Joe Biden is Stuck in the 1950s
It's excruciating to listen to him speak about work and families.
When President Biden talks about the economy — his “Bidenomics” stump speech — like he did last week in Maine, his speeches always include a line where he recounts his dad telling him about the value of hard work and providing for one’s family. Given Biden was born in November 1942, it’s likely that his dad was saying this to him shortly after the end of World War II when the U.S. economy was booming, at least for privileged white men. It almost sounds like he’s recalling a moment from Leave It to Beaver.
But I believe every American willing to work should be able to get a job, no matter where they live — in the Heartland, small towns, the Northeast, big cities — to raise their kids on a good paycheck and keep their roots where they grew up.
My dad used to have a saying. My dad was a well-read man whose greatest regret was he never got to go to college and a really decent, honorable man. And he used to — and I give you my word, this is what he’d say — and all my si- — siblings remember and my friends. He’d say, “Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about your dignity. It’s about respect. It’s about being able to look your kid in the eye and say, ‘Honey, it’s going to be okay. It’s going to be okay.’”That’s what it’s all about. That’s what it’s about. That’s the American Dream. If you’re willing to work hard, you ought to be able to make it. It shouldn’t be limited to just a few people. It’s rooted in what’s always worked best in this country: investing in America, investing in Americans. Because when we invest in our people and we strengthen the middle class, we see stronger economic growth and everybody benefits.
One could be forgiven for wondering if the next line is going to be about how, if only millennials bought less avocado toast, they could afford houses once again. It’s frankly that tone-deaf and distant from the reality of contemporary U.S. political economy where most people absolutely are “willing to work hard” — they are working very hard — but still aren’t “able to make it.” It’s like Biden is stuck in the 1950s before the Great Society vision articulated a more expansive role for the state in delivering welfare for citizens. Indeed, a July tweet from the president made clear that he views “good health care” as something that should be tied to one’s employment status versus a right of citizenship. (America’s dysfunctional employer-sponsored health insurance non-system is a relic of World War II-era wage controls.)
The Bidenomics ode to the “American Dream” sounds folksy and appealing on the surface, but the reality is that jobs have been insufficient to guarantee the basic social needs of many Americans — health care and housing for decades, but now even the ability to acquire a car for transportation — for a long time. Perhaps Biden just hasn’t been paying attention as he delivers incoherent arguments against Medicare for All and promotes policies that could normalize child care as an employee benefit.
But, if he wants to beat Donald Trump and claw working-class voters back from the GOP, he will have to speak to an understanding of “the economy” that is broader than just macroeconomic trends, inflation, and wage growth. According to political pollsters and strategists engaged in research for the CAP Action Fund, Americans now crave “stability and security” more “than aspirational ideas like opportunity or prosperity.”
That led the group to conclude that the middle class is more a descriptor of an emotional state, defined by notions like security, peace of mind and disposable income. Notions of stability and security, the researchers found, were more important to voters than aspirational ideas like opportunity or prosperity.
The “stability and security” Americans crave, however, cannot be secured with labor income alone. A new CBS News poll found that 61% of respondents described the U.S. economy as “struggling” and 56% as “uncertain.” They are likely projecting their own economic anxiety and social insecurity onto the nation’s economy at large.
Government will simply have to deliver more in the social welfare space. That means thinking about a Bidenomics that’s closer to the “European Dream” than the American Dream — one where a comfortable life is closer to a right than a privilege, even if wealth accumulation is a tiny bit harder.
Unless Biden can start talking about good jobs alongside robust social welfare policies — universal health care, social housing, low-cost child care, and more — he won’t be speaking to the genuine economic anxiety occupying the minds of a majority of Americans. Even many professional-class childless adults are struggling to secure livelihoods for themselves in major U.S. cities, let alone provide for children. Much of the economic pain that Americans are experiencing right now almost certainly stems from their inability to afford the basics — a long-standing political economy problem exacerbated by pandemic-era inflation — which other rich countries address with significantly more government intervention in certain sectors. The U.S. is more than 75 years — and counting — behind the United Kingdom on universal health care and the Affordable Care Act isn’t working.
If Biden doesn’t start articulating a more ambitious vision for the U.S. economy and social contract — Bidenomics with a social democratic twist — he may lose to a demagogic Trump who will simply remind voters that their salaries bought them more in 2019 than in 2024. It is 2023, not 1955, and citizens of a rich country with a center-left president are entitled to expect a little more help with the basics from their government.
Biden talks about Bidenomics as delivering “dignity” and “respect” for workers, but who feels respected and dignified when their 40-hours-a-week can’t even deliver access to basic health care and shelter? A serious center-left politician should understand that jobs alone can’t meet all the needs of working-age citizens. If Biden is incapable of speaking about expanded welfare provision alongside economic growth, he may not be the Democratic nominee that the moment demands.