Biden is leaving the US with a thriving economy but will anyone thank him?

Joe Biden is the most unpopular president for 75 years according to polls cited by Newsweek, a fact that contrasts with a legacy that should earn him at least a modicum of credit.

But there is something of a disconnect between Biden’s economic achievements and how he is viewed by voters – no doubt exacerbated by his opponents’ attacks and his own communication skills.

Regeneration programs revitalizing US communities across a number of sectors, from green to pharmaceutical, have done little to turn the tide in his favor. In fact, many of those communities leaned heavily towards Donald Trump in the November elections.

“We’ve created jobs every single month I was in office,” Biden told reporters 10 days before the end of his presidency, according to AP. “I believe the economy I’m leaving is the best in the world and stronger than ever for all Americans.”

Is there any truth in this and if so, why are the American electorate blind to Biden’s achievements?

Around 14.8 million jobs were created during the first three years of Biden’s presidency, outstripping job creation attributed to any other president in US history over an equivalent number of years.

But it is not just unemployment that Biden has tackled with positive results. In many areas of domestic policy, the ageing Commander in Chief has overseen programs benefitting the average citizen.

During his four-year term, Biden has increased access to affordable healthcare with more people insured than ever before, Bloomberg reports.

The cost of living, which soared in the wake of the pandemic, has all but returned to pre-pandemic levels.

According to Bloomberg, the financial situation of families is the best it’s been this century, despite perceptions.

Bloomberg also points out that the income gap is narrowing, with wages for low-income workers rising faster than those of middle and high-income workers.

Green spending has soared while crime has dropped dramatically under Biden with the homicide rate tumbling 11.8% in the last year, the most vertiginous fall on record, according to AH Datalytics.

“Sometimes you do the right thing economically when you are president and you get electoral credit for it, and sometimes you don’t,” Jared Bernstein, one of Biden’s top economic advisers told The Washington Post. “That’s the reality.”

The polls indicate that inflation regarding food and fuel are what have colored the US public’s view of ‘Bidenomics’, rather than the President’s successful track record on jobs, wages, and manufacturing initiatives.

Still, Biden’s chief economist Lael Brainard believes that future presidents will try to build on what Biden has begun. “If that happens, 10, 20 years from now you will see a fundamentally more productive America,” she told The Washington Post.

That, she said, would involve “innovation and manufacturing thriving in factory towns all across the country, particularly in the heartland, that have been left behind over the past two decades.”