I watched Tweety and his band of friendly centrists and conservatives today, and I watched Russert and his band of CNBC honeys plus Kramer yesterday.
Guess what? The economy is really great according to them.
Why didn't anyone tell me?
According to the so called "money honeys" free trade is great (Kramer agreed except for trade with China). One, Erin Burnet says (paraphrase), we just have to get the message out to the people that the economy has been great for the last six years. And the other, Maria, says we have to make people understand that the market is booming and that there is virtually no unemployment and, except for the pesky little housing market, we are all doing well.
Why didn't anyone tell me? Or my neighbors? Or all the people I know who don't go to the doctor because they are afraid of finding out something bad and then they will not be able to fix it because their insurance is so crappy?
OK, so I don't live in a gated community. And I am not a member of the investor class. Well, my retirement fund is but I have no control. I am actually probably better off than MANY, MANY of my friends, neighbors and relatives and I don't think things are so great. My income is decent enough that I never use to pay a huge amount of attention to the costs of goods. I am not a penny pincher nor do I spend conspicuously. However over the years between the costs of things like a new roof, some medical expenses and travel home due to sudden deaths (which is amazingly expensive even with a "death discount") I have been deleting savings.
And paying off debt by refinancing. I am not in a bad situation but I am hardly living on a gravy train. Unlike some in my age bracket, I had no inheritance to count on.
So the other day I noticed that the coffee I have bought for years has nearly doubles in price. In fact, I noticed how my food bills keep going up; my co pays at the doctors keep increasing, my premiums for insurance go up and the value of my house (my only asset and I still am paying it) is going down.
But the market it UP. I should be happy. Right? I don't get it. If this supposedly great economy is NOT evident to me, who as a retired teacher, gets a decent monthly income, how the hell is it so great for a family of four whose breadwinner is not a college graduate, works at Walmart, has no insurance and has to feed and clothe four people?
What am I missing? How can the likes of these people be so clueless about the rest of us? For the record, Jim Kramer was the only one to mention that the economy is not so great for everyone. Russert was too busy ogling the money honeys to care. And Chris Matthews was too busy drooling over Burnet to do anything but his usual "Blame Hillary" rhetoric. I think he has done it so much (trash Hillary) he can do so while ogling his other female guests.
Another question. I am still looking for the channel where I can see a discussion that includes the "liberal media"! Does anyone know that channel cause I do have cable (you need to get any reception in mountain west) and still 99% of the time, the shows consist of a conservative, a right wing nut job, millionaire pundit commentator/host, centrist. But I keep hearing about the liberal media and I sure would like to know where it is. Or is that a secret too?