The March jobs report released last week showed the US economy created another 275,000 jobs, continuing a trend of strong growth that has extended throughout most of President Biden’s term in office. Middle-out economics is producing results: the unemployment rate has remained below 4% for 26 consecutive months, wage growth has outpaced inflation, and incomes are increasing the fastest among lower-income workers and workers without college degrees.

And yet, despite this track record, reporters can’t resist describing the consistently strong job numbers as “surprising”. AP wrote last week that “to the surprise of just about everyone, the economy has kept growing steadily.” They had a similar reaction in March, when they wrote about the economy “adding a surprising 275,000 jobs.” In February, they hit the thesaurus and described “a stunning burst of hiring.” In January, too, they found job growth to be "surprisingly strong.” It was a little different back in October, when the job market was not surprisingly but “shockingly” strong. And even way back last February, job growth was "astonishing." So how much longer will it take until reporters get around to adjusting their assumptions, recognizing that middle-out economic policies are creating growth, and acting less surprised about the good news that keeps on coming? Or, more to the point: how on earth is something still a surprise when it’s been happening for more than two years running? 

Make it make sense.

The federal government provides astonishingly little support for the construction of affordable rental housing these days. But we continue to provide billions of dollars in support to homeowners by allowing them to take a tax deduction on the interest they pay—and the benefits are especially concentrated among wealthy homeowners. 

In fact, as the chart below from the Center for American Progress shows, homeowners with $1 million or more in income get an average benefit of $13,000 from the mortgage interest tax deduction, while homeowners with incomes below $100,000 average a benefit of less than $1,000, with many getting nothing at all. It’s effectively a subsidy for the purchase of expensive homes, and it doesn’t come cheap — CAP estimates the deduction costs $50 billion a year.

California moved towards the future by instituting an industry-wide $20 minimum wage for fast food workers and establishing a council where representatives of workers, employers, and the public can meet to address other workplace issues. But at the same time as public policy leaps forward, the media coverage of this big move seems to have recessed into the past. Scare story after scare story has been recently published, all worrying that Higher Pay Is Bad For Business — despite study after study to the contrary, not to mention years of lived experience since the Fight for $15 launched. But perhaps the most egregiously ridiculous story was published last week, in which AP reporter Adam Beam worried that higher pay for fast food workers could… hurt the public schools…. because it might inspire cafeteria workers to push for a raise, too.

And sure, yes, higher pay in fast food may in fact push pay up for cafeteria workers as they form an overlapping labor pool. But… no information is offered that the cost of giving cafeteria workers an overdue raise would be a particularly significant part of school district budgets. And why on earth would they suggest higher pay is a problem, when that is literally the point of the law, and of good public policy in general: raising pay, lowering costs, strengthening the middle class, and growing the economy from the middle out. But guess we should all look out for an upcoming story about how more jobs and higher pay is putting stress on loans sharks and check-cashing operations.

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