One Year In, President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act is Driving Historic Climate Action and Investing in America to Create Good Paying Jobs and Reduce Costs
One Year In, President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act is Driving Historic Climate Action and Investing in America to Create Good Paying Jobs and Reduce Costs
One year ago, on August 16, 2022, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law – the largest investment in clean energy and climate action ever. The Inflation Reduction Act is a transformative law that is helping the United States meet its climate goals and strengthen energy security,...
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So, according to the president’s own staff, you mean? Still no climate emergency declaration, still approving new oil drilling and exploration projects, no pardons for imprisoned climate activists, nothing substantial at all. And regarding the inflation itself, I can’t say things feel any easier now than they did a year ago. Prices are still astronomical and most people haven’t gotten raises to reflect that. Even EBT hasn’t gone up in a good while, so people on food stamps are literally forced to go with over 10% less than they did within the last year or so.
Still waiting on that good paying job, reduced prices, and improving climate, Joe.
Inflation dropped, so prices are rising more slowly. Deflation, where prices drop, causes a collapse in investment and spending, which was a key cause of the Great Depression. You don't want that.
The law cuts the rate of emissions; it doesn't lower temperatures. It'll take getting the whole world on board to bring emissions to zero, and that's only enough to stabilize temperatures.
It feels like a real slap in the face when the government just shrugs their shoulders and says, “Sorry, if we try to make things less unbearable, it might bring the whole system crashing down around us. This is just how it is from now on, so get used to it.”
“Then surely you’re going to pass a higher minimum wage, at least?”
“Haha, also no.”
Prices going up slower than they’ve been is a small consolation when prices shot sky high all at once and continued to do so for months, leading to the still unconscionably high prices we see today. Our only option is to live in food insecurity to preserve the profits of billionaires? What a joke.
Besides, this is the climate community; degrowth is without a doubt one of the best paths forward for reducing further climate change. We need to slow down because all this isn’t sustainable whatsoever. It’s investors who drive the profit-over-everything model, driving the very extractivist capitalism that fuels climate change today. Fuck ‘em. I’d take 10 million “broke” investors over a dead planet 100/100 times.