If the economy is so good, then why is it that just about everyone I know has been struggling nonstop for the past 6 years?
I'm talking food service, tech, hairdressers, building trades. They're either out of work, or they're making the same money they made in 2020 while paying 50% more for rent.
I'm talking food service, tech, hairdressers, building trades. They're either out of work, or they're making the same money they made in 2020 while paying 50% more for rent.
Comments
https://daughternumberthree.blogspot.com/2020/01/graphing-reagan.html
https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2025.1532383
But SOMETHING bad is going on, whether it's reflected in the economists' numbers or not.
It can't just be my friends. And it feels like things never recovered post 2020.
That’s it. That’s why they think the economy is so good.
And don't look for them to recover any time soon.
If anything, it's in process of getting hella worse.
Also, "great economy" for who?
It's like everyone memory-holed Biden and the Fed saying "Americans have too much savings and have too many options in the job market"
Then proceed to raise interest rates to pull the rug out from under us
How else is it that THIS economy is better than the one in which a whole family could live off the minimum wage?
*GDP
**Cost of living
Most everyone else is either underemployed and struggling, unemployed and looking, or they have a job and feel fortunate— even though they haven't gotten a real raise in years.
Geographically, I get wildly different reports from people in different parts of the country. Housing shortage is more a thing in some places than others, particularly cities with restrictive geography or law are inelastic.
Industrially, frontline service jobs are being replaced with tech, and restaurant work has always been a bit tenuous for my whole life. Construction falls victim to underinvestment.
Im not an economist either but.....Everything costs more but wages don't go up , which means all that money is just getting siphoned to the top.
Rich people are richer. We are getting squeezed.
Do people like being sick all the time? Because almost nobody is wearing masks.
The plus side around here is that most people are being respectful and courteous with maskers, rather than derisive.
What you're describing is likely LongCovid. I really need people to read this: https://www.thegauntlet.news/p/what-is-long-covid
The burden of LongCovid is massive as there's millions of people with it (some may not realize it yet).
This point is critical. Each Covid infection runs the risk of further damage to majority of your bodily systems.
Smart people too, not wearing masks… people who should *know* *better*
Throw in some RSV, norovirus, influenza A&B, perhaps some H5N1 or H5N9??
absolutely FVCKED
https://jheor.org/post/1746-economic-effects-of-long-covid-even-larger-than-we-thought
We’ve baked a lot of chronic stressors into our economy, because doing anything about any of them would be inconvenient and hurt short term profits.
COVID and climate change are the biggies, but continued dependence on fossil fuels is right up there.
So many people can't afford to live indoors anymore.
If you "decide" to live outdoors, you'll either die or be put in jail.
Most of the issues amount to prying profits out of the hands of corps/oligarchs.
Put that all together and it’s hardly surprising that the economic indicators and economic reality diverge dramatically.
First time in five years, holy hell.
Next time I’m going to the store manager, who always wears a mask.
Masks fucking work!
Pure # of jobs tells a false tale of ☀️ when we have ongoing ⛈️
And you’re 🎯 on of raises. Where is the indicator showing how much LESS ppl w/a job make bc of inflation?
The entire elite economic consensus was: how do we reduce wage growth. There was not even a moment of consideration for controlling prices.
What are we measuring and what are we not measuring? Because the usual measurements aren't capturing the full story.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/02/11/democrats-tricked-strong-economy-00203464?nname=politico-toplines&nid=0000018f-3124-de07-a98f-3be4d1400000&nrid=4ce30e36-5f63-48dd-81b0-0b9da92d7e9b
Combined with the groups of people who did get worse off being overrepresented in online spaces and now everything is bad
But things are getting worse. Prices keep getting higher & higher & the speed they go up is increasing but most people's incomes havent kept up with that rate of increase
"In other words, nearly one of every four workers is functionally unemployed in America today"
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/02/11/democrats-tricked-strong-economy-00203464
Whilst the ordinary person is struggling, the sale of super yachts and private jets has exploded. Yet RW media and politicians blame immigrants.
It may feel like slavery but really it's every second of your life being monetized for someone else profit. That profit is our economy
2) Why is that your starting point? Most nations have barely recovered from 2008…
Which was caused by the last lot to favour deregulation in the USA (and UK).
I feel worse off in most every metric since 2019 despite healthy salary increases(yeah I'm a twat).