Number of the Day

0.1%: How much consumer spending slipped last month in the US.

Consumer spending was flat in May, breaking a string of 10 straight months of gains, as households struggled with rising prices and automakers failed to deliver the models Americans wanted.

When adjusted for inflation, spending slipped 0.1 percent, the Commerce Department said on Monday, falling for a second straight month.

The report, which showed underlying inflation quickening, suggested that consumer spending would offer little support to the economy in the second quarter.

Well, that's pretty much the noest of all the doys.

Hey, I've got an idea to stimulate the economy: Legalize same-sex marriage nationally. The average amount spent on a wedding in the US is $25,000, which doesn't even include the cost of a honeymoon or any jewelry that may be exchanged before and/or as part of the ceremony.

Hey, I've got another idea to stimulate the economy: Stop chipping away at Roe. Give women access to affordable birth control and abortion so that they can have the most control over their reproduction possible, which will give them more disposable income.

Hey, I've got yet another idea to stimulate the economy: Amnesty for undocumented workers. Let's offer citizenship to immigrant and migrant workers who don't have it, but want it, providing them easier opportunities to obtain credit, invest, and make large, long-term purchases.

Hey, I've got a fourth idea to stimulate the economy: Legalize weed. Not only would legalizing weed provide new business opportunities for entrepreneurs (and thus new jobs) and create a whole new industry for a legal, taxable product, but it would also eliminate the wasteful spending of extended sentences in for-profit prisons for pot busts.

Et fucking cetera.

I could do this all day. Social justice is inextricably linked to a robust economy. We don't just need progressive economic policies; we also need progressive social policies to empower marginalized people economically as well as legally.