After LBJ dropped out of the race in ‘68 and then Bobby kennedy was assassinated after winning the California primary the Democratic party has consistently shifted right every single election cycle. So much so that this last election they touted endorsements from neo con war mongering dynasty families like the bushes and Cheneys.
The DNC are funded by the same exact big money interests as the Rnc. They work to ensure that no candidate who aims to move the party even a millimeter to the left or give anything resembling economic democracy a platform, will be nominated. Neo liberal western democracy intentionally aims to exclude economically democratic policies. And this makes it a defacto class dictatorship. We will never vote our way out of this, we have had 57 years of the ratchet effect and the type of change we need kow is revolutionary. But too many voters still believe propaganda coming from astro turfed corporate sources and think if they just get out and vote things will be better next time. It’s called “ballot box socialism” and it will never happen because those with the real power, the capital, will never allow it to happen unless they are motivated through violence which is the only means by which any leftward progress has ever been made. We can hold hands and sing cumbaya all we want but we will still be barraged with tear gas and rubber bullets.
The “inflation reduction act” did jack shit for real world inflation. The reality is that every empire experiencing economic decline always lies to the working class about the true measure of inflation to keep the passive income graby train rolling and prevent the working class from rioting/ fomenting revolution.
The inflation statistics we are feed are figured out by the world bank and IMF and then relayed to their associating national banks and financial institutions like wall street and the fed. They use consumer price index to determine these figures which is flawed for a multitude of reasons but most importantly being that CPI is an inadequate measure of inflation considering it fails to take into account fhe primary cause of inflation; the devaluation of a currency due to the increase in circulating supply and increased national debt. This is something the price of gold does exceedingly well. And this is the reason that 70 years ago in 1955 my grandfather bought a house in an Ivy League college town for $2500 on a minimum wage of 75¢/hr after moving to the UsA 5 years earlier at the age of 18 and today it would take a minimum wage worker 30 years of saving half their paycheck to afford even the most dilapidated piece of junk property on the market. Maybe for 7 years of saving half the salary you could buy an empty lot that meets requirements to be developed into a single family home but then you’ll need yo work for all the tooling and materials.
But anyway; for the first 172 years of the US dollar as a standardized currency the price of gold only fluctuated 95% from $18 to $35 and that was all mostly in one adjustment which was a calculated move by FDR To prevent hyper inflation by doubling the currency supply and prevent further economic losses caused by the Great Depression. But in the 54 years since nixon permanently ended the gold standard and topled the first domino that led tk the current age of American austerity for the working class the price of gold has increased in direct tandem with the national debt. Increasing from $35 an ounce to $3360 last i looked which is an increase of approximately 9600% and in the same time frame the national debt has increased from $400 billion to $37 trillion or 9300% this because gold is the true measure of inflation, it was the first currency ever used outside rudimentary barter and trade economies and the value of all currencies in circulation today are intrinsically tied to the value of gold. You can not game the system by trading currencies for other currencies where gold is cheaper and then making profit, the value of gold across all circulating currencies is equal to the exchange rate of every currency to the value of gold.
Now in 1938 when FDR first implemented a minjmum wage 88 years ago it was set at 25¢/hr or 14.9 ounces of gold a year for full time 40 hr/weekly labor. Today this would be about $24.25/hr or $50,000/year which is more than the highest minimum wage for California corporate fast food workers at $20/hr or 12.3 ounces of gold a year. In 1945 it was raised to 40¢/hr which would be 24 ounces of gold a year or $80,000/ $38.45 today. In 1950 it was 75¢/hr or 45 ounces of gold which today would be $151,000 per year or $72/hr in 1956 it was raised again to $1/hr which would be 60 ounces of gold annually or $202,000 $96/hr and in 1968 it was raised a 7th and final time since minimum wage was implemented before nixon would bring nixon shock wtoooo the American economy and allng with reagan bush and clinton decimate and destroy the middle working class, but it was raised to $1.60/hr with gold still at $35/ ounce that is 95 ounces of gold a year or $317,000 annually/ $153/hr for 2080 hours per year.
