In college, rather than majoring in art — I was offered a full scholarship, but I realized there was no job market there — I went to a "trade school" — i.e., a major that led to a chance of employment.  For me, the choice was journalism.  There, I learned how to be a reporter, an editor, a photo-journalist.  I also mastered lot of other skills that have helped me make a living and support a family.  I could have majored in art history, or English literature, but where's the market for that?  I also thought about majoring in American history until my faculty adviser told me an interesting story.

"Okay," he said.  "Assume that you go straight through from freshman to Ph.D.  On the day that you graduate, there will be three hundred jobs for American historians ... but there will be ten thousand graduates like you fighting for those jobs.  Now ask yourself this.  Do you really think you'll graduate above the ninety-seventh percentile?  Not just here, but nationwide?"

I thought a moment, and while I certainly don't lack self-confidence, I wasn't that self-confident.  So I said, "I can see myself in the ninety-fifth percentile, but those last two or three points .. I'd hate to waste all that time in school, only to get a degree that wouldn't land me a decent job."

So I minored in American history but studied journalism and public relations.  One of the many things I learned in J-School was that the facts are the facts.  Opinion didn't step into it.  Go with the facts.  Tell the truth.  Of course, journalism today has a vastly different take on the facts, but that's another subject for a different time.

After graduating, I worked for newspapers, wrote for and edited magazines.  I was even a weekend TV newsman for Channel Ten in Columbia.  I wrote speeches for two governors and managed media and strategy on a state level in three presidential campaigns.

Later on, I moved into public relations.  Same skill sets, better pay.  Bottom line, my college degree helped me — at the bottom line.  But for many others, their degree looked good framed and hanging on their wall in mom's basement, but they might as well have used it as liner for their cat's litter box for all the good it did for them.

Later, I went back to college, nights, studying advertising and marketing.  What they taught me was a bit different from "focus on the truth."  The bottom-line lesson from advertising and marketing is, "Perception is Reality."  However, when I later applied those skills in the marketplace, I learned that perception isn't just reality; it's the only reality. 

This is why the White House is trying to redefine the term "recession."  Earlier this year — and again, earlier this month — major media outlets, including the Associated Press, pontificated that "a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth."  It's been that way since I was in college, many moons ago, so it wasn't news for me.  This time-honored truism remained the truth until...well, until last week.

Now, Biden tells us that we're not in a recession because — hey, look over there at the job numbers.  How can we be in a recession if we're creating new jobs?  C'mon, man.

Yeah, there are a lot of new jobs, but the economy is so bad that we all need two or three jobs just to make ends meet.

However, the ever-loyal hordes of "journalists" immediately began parroting Biden's odd position.  They now have prominent talking heads on all the liberal news and business networks going "wall to wall," assuring us that two consecutive quarters of negative GNP growth are not, after all, a recession.  In fact, they tell us, "That's never been the official definition."  That's what Politico said earlier this week.  However, just last week, the same Politico reporter, Ben West, said what economists have said for fifty years or more.  "A recession is two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth."

Remember that.  If we ever face another recession while a Republican is president, the media will rush to remind you of that fact, as if Biden's pronouncement never happened.

This is where reality bumps heads with the president's attempt to change the rules in the middle of the game.  Today I went to the local supermarket, with a tight list so I wouldn't over-spend.  I filled less than an entire shopping cart — plenty of room to spare.  I'm buying for two of us — no kids, nothing like that.  And I shop bargains, store brands, discounts, BOGO.  Hey, my receipt said I'd saved more than $18 by careful shopping.  Still, my bill was $325, for less than I used to buy — as in, earlier this year — for $150.  On the way out, I went over to their gas station.  They offer impressive frequent shopper discounts on gas, so spent $76 to fill my hardly-a-gas-guzzler antique Honda.  Altogether, for less than a full cart — along with a full tank — I spent $401.  So when I hear Biden try to tell me there's not a recession, I'm afraid I'm going to believe my lying eyes.  Not him.

I used to dream of taking my post-65 years to write a lot of books.  Hey, I'm a writer, always have been, but never full-time.  I always had to work to live, and the books were just gravy.  My dream was to sleep late, get up late, and work 'til the middle of the night, writing.  Now I have little time to write because first, I need to serve my clients.  I'm a writing coach, editor, and ghostwriter, and I still do this so I can keep up with the food, the gas, and the skyrocketing rent — an added $400 a month starting last May.

What's special about this sad song of "woe is me"?  Nothing.  Nada.  Everyone I know is either working two jobs or supporting an adult child living in the basement.  There, he says he's trying to build a nest egg so he can finally grow up and move out, but really he's just playing online games with his friends. 

When you look at Joe Biden's tanking popularity ratings, even in the most left-wing polls, it's clear, Joe, that we're choosing to believe our lying eyes instead of you.  The reality we face every day is that old-school priority: the Truth.  What Biden and his minions are putting out is a pointless attempt to persuade people suffering from the worst economy since the last days of Jimmy Carter that "everything's OK, a recession isn't really a recession, it's only a 'transition.'" 

But maybe I'm wrong.  Hey, I must be wrong.  All day, I've been watching all of his economic advisers on camera, saying exactly the same thing.  "This isn't a recession — we're just transitioning to a more stable economy."  Uh, yeah.  Right...

What's coming next week?  How about a redefinition of "stagflation"?  That's what real economists are calling what we have today instead of a robust economy.  So buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Ned Barnett is a frequent contributor to American Thinker, and the author of 40 published books, both fiction and non-fiction.  These include 17 ghostwritten books for clients.  He works with other writers as an editor, a writing coach, a ghostwriter, or a book marketing expert.  He regularly speaks at writers' conferences nationwide and is pulling more than 30 of those talks together into a book, Speaking of Writing.  He is also working on a science fiction novel, a fictionalized memoir, and a book on the pandemic, The COVID Diaries, a Swiftian take on the man-made and self-inflicted disasters surrounding the pandemic which doesn't seem to want to quit.  He will be addressing the upcoming Act Like an Author/Think Like a Business conference in Las Vegas in mid-September. 

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0 license.