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No one who feels like they can't purchase a house is gonna say the economy is good. Very simple concept.
Simple and wrong-headed concept.
The US economy and one's personal financial situation are separate situations.
The economy is doing great, high dollar value, low unemployment, new job creation, small business subsidies, government investment, it's all greatly strengthening the dollar.
That's the strong economy.
Regulatory economic practices and corporate lobbying against fair pay and price limits on housing and living essentials has been increasing for the majority of Americans for decades.
No unions, no labor rights. No regulatory oversight, no mortgage caps.
The economy is doing great and it has nothing to do with grocery prices or something like gasoline which is largely imported and based on the whims of a single family thousands of miles away that wakes up and decides what the price will be.
When people rate the economy they are looking at their personal situation. The article is complaining that people aren't looking at all these economic indicators, but it's not clear why they would care about them if they personally are facing hardship.
They shouldn't care about the economic indicators but they should care about their own interests.
Conflating the economy with your personal finances is like conflating the number of trees in your country with the state of repair of your house.
The government could invest in planting new trees and agricultural maintenance, but that has nothing to do with how your wooden house was built.
Similarly, the economy, the ecosystem of finance, can be very strong without affecting your personal financial situation, since the two are unrelated.
How many trees are planted and how healthy the trees are doesn't have much to do with the carpenter who used cheap wood or poor insulation when building your house.
This misunderstanding is an example of false equivalence: The economy means money, My finances means money, so the economy means my finances.
Since the US economy is completely separate from control over your personal finances (except for the stimulus checks), the health of the economy has nothing to do with how much your bosses choose to pay you or the benefits you are given.
That's determined by the corporation employing you and the regulations they follow.
Those circumstances can be changed by laborers joining a union, the national labor relations board, the ACLU, grocery regulations, by good in responsible social decisions in general.
The US economy and one's personal financial situation are separate situations.
I think the point no one is outright saying is that yes, you're correct. However, that shouldn't be the case.
Many Americans find it appalling that we measure the economy by stock prices which don't reflect the economic situation that is experienced by the vast majority of Americans. They believe that we should measure the economy based on things like housing and food affordability, with less emphasis on the economic situation of the wealthy few who don't need to worry about those day to day concerns.
I wouldn't change the definition of economy simply because the term is misunderstood or pigeonholed.
With "the economy" being an accurate term for a complete financial system, we should use accurate terms like affordability or livability to describe livability and affordability problems rather than a vague, tangential unrelated term.
The economy is very strong, affordability is at a low.
National forests are very healthy, my house has termites.
The abstract number of trees is irrelevant to the termites in a house.
It is nice that the US economy is strong, it is not nice that US affordability is so weak.
It is nice that this restaurant has so many windows, it is not nice that my chicken was overcooked.
low unemployment
Unemployment is a flawed 6-month rolling window metric that is ostensibly meaningless.
It's also bullshit that it doesn't include people who want employment but have given up due to being unable to find adequate employment.
It is pretty significant in terms of how many jobs are filled within a totally economy, spending trends, which affects how strong the dollar is.
It's an important metric, important as any other anyway.
When people write about "the economy", including the person who wrote this article, they generally focus on just two things:
Those are the two things mentioned in the subtitle of the article. It's no coincidence that those are also the two priorities of the Fed. And those are also the two macroeconomic indicators that are most likely to affect American personal finances. The first one relates directly to gas and grocery prices, BTW.
So there is good reason to be glad when the economy is doing great.
Inflation indirectly relates to gas and grocery prices.
More directly important to those prices is the arbitrary pricing system in place that allows corporations to make up and change prices at their whim.
Also, this...
Economic signs are improving, but many Americans don't feel the relief. Inflation showed signs of cooling and both stock indexes and corporate profits are up. But many Americans aren't feeling any economic relief.
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/economic-signs-are-improving-but-many-americans-dont-feel-the-relief/
Yep. Just like it was in Germany in 1933. Think about what happened back then...
It was 1 year earlier; 1932
An 84-year-old incumbent party-line centrist was running against Hitler, and the left party at the time spent all its time attacking the centrists (they called the establishment left party “the main enemy”), and ran their own third-party candidate in the election, siphoning votes away from the center.
A few years later, Hitler had managed to seize power and most of the leftists were in the camps or dead. They were the first of his targets, even before he started working for real against the Jews.
I’m being a little bit selective about it to emphasize the similarity with today, and glossing over some important differences in the situations. But also, the situations are eerily similar, at the core.
It was 1 year earlier; 1932
Well, the ramp up to the "Machtergreifung" was, but the actual ascend to power was 1933. Again, just like in the US: Vote in November 2024, inauguration Januar 2025.
But also, the situations are eerily similar, at the core.
Which makes me shiver. I know that most Americans learn only a very limited subset of history in school, and they get even that wrong (How many people in the US still call the civil war the "War of Northern Aggression"?). If I were a history teacher in the US, I would see to add a thorough lecture about first half of 20th century Germany at the next avalable chance. And tell them why American soldiers gave their lives to fight it.
And maybe they should add "The Wave" by Morton Rhue to the literature curriculum, if they have not done that already.
So there's a pretty concerted effort to make "the economy is actually getting better" stories sound untrue with some particular talking points - it's actually really effective. Here are some of the big ones. You can see why they work.
