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Nope. It's not about any supposed "pessimism." It's about their day to day reality. Everything costs them more and their wages haven't kept up. More people are running up ever-larger amounts of credit card debt just to pay for basic necessities (food, clothing, shelter), and the default rate on credit card debt and auto loans is the highest they've been in decades.
Welcome to the REAL world, not Biden's and the Democrats' world of make-believe.
The issue I have with all of this is how Shortsighted we are when reviewing our economy. You could copy and paste your comment in any year since the late 1980s and it would ring true. But when we talk about it we just say it's the fault of the current President whomever it may be.
It's the Slow boil-a-frog theory that broke post-Covid, everyone feels the heat now. It seems that it took COVID-19 for people to realize that our economy has been limping along for Americans outside the top 10% for a few decades. Americans have been lulled to sleep with stories of high Dow Jones closures, good 401K news if you have enough in it, and low prices provided by goods produced at slave wages overseas.
No President has corrected this path, No Congress has corrected this path, and our glide slope is the same as it was 10 years ago and 20 years ago.
We even went through a HUGE Tech boom that should have lifted our economy through the roof for most Americans and instead what happened is we got 2 Recessions. a lot more productivity from each worker in our economy (we are the most productive workers in the World) with gains shunted to the top only. We pumped Billions of Free money into the market for banks and Big business, yet here we are.
I do not see any fundamental difference in our economy under Reagan, HW Bush, GW Bush, Obama, Trump, or Biden. It all looks the same, functions the same, gains go the same, and we are just now waking up to the result of that same path we have been on that is now starting to hit the middle class and upper middle class.
But that crushing has been going on for quite some time at the working class and low-income levels, it's just moving up the ladder now and the working class is now sliding into Poverty hence the rise in Homelessness.
The issue I have with all of this is how Shortsighted we are when reviewing our economy. You could copy and paste your comment in any year since the late 1980s and it would ring true.
No, it wouldn't. Like I said, the credit card debt and car loan default rates are at the highest they've been in decades. THAT'S what's different.
Biden is always touting his supposed "great economy" that most Americans aren't experiencing, so yes we ARE talking about Biden.
I get it that you are always talking about Biden, no matter that the topic is, but this thread is not about him.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultor
Why Americans Are So Down on a Strong Economy - WSJ
Because cumulative inflation since 2021 is still 13.2%.
That's the thing. Wages are currently growing faster than inflation, but people are still feeling pessimistic. That's exactly what the article is about. IMO the media plays a huge part in it.
My wife and I are doing much better financially, right now, than anytime in our marriage of 18 years. Investment returns, debt to income ratio, disposable income levels, etc...all better now than anytime else. Now, that is 100% because of our decisions in 2023 to sell our house, move to a cheaper CoL area, invest our profits, etc. Nothing to do with Biden, the economy (maybe the investment returns, but my CFA could speak better on that), etc.
But, we do notice that some items in our grocery bill are kinda nutty, even with my wife being the Jedi Master of grocery bargain hunting. Small annoyance though, life is generally grand. We are still enjoying having restaurants where meals are $25 for the two of us and we get so much food we can't even finish what's in front of us.
Now that said, my mother-in-law on her fixed income, my sisters-in-law and their families (3 kids in one, 2 kids in the other) on more modest salaries and investment portfolios that stem from always living in this smaller town? Yeah, they aren't doing better in today's economy, they are doing worse, without having changed any of their own behaviors over the last few years. Moms know where the grocery bills are getting rough. Grandmas on fixed incomes know where the economy is getting tighter. And the chit chat in Smalltown, OH isn't about how great everyone's portfolios are doing, but how everything in our once cheap to live small town is now getting more expensive.
People notice when they were getting 16 oz of something for $5, and now get 14 oz for the same $5. People notice when the cheap dinner they were paying $15 for now costs $22. The list of things people notice goes on and on and on.
It isn't pessimism. It's pattern recognition plus realism.
You can tell my town of 7,000 to stop believing their lying eyes, but they'll keep seeing the world for what it is.
Go derail someone else's thread with your made up & off-topic nonsense.
This is a violation of the TOS. **YOU** and no one else brought it up in this thread, and you are required to prove what I said was false, which you did not. I will not report it, but it is a clear violation.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Finn_Jarber
I get it that you are always talking about Biden, no matter that the topic is, but this thread is not about him.
That's the thing. Wages are currently growing faster than inflation, but people are still feeling pessimistic. That's exactly what the article is about. IMO the media plays a huge part in it.
"The Economic Policy Institute stated wages have failed to keep up with productivity in the United States since the mid 1970s, and that wages have therefore stagnated."
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