Of all the difficult questions Democrats face ahead of 2024, two storylines are particularly confounding. The first is the economy: Most Americans are still pretty pissed about its state, even though economists can point to plenty of positive indicators. And the second is in the polling: Joe Biden continues to underperform among Black and Latino Americans, who are a significant part of the Democratic base.
Those two features are likely connected. And understanding that connection might offer some greater insights into why today’s vibes remain so lousy.
Those vibes are independent of whether the economy is “good” or “bad” in any objective sense. That’s a political hornet’s nest, particularly when Biden’s economic record will be front and center in 2024 — and it will likely matter less than how voters are feeling when they go to the polls. Some pundits argue that the sour feelings about the economy are a reflection of real-world conditions and lived experience, while others argue that it’s a perception issue, and that the economy is objectively lifting Americans’ fortunes.
But not all Americans live under the same economic conditions, and two recent reports shed light on the different economic experiences of Black and Latino Americans.
The news is, in short, a mixed bag. One study found that during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, years that included the end of Trump’s term and the beginning of Biden’s, Black and Latino households made gains in accumulating wealth. But in the years that followed, those gains slowed significantly or even reversed.
Part of that slide was due to inflation, the main economic villain of the Biden years. Another 2023 study found that Black and Latino households suffered more from inflation than their white counterparts, as the higher costs of transportation and food took bigger bites out of their paychecks. But it’s not all bad news: There’s evidence that real wages — the value of workers’ pay…
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