They're all tricks. There are more but those are some of the main ones
And you see the same 4 or 5 of them, over and over again, if you start looking
You'll see some of them in comments nearby to this one, I guarantee it
Edit: More
What are these "tricks" for? Millions of us out here are struggling. "But you're earning more money!"... Ok, a dollar more? While everything else has gone up including rent with a near 40% increase in the last few years in some places.
To just be so dismissive of those barely surviving sounds like you're coming from a place of privilege.
You're right, I missed a couple
This is also a little bit of the getting angry or fucked up tactic, too. See? I look like an asshole now, with all my numbers.
Just making up a number of 40% inflation I haven't seen before. I don't think that's common enough to warrant an entry of its own. Want to show me where you got 40% from?
When your rent goes up 40%. As pandemic fades, many tenants see big hikes
Got it. So, back in November of 2021, someone wrote a story with a clickbaity headline about 40% rent increase in the future from back then, and now to you that's reality you are citing to me. Great stuff.
Anyway, here's the actual numbers. The median rent went from $1,102 to $1,340 in those 3 years - 21.5% cumulatively. That's what happened. So someone who's low income who's making 32% more comes out ahead. Does that mean that can afford their rent, when it's $1,700 because they're in a metro area and they make $16/hr? Fuckin A, man, maybe not. I'm being an asshole to you in this conversation a little bit, just because I know that you're deliberately twisting things to make Biden look as bad as possible (as confirmed by you which was what got you temp banned already). But I'm not trying to be unsympathetic to someone who's actually struggling and being honest about how they're struggling.
But maybe we should keep doing more of the stuff that gave them the 32% increase, and in a few years they'll be able to afford the $1,700 or whatever it is by then. Right? Or not? What would your solution be, instead, if not that?
I think you're out of touch on the dire situation Mozz. You can throw statistics and numbers around but for millions of the working class, they've never struggled as much as they are currently.
Eight of the top 10 metro areas are in the Sun Belt region. Rents in each of these metros have increased over 37% since 2019.
I don’t want to play the debunking game all night. I read your link, and here’s their rent increases:
Rent in the area went from $582 to $907, or a 55.8% increase.
Rent for 1-bedroom apartments increased 49.5% from $646 to $966 from 2019 to 2024.
And so on. It looks like they sorted every metro area in the US by percentage increase, which yields a whole bunch of individual metro areas with oddball markets where some super-cheap pandemic pricing ended and so the percent increase in places where it had been $582 for a 1 bedroom apartment during the pandemic, was pretty high. That doesn’t mean the price of housing in general went up by that same high percent.
Like I say, someone who’s actually struggling, I have sympathy for. You, I don’t, because you’re just out here lying with statistics to try to hurt the people you are claiming to have all this sympathy with.
Bruh. Everybody is struggling, wake up...
People are struggling with the cost of living. TikTok rants on inflation and high prices.. https://youtu.be/V9SMRjulRTE
Let’s see if we can get through literally all of the bullet points if you want to keep the conversation going long enough; we have 3 so far I think
It’ll be an easy way to get your hours in at least
I get it. Your lack of empathy for struggling Americans is on brand for centrist Dems.
The working class is literally telling you they're unable to afford to live. Watch this... https://youtu.be/SfesuiByA5U
You're up to 4 out of 6 but I don't feel like playing anymore. Some other time
Like I say, someone struggling, I have sympathy for. Someone lying, to try to misrepresent the economy with the ultimate goal of encouraging the election of someone who will hurt those struggling Americans in ways that will make the current struggle life look like sunshine and roses, I don't have sympathy with. Don't try to pretend you are one when you're the other.
millions of low-income workers are making more now than they were a few years ago, like way more
Please do go ask them about their house they just bought with all this "way more" money and how now they're no longer living paycheck to paycheck. /s
Did I mention the election at all here? You realize the economy can be "doing great" (for corporations, the stock market, etc) and millions of people can still be struggling right?
5/6
What do you think about inflation? I don't think it's really that high, to be honest. I looked at the numbers on the Federal Reserve page, and they seem pretty reasonable to me except for the spike in 2022. What do you think about it, though?
What do you want me to say about it? "I love inflation"? It doesn't matter what you call it to a family of four putting items back at the grocery store they can't afford.
Just tell me that you're mad that CPI doesn't include housing fuel and food, or whatever
I want to get a bingo and exit the conversation
Americans are mad the system is rigged against them and our government works for the corporations not the people. Capitalism kills.
Okay I'll try for the bingo another time. It is disappointing though.
Let's say the economy is doing better... It is still not better enough. People should be able to retire by 50.
I don't feel the economy is getting better but I blame inflation on trump not continuing obama slowly raising interest rates and so when covid hit we were already at zero. Covid actually saved trump from inflation on his watch as we reduce demand for about a year or so amount of resources which managed to shift it to just out of his term.
"the economy is great blah blah blah." Fuck you, make food and rent cheaper, then I'll believe that the economy is doing well.
Make everything cheaper! We are being price gouged left and duxkibg right
What the media and people with money call the economy is a different thing to what everyone else calls the economy.
But it's really useful for them to pretend it's the same thing.
They think of it as "our wealth" and we think of it as "everyone's wealth".