Americans spending more and more time at home, with COVID pandemic accelerating trend
COVID-19 spurred more Americans to stay home. But this trend didn't start or end with the pandemic, research shows.
If you want consumers to participate in a consumer economy, you have to pay them enough to consume. It’s pretty simple actually.
Really we’re in a long recession that’s slowly rolling out to more people.
Considering how much it costs me to live there why would I want to leave and not get my moneys worth?
Commented on another thread - Rising costs, inflation, stagnant wages, a pandemic, and the specter of Long COVID. Not to mention that the country is so relentlessly polarized that nearly everyone I know is reluctant to let anyone new into their circle for fear of learning that new person has been duped into supporting literal fascist Nazis. We’re exhausted and we don’t want to argue all the time.
With Cheeto Benito and the Brown Shirts in office, there’s a palpable tension in nearly every interaction right now. It’s only going to get worse, until eventually we will either have to start socializing in the form of local community organizing or we’ll rapidly find that we no longer have a hope of a future for ourselves.
For a nation typically sitting firmly in dumb, fat, and happy territory, this is a level of existentialism that none of us are accustomed to. Unless of course you’re Black or maybe Latino, in which case you probably know what’s up.
nearly everyone I know is reluctant to let anyone new into their circle
I've taken to making new friends at protests.
And all I really wanted to do was live a quiet life for a few hundred centuries.
"This traumatic thing happened and everyone's still traumatized. What gives!"
Most of the stuff I like to do is at home, though.
Also all the food and entertainment I've already paid for. If you go out you're obligated to spend money
America sucks so bad that I'd literally rather not leave my house
Actually, most people just can't afford to leave. With so few spaces being public these days you can't leave your house without spending money you don't have.
Actually, most people just can't afford to leave
Yeah that's a better answer. Only reason I can leave the house basically at all is because (1) my parents pay for gas and (2) college is the only place I have to go. But my answer is true too; it sucks because everyone is too poor to leave.
Only 'Third Place' we have left is starbucks. Where Have All the ‘Third Places’ Gone?
