3 ms·

I don’t think people are comparing it to depressions in the past considering most young adults weren’t even born back then. People are just noticing the dispari

by _lvbh 2y ago

I don’t think people are comparing it to depressions in the past considering most young adults weren’t even born back then. People are just noticing the disparity in wealth, especially with social media making it much more easy to flaunt and see people flaunting their wealth. Before actually taking a look on Instagram, I didn’t even know it was possible to live the lavish lifestyles on there. Even more surprisingly, it was of people I knew in real life; vacationing on yachts and all across different luxurious parts of Europe while being students of the same University. A forbidden thought: “what do their parents do? If only I could live like that” but I just forget about it and resume boiling plain rice and lettuce with no sauce.

atmavatar 2y ago
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-recession-americans-believe-economic-downturn-new-poll-unemployment-2024-5?op=1 https://www.businessinsider.com/us-recession-americans-belie... A significant number of people believe we're currently in a recession and that unemployment is at a 50 year high (in fact, it's a 50-year low). That's likely due to significant propagandizing on outlets like Fox News, Newsmax, OAN, etc. But, to be fair, economic gains have been vastly disproportionately going to the wealthy, and despite recent (as in the last year) inflation being low, prices in the last 5-10 years have skyrocketed, so it's pretty easy to get the impression that inflation is still high. That's especially true when wage growth only recently started outpacing inflation. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-inflation-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-i... For many people, it doesn't feel like the economy is doing well, so it's pretty easy to confirm their biases by telling them it isn't.
- tuatoru 2y ago
  If it doesn't feel like a good time to most people, then it isn't a good time. No one cares, or no one should care, about "the economy", some abstract bogeyman that the MSM is always going on about. They should be caring about the wellbeing of median and modal households. GDP was only ever intended by Kaldor to be a measure of general wellbeing, highly imperfect but the best available at the time. Now, it's a target, and we all know how that goes.

by _lvbh 2y ago

atmavatar 2y ago

https://www.businessinsider.com/us-recession-americans-believe-economic-downturn-new-poll-unemployment-2024-5?op=1 https://www.businessinsider.com/us-recession-americans-belie... A significant number of people believe we're currently in a recession and that unemployment is at a 50 year high (in fact, it's a 50-year low). That's likely due to significant propagandizing on outlets like Fox News, Newsmax, OAN, etc. But, to be fair, economic gains have been vastly disproportionately going to the wealthy, and despite recent (as in the last year) inflation being low, prices in the last 5-10 years have skyrocketed, so it's pretty easy to get the impression that inflation is still high. That's especially true when wage growth only recently started outpacing inflation. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-inflation-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-i... For many people, it doesn't feel like the economy is doing well, so it's pretty easy to confirm their biases by telling them it isn't.

tuatoru 2y ago
If it doesn't feel like a good time to most people, then it isn't a good time. No one cares, or no one should care, about "the economy", some abstract bogeyman that the MSM is always going on about. They should be caring about the wellbeing of median and modal households. GDP was only ever intended by Kaldor to be a measure of general wellbeing, highly imperfect but the best available at the time. Now, it's a target, and we all know how that goes.