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This is why there are debates about whether we're in a recession.

Loughla 4y ago
I work at a college; more students than ever are working while going to school. They have jobs, but need something else because they can't afford the life they had just three or four years ago. It's really a weird time.
- ianai 4y ago
  It is weird. Probably too weird for one word like recession to really convey much meaning. There certainly are assets/markets out there that feel/seem over valued. While the globe is still reacting to the pandemic. Stuff was weird after 1918, too. I actually think the changes seen in 1918 were far greater than anything we’ve seen thus far. So maybe the modern economy is a little more stiff with waves (disruptions) taking much longer to cool. Thinking of all the supply chain messiness.
  - AstralStorm 4y ago
    The word to be used is properly called greed. The last attempt to vacuum up money before debt pumped asset bubbles finally burst and the lack of actual economy is globally exposed. There's no economy when things do not sell, after all. Assets that do not sell or produce have no actual long term value, besides the power play of resource denial. Conveniently located housing for people would sort of indirectly produce if the economy still was industrial. Or perhaps R&D based. It isn't, therefore it doesn't. So everything freezes and general populace are serfs, bound by unpayable debt instead of location. Next step is actual serfdom contracts from corporations.
    - ianai 4y ago
      Econs say fiat currency is almost meaningless outside of when it’s actually being traded for goods and services. One way to express the value implied in currency is what a constant amount of it may be converted to across different goods. Or if speaking of difference currencies, how much a known constant good/service costs in the local currency and compare that across currencies. This is the basis for the Economists Big Mac index. So yes, when capital as the aggregate of whatever asset gets hoarded away by few people there is inefficiency. An efficient market looks like every market participant (supply and demand side) having only that marginal amount of resource needed to make their marginal contribution towards the total output. It’s also in no market participants interest to run advertisements since they will sell all they produce and have enough resources to produce all that they can. Like producing construction nails or any other good or service that’s never graced an ad.
- ssully 4y ago
  I would be interested in actual data on if this is an increasing trend or not. When I was in college (graduated in 2015) most of my friends still had a job; be it to pay for school or to fund their weekend drinking activities.
  - Loughla 4y ago
    I think I should've been more specific in my first comment. Significantly more students are working full-time, with a non-significant amount indicating they are working at all. I have data! So at our institution, for the 2019-2020 academic year (most recent relevant data for comparison due to covid changes/temporary layoffs), 23% of our incoming students indicated working at least 36 hours a week, and an additional 52% indicated working between 5 and 35 hours a week. For the upcoming semester, 47% indicated they were working at least 36 hours a week, with an additional 30% indicating they worked 5 to 35 hours a week.
- spaceman_2020 4y ago
  The data shows this as well. Lots of people are working multiple jobs now
Test0129 4y ago
spaceman_2020 4y ago
Part of me thinks that people are wishing for a recession because they can’t really understand the economy anymore. It has edged past rationality. There seems to be a yearning for a reset where traditional metrics make sense again.

I work at a college; more students than ever are working while going to school. They have jobs, but need something else because they can't afford the life they had just three or four years ago. It's really a weird time.

ianai 4y ago
It is weird. Probably too weird for one word like recession to really convey much meaning. There certainly are assets/markets out there that feel/seem over valued. While the globe is still reacting to the pandemic. Stuff was weird after 1918, too. I actually think the changes seen in 1918 were far greater than anything we’ve seen thus far. So maybe the modern economy is a little more stiff with waves (disruptions) taking much longer to cool. Thinking of all the supply chain messiness.
- AstralStorm 4y ago
  The word to be used is properly called greed. The last attempt to vacuum up money before debt pumped asset bubbles finally burst and the lack of actual economy is globally exposed. There's no economy when things do not sell, after all. Assets that do not sell or produce have no actual long term value, besides the power play of resource denial. Conveniently located housing for people would sort of indirectly produce if the economy still was industrial. Or perhaps R&D based. It isn't, therefore it doesn't. So everything freezes and general populace are serfs, bound by unpayable debt instead of location. Next step is actual serfdom contracts from corporations.
  - ianai 4y ago
    Econs say fiat currency is almost meaningless outside of when it’s actually being traded for goods and services. One way to express the value implied in currency is what a constant amount of it may be converted to across different goods. Or if speaking of difference currencies, how much a known constant good/service costs in the local currency and compare that across currencies. This is the basis for the Economists Big Mac index. So yes, when capital as the aggregate of whatever asset gets hoarded away by few people there is inefficiency. An efficient market looks like every market participant (supply and demand side) having only that marginal amount of resource needed to make their marginal contribution towards the total output. It’s also in no market participants interest to run advertisements since they will sell all they produce and have enough resources to produce all that they can. Like producing construction nails or any other good or service that’s never graced an ad.
ssully 4y ago
I would be interested in actual data on if this is an increasing trend or not. When I was in college (graduated in 2015) most of my friends still had a job; be it to pay for school or to fund their weekend drinking activities.
- Loughla 4y ago
  I think I should've been more specific in my first comment. Significantly more students are working full-time, with a non-significant amount indicating they are working at all. I have data! So at our institution, for the 2019-2020 academic year (most recent relevant data for comparison due to covid changes/temporary layoffs), 23% of our incoming students indicated working at least 36 hours a week, and an additional 52% indicated working between 5 and 35 hours a week. For the upcoming semester, 47% indicated they were working at least 36 hours a week, with an additional 30% indicating they worked 5 to 35 hours a week.
spaceman_2020 4y ago
The data shows this as well. Lots of people are working multiple jobs now

Test0129 4y ago

spaceman_2020 4y ago

Part of me thinks that people are wishing for a recession because they can’t really understand the economy anymore. It has edged past rationality. There seems to be a yearning for a reset where traditional metrics make sense again.