It feels very right of center to me - where you're empowering the aristocratic class as a whole, at the expense of the individual.

"liberal" has multiple meanings. Outside the US it often means something like "free market oriented", and can be right of center

free market oriented is neoliberalism - you remove the actions/regulations of the state from the market - it's the epitome of laissez-faire capitalism. aren't you creating a circular argument here - saying the right of center is the center?

Not sure if I understand. Liberalism, outside the US, doesn't *necessarily* mean left of center. Europe does have left-liberals, right-liberals, etc

And the right isn't always laissez-faire - depends on what they think is best for their own elites / traditional hierarchies

We're talking about Biden and US politics, right? Neoliberalism by definition is the removal of state power from the market. Removing state power from the market helps the RIGHT as defined by its original French Revoultion meaning: The lords and merchants sat to the RIGHT of the King.

Chris the problem is EVERYTHING is more expensive, including regular food at the grocery store. And MANY people who don't have salaried white collar jobs are not getting the raises you get. It's a real problem that many people I personally know are dealing with

It's always weird how people talk about how other people are suffering. I make average wage, and I can afford a lot more than I did pre-pandemic. everything is more expensive, but also I can afford it. This seems to be the case with lots of people according to actual wage data

I know my sister and my ex are struggling. people on fixes income like my mother. good for you tho

Right, not every person is doing better, but according to actual data, most people are.

so the problem is that this inability to afford things like food and rent hits the hardest the poorer and more marginalized the person. you know, the people more likely to vote democrat. personally i'm doing a little better, if you don't count the funds i must give to my family. then im not

Yeah the fast food stuff is stupid. Fast food shouldn’t be cheap, it’s unhealthy. Biden’s failure has been jacking the Trump tariffs up and blue state NIMBYS are failing to build. The fast food stuff is a distraction

And gov subsidies skew the entire debate about food costs. The $5 burrito actually costs $15 to produce!!

the print wasn't even that fine, it was talked about like the cost of winning over suburban yuppies even before Soccer Moms were a thing, even we can sell out unions we might win more wall street dough short-sighted top to bottom

“The Wal-Mart bargain”

I remember listening to news stories about Wal-Mart during the Bush years, and they would interview people who said things like “I love shopping at Wal Mart, they give me a middle class life”

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