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I'm kind of confused. It's not clear to me how or why the line keeps going up. People are spending less because of economic insecurity, everything is more expen

I'm kind of confused. It's not clear to me how or why the line keeps going up. People are spending less because of economic insecurity, everything is more expensive because of tariffs and war, interest rates have been high for four years. The general cultural mood feels unsustainable. Like the peak-woke period around 2022 before the pendulum swung really hard in the opposite direction. I don't know if there's a word for it, but I feel like the US has this tendency of trying to shove cultural change down people's throats in a really top-down manner that tends to backfire. At least one really positive outcome from this whole """AI""" movement thing is that class consciousness has been increased quite a bit from it. If you're a capitalist, it's better to be one quietly and fuck people over in secret instead of painting a huge political target on your back. They've done the opposite of this. And one key difference here is that the early 2020s DEI movement had way more people behind it. This is just a small group of rich people. Either the market is going to crash and they'll end up getting humiliated, or there will be a wave of populist backlash. In either case, we (people working in tech, SWEs, HWEs, etc) will probably get fucked over even worse than how it's been over the last couple years.

ai_fry_ur_brain 4mo ago
We've (tech workers) been in the labor aristocracy for the last 15 years ignoring the plights of the rest of labor. We kind of have it coming.
intended 4mo ago
K-shaped economy, Asset bubble, and AI spending. The retail / average consumer in America is seeing a very different world than the rich and ultra rich.
- ryandrake 4mo ago
  Yes. When people say "The economy" is improving, they are only talking about the stock market, which primarily effects rich investors and old people's retirement.
krackers 4mo ago
>It's not clear to me how or why the line keeps going up Because people believe it will go up, it's a prediction market for attention. The stock market seems to have decoupled from underlying "real value" of a company and is closer to cryptocoins now. Of course the flipside is that you also have the same volatility of cryptocoins.
- ted_bunny 4mo ago
  Just wait until TPTB crash the dollar on purpose to try to make their crypto stronger.
Ekaros 4mo ago
On some level it is probably due to flows. As long as money keeps flowing in and things don't get revaluated things look great. More money in line goes up. Money can come from both investing and corporate revenue. Once things are valuated again to lower point it might all cascade and crash.
rawgabbit 4mo ago
It's a bubble. When the music stops, everyone will be crying.

ai_fry_ur_brain 4mo ago

We've (tech workers) been in the labor aristocracy for the last 15 years ignoring the plights of the rest of labor. We kind of have it coming.

intended 4mo ago

K-shaped economy, Asset bubble, and AI spending. The retail / average consumer in America is seeing a very different world than the rich and ultra rich.

ryandrake 4mo ago
Yes. When people say "The economy" is improving, they are only talking about the stock market, which primarily effects rich investors and old people's retirement.

krackers 4mo ago

>It's not clear to me how or why the line keeps going up Because people believe it will go up, it's a prediction market for attention. The stock market seems to have decoupled from underlying "real value" of a company and is closer to cryptocoins now. Of course the flipside is that you also have the same volatility of cryptocoins.

ted_bunny 4mo ago
Just wait until TPTB crash the dollar on purpose to try to make their crypto stronger.

Ekaros 4mo ago

On some level it is probably due to flows. As long as money keeps flowing in and things don't get revaluated things look great. More money in line goes up. Money can come from both investing and corporate revenue. Once things are valuated again to lower point it might all cascade and crash.

rawgabbit 4mo ago

It's a bubble. When the music stops, everyone will be crying.