Dow and S&P 500 hit all-time highs as Street ends record week on a high note

[Spectral]

There are other factors to include that are also culture. I frankly do not feel comfortable not living in diverse areas. I would not feel at home in a more conservative red state as a gay minority around a bunch of Americans.

Weren't you just telling me the other day that there's tons of Nazis where you live?

I've spent a fair bit of time traveling the country and a pro tip would be that Minneapolis has a lot of ethnic diversity, a lot of gay people, and I didn't see a single swastika anywhere.

[Draco-Onis]

But please, keep telling me that I'm the one that's out of touch with how Americans live. It seems like your position really, sincerely is that there's no point living anywhere other than New York or San Francisco - I thought I was joking, but here we are.

Now compare that to walking the streets of Houston, Chicago or New York, as you said 1/4 million people that's a small town.

[Themius]

Weren't you just telling me the other day that there's tons of Nazis where you live?

I've spent a fair bit of time traveling the country and a pro tip would be that Minneapolis has a lot of ethnic diversity, a lot of gay people, and I didn't see a single swastika anywhere.

I live outside of the town and literally never go to the town. I am actually much closer to another town that is rather diverse and doesn't have those issues. The town I live in is somewhat decently sized and I am on the border of where you just technically entered another town.

Has quite a small Latin population though. Probably is one of the better options.

[Spectral]

Now compare that to walking the streets of Houston, Chicago or New York, as you said 1/4 million people that's a small town.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you've never been in Houston if you're under the impression that it's a high density city. The downtown is smallish and the city just sprawls forever. The total density is ~55% higher than Des Moines, not 10X like New York is.

It is a great example of a place where you don't have to spend a crazy amount of money to live pretty nicely though. Tons of economic opportunities, you can definitely live there just fine on that $36K we were talking about earlier. I'd consider Houston to be the largest representative example of what the typical American lives like.

Anyway, I really don't know what point you're trying to make at this stage. The initial claim you made is that 40% of Americans are living near poverty. My retort was that being out of cash isn't actually the same thing as living near poverty. Now we've meandered into how someone making a normal living will live a garbage life in New York City. Yeah, I agree, making a normal wage in New York City will indeed lead to being broke and living a garbage life, but I don't actually think that's a federal policy problem.

[Draco-Onis]

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you've never been in Houston if you're under the impression that it's a high density city. The downtown is smallish and the city just sprawls forever. The total density is ~55% higher than Des Moines, not 10X like New York is.

It is a great example of a place where you don't have to spend a crazy amount of money to live pretty nicely though. Tons of economic opportunities, you can definitely live there just fine on that $36K we were talking about earlier. I'd consider Houston to be the largest representative example of what the typical American lives like.

Anyway, I really don't know what point you're trying to make at this stage. The initial claim you made is that 40% of Americans are living near poverty. My retort was that being out of cash isn't actually the same thing as living near poverty. Now we've meandered into how someone making a normal living will live a garbage life in New York City. Yeah, I agree, making a normal wage in New York City will indeed lead to being broke and living a garbage life, but I don't actually think that's a federal policy problem.

well if you want to be on topic the point remains that the vast majority of Americans do not feel this great economic growth you are talking about most of it has gone to the top and pushing that narrative is factually correct and rather easy Trump has proven that.

[Ghostpanther]

well if you want to be on topic the point remains that the vast majority of Americans do not feel this great economic growth you are talking about most of it has gone to the top and pushing that narrative is factually correct and rather easy Trump has proven that.

Na. If that was true, then Trump's approval rating would be down in the 20%'s. His approval for handling of the economy is at 51% according to the latest poll that I saw.

[Themius]

Na. If that was true, then Trump's approval rating would be down in the 20%'s. His approval for handling of the economy is at 51% according to the latest poll that I saw.

"He has meandering approval with the few people that are staying in the party!"

[Ghostpanther]

"He has meandering approval with the few people that are staying in the party!"

He has about 90% approval from Republicans. Most are staying in the party. The great majority. Some Independents as I am, also support him. I will say he needs Independents to vote for him or he will lose.

[Draco-Onis]

Na. If that was true, then Trump's approval rating would be down in the 20%'s. His approval for handling of the economy is at 51% according to the latest poll that I saw.

I think you misunderstand what I am saying Trump ran against a great economy, he wasn't saying that the unemployment rate 45-50% repeatedly by chance. At the end of the day most Americans don't care about the market they care about their everyday and that hasn't gotten better since Trump took office. If anything Trump is trying to take their health care away and he has caused premiums to spike even higher than ever.

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He has about 90% approval from Republicans. Most are staying in the party. The great majority. Some Independents as I am, also support him. I will say he needs Independents to vote for him or he will lose.

That's a joke right?

[Redwyrm]

In other news, the sun rose for the 200th trillion time this morning. Trump claimed it was a record for most sun rises and took credit.

[Themius]

He has about 90% approval from Republicans. Most are staying in the party. The great majority. Some Independents as I am, also support him. I will say he needs Independents to vote for him or he will lose.