The reality here is that the US dollar was intentionally devalued to eradicate the progress made by the labor and civil rights movements in the 40’s 50’s and 60’s as well as FDR’s new deal policies that created a thriving working class and saw the richest 10% of Americans with a combined share of 20% of the wealth compared to the almost 70% they currently have with 1% owning 44.6 trillion dollars in wealth (enough to give every american man woman and child in the bottom 99% a check for over $65,000 while still Leaving approximately $6,000,000 for each of the 3.4 million richest people) But this was the way they lowered the cost of labor for all the jobs that could not be outsourced to the third world for 90-95%+ reduction in cost. Nixon and Reagan as well as bush senior also destroyed education standards. Roger freeman who was advisor to bush said “we are on the verge of having a highly educated proletariat, this is dynamite! We need to be more selective about who we allow to go through higher education” and going into the 1980’s classes like wood and auto shop, home economics, financial literacy, music and art all Disappeared with the implicit goal of turning the American working class into a class of consumers unable to repair their own belongings as well as obedient workers, just smart enough to run the machines that make the wealthy their passive income but not intelligent enough to understand the nature of the system exploiting them. Then Reagan signed CAFTA which would become NAFTA under clintons neo liberal administration and the vast majority of the good blue collar manufacturing jobs in America that many of our parents and grandparents relied on to built their wealth and bought their homes with. And the 7 satellite roles for each of those manufacturing positions were all outsourced to the third world for a few pennies on the dollar. And almost overnight a thriving middle class turned into a low paid service industry of wage and debt slaves living paycheck to paycheck with no emergency savings.
So biden did jack shit for inflation rent for a 2 bedroom in the town i grew up in averages $3000 go 15 miles south or north and you can get something for $22-2400 but minimum wage is $15 and most jobs aren’t paying much more than that. Even double or triple it and it’s still a garbage paycheck to paycheck existence unless you want tk live with 2-4+ strangers from craigslist or ruin relationships with childhood friends to save a few bucks(or rather be able to make ends meet)
The underlying truth here if you dig down deep enough and do the math, it cost more to purchase and maintain enslaved human beings 160+ years ago before reconstruction during the 30 years on average they survived than minimum wage workers anywhere in the USA are currently paid. We were fed a social contract growing up that if you work hard you will be fairly rewarded for it and get to retire at the age of 60 but today that us no longer the case. I stead of being incentivized to perform labor by the fact that the wages offered provided one with a better standard and quality of life today workers are silently coerced into working with a looming threat of homelessness starvation and loss of dignity and that is just not motivating.
Nothing will change until a large percentage of the work force refuse to participate which will be met with state sponsored violence and show the truth that we are not free.
And as far as the ACA, yeah I do benefit from it and my states expanded medicaid coverage but that was already like over 12 god damned years ago and that is the most democrats have done in my entire lifetime. Federal minimum wage hasn’t been adjusted in going on 17 years which is the longest it’s gone unadjusted since the 1938 FLSA was passed with most adjustments happening once every 4 years and a majority of adjustments occurring within a year of the previous adjustment. How how long will we be told to look at one minimal step in the right direction from 3-4 terms ago meanwhile every time the right gets a hold of power they push things as far to the right as possible decorum be damned and then when dems get control again it’s a snail’s pace if any movement at all. It’s 5 steps backwards and MAYBE 1 step forward. And yeah Obama gave us the aca but he also persecuted edward snowden, julian assange, chelsea manning, dropped more drones than any other administration. Obama was a reaganite neo liberal war monger just like every other POTUS we have had since LBJ
The DNC is a not a progressive party, they are a corporate funded astro turfed party controlled by tje same wall street military and prison industry profiteers that fill Republicans pockets. Their lawyer argued that the dnc is under zero obligation to uphold the will of voters and they can decide who they want to nominate in a dingy dimly lit cigar smoke filled back room without any input or direction from voters who spent money on their preferred campaign. And that is definitely 100% not progressive or Democratic in any way shape or form.