Maeve Higgins: Contradictions of capitalism mean that workers must stay weak

Vice president Kamala Harris and House speaker Kevin McCarthy listen as US president Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union address, during which he said that US inflation is falling while take-home pay has gone up. Picture: Alex Brandon/AP

When it comes to the US economy, multiple facts are true at once. Those facts often contradict each other. 

The unemployment rate can be at a record low like it is now, but workers can still lose their jobs any day. Corporations can make massive profits and still go on firing sprees, dumping thousands of employees, like the plans Disney announced this week. Workers’ pay can grow at a solid pace, as it has for the past two years — faster than at any time in the past 20 years — but inflation can outpace those gains.