Funny how 90% of independents are just really republicans.

[Blur4stuff]

I've yet to hear any Trump supporter explain what action Trump has taken regarding the economy that they support. Everything Trump has done has just made things worse than they could have been, like tariffs.

Much like Trump's "wealth", had he done absolutely nothing with his inheritance we'd be better off.

So if people approve of Trump's economy... what are they approving of exactly? The coasting off of Obama that's been trending downwards for two years?

[Zan15]

Funny how 90% of independents are just really republicans.

they are just too embarrassed to admit they are republicans because of whom is running the show right now and the mess of people running for local and state offices....

I mean its one person resigning after another at a pace 15x the democrats.

[Dontrike]

I linked a pair of federal research data sets showing median inflation adjusted wages. I really don't get how so many of you can just keep repeating "inflation" as though anyone that gives a shit about the data hasn't already considered and adjusted for it.

Because inflation is the reason that your "wages are growing" bit keeps being off. Just because minimum wage is up from 30 years ago doesn't mean crap when the things you buy are up 300% compared to wages being up far less than that. Therefore people have less money even though they are technically earning more.

[Spectral]

Because inflation is the reason that your "wages are growing" bit keeps being off. Just because minimum wage is up from 30 years ago doesn't mean crap when the things you buy are up 300% compared to wages being up far less than that. Therefore people have less money even though they are technically earning more.

I really don't know what to tell if you're going to just refuse to acknowledge that the wage data I linked is already inflation adjusted.

[Dontrike]

I really don't know what to tell if you're going to just refuse to acknowledge that the wage data I linked is already inflation adjusted.

I don't know what to tell you when you don't understand that the thing you buy are up far more than wages are. I don't know what to tell you how you didn't get that your hypothetical where you listed various prices is so ludicrously small that I assume your $500 for rent must be a car in a trailer park.

[smityx]

10 years of growth.

Good news for Trump.

There's what? Over a year before the next election. How do you think the economy will be doing by then?

That's awsome for the top 1%. But for the rest of us... Shit hasn't got better. Stagnation is all we can pray for currently. To not lose what we already have. Job, health care, etc.

[Spectral]

I don't know what to tell you when you don't understand that the thing you buy are up far more than wages are. I don't know what to tell you how you didn't get that your hypothetical where you listed various prices is so ludicrously small that I assume your $500 for rent must be a car in a trailer park.

I guess I'm done. You seem to literally not understand what inflation adjustment is. I suppose all I can do is keep in mind going forward that people are so stuck on the fiction that wages haven't increased that they'll just flatly ignore data sets that plainly show that they're wrong.

Omaha isn't where I lived (and I'm not going to discuss where I did live), but it's a reasonably comparable city to where I lived. Here's a bunch of apartments there for under $600. Of course, it's true that housing is more expensive now than it was when I was in grad school, so the appropriate figure would probably be more like ~$650 in 2019 dollars, but the point stands. Here's a bunch in Milwaukee. Again, not everywhere is New York.

[Ghostpanther]

I think you misunderstand what I am saying Trump ran against a great economy, he wasn't saying that the unemployment rate 45-50% repeatedly by chance. At the end of the day most Americans don't care about the market they care about their everyday and that hasn't gotten better since Trump took office. If anything Trump is trying to take their health care away and he has caused premiums to spike even higher than ever.

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That's a joke right?

The economy was improving when Trump ran. It was not as strong as it is now, you can easily see that with the stock market and lower unemployment numbers. Lots of people voted for him who did not have jobs when he ran. The stock market has a effect on the employment numbers, because it is those large companies which hire people. And they hire more if they are doing well and need to expand.

And no, I am not joking. I am not a registered Republican and never have been. But lately, they seem to be the only party which has a chance of winning that supports most of what I think is important. The Democrat party today is not the one I knew back when I voted for them.

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Funny how 90% of independents are just really republicans.

I am not sure you understand what a independent is. If Trump carries say....80% of the Independent vote in 2020? He will easily win reelection.

[Zan15]

The economy was improving when Trump ran. It was not as strong as it is now, you can easily see that with the stock market and lower unemployment numbers. Lots of people voted for him who did not have jobs when he ran.

The stock market has a effect on the employment numbers, because it is those large companies which hire people. And they hire more if they are doing well and need to expand.

.

The stock market is less strong now then it was in the prior years to trump taking office

If the economy is so strong why is the stock market only up 3% in almost 18 months? Why is the stock market performance of trump 40-60% (depending on which market) lower than Obama's same point in his administration.

Why is his job creation numbers lower then Obama's?

Why is his GDP on par with Obama's?

I would argue the economy right now is about the same as it was in 2015-2016

And no, I am not joking. I am not a registered Republican and never have been. But lately, they seem to be the only party which has a chance of winning that supports most of what I think is important. The Democrat party today is not the one I knew back when I voted for them.

I am not sure you understand what a independent is. If Trump carries say....80% of the Independent vote in 2020? He will easily win reelection.

Because you are embarrassed to register as one and openly admit it.