Despite months of increasingly positive economic indicators, the American public remains negative about the state of the nation’s economy, with 51% saying they think the economy is still in a downturn and getting worse, according to a new CNN poll.
We know the 50-80% arbitrary price hike conveniently mislabeled "inflation" is total made up corporate greed bullshit. Until that shit goes back down, the economy isn't "getting better" for a lot of us and we know exactly why.
As others have already stated, the job market is fine, the stocks are fine, but the ability to afford living day to day is worse than I have ever remembered. Here in my cheaper state here are some random prices:
A bag of Doritos is over $7.
Beef shortage makes ground beef for a family of 4 $14
Gas prices are over $3.70
My grocery bill increased by nearly 50% overall and we are buying less on top of that
Car prices are through the roof, making it impossible for people like me to change cars (I’m hearing they are going to drop again soon)
Rent prices are soaring to the point where it isn’t sustainable
That's because (yes, others here beat me to it) -- the economy is not the stock market. People's costs of living and wages aren't getting better, they're getting worse, even as giant corps have record profits and that is reflected on the stock tickers. If the average person was heavily invested early on in some of these corporate behemoths and could actually share in the rapacious profits, maybe things would be different... but that's not the case.
Been to a grocery store lately? Looked at rent prices? How about clothing? Gas? Basic necessities?
People think the economy's getting worse because it IS for consumers. I don't really give a shit if a company is paying less for grain than they did a year ago if the prices they charge for the final product havn't gone down!
Until basic costs of living start decreasing, most people aren't going to see any positive change.
That's because no matter how well stock prices are doing, it still costs substantially more to buy groceries than it did last year, by way of example. The average American is screwed just as hard with a good economy as a bad one, and the poorer you are, the rawer the screwing.
When toxic "econimistism" comes home to roost. A "strong economy" as measured by stock markets and company profits, both owned primarily by the extremely wealthy is not the same as "working class people are doing well economically", which is what should be meant by "a strong economy" if it were not for the neoliberal brain rot.
Months of gaslighting that they were doing great didn't work out so well. Being told wages are up, inflation down, economy great while wondering how they are gonna pay rent contradicted the desired message.
That's because our useless news media has been beating the drum of recession for literally years now because fear mongering is all they know how to do.
The stock market isn't the economy. Wall Street has a vested interest in us believing the opposite, however, so of course CNN and others will keep acting like they're the same thing.
Or maybe... just maybe... this is backwards and the notable thing is that statistics have been cited in support of a claim that the economy is improving, despite the fact that at least half of Americans believe that it isn't.
Yeah I mean, gains on Wall Street may be considered "stronger economic news" by some, but it tends to matter for relatively few.
A strong economy doesn't rely on news stories about Wall St. If I see my money going further, I take it as strong economic news. If I see my wages go up, I take it as strong economic news. If I ever see rents go down, or housing in general become more affordable, or literally anything that affects most common people in a positive way based on some financial change, I'll take it as strong economic news.
Wall St making more money? Not strong economic news. Just stories that highlight how the rich continue to get richer and how out of touch one small subset of the population is from the rest.
“Months of stronger economic news”. Oh you mean propaganda? The economy is getting worse. Price gouging and job losses are an easy way to gauge things.
People don’t need news to know how fucked up their shit is. All they have to do is experience it and then they’ll know themselves the truth. You won’t get this take from the news because they are gaslighting you.
Alright, no one has said it yet. People's view of how the economy is often strongly related to their political party. So it wouldn't surprise me if half of people always believe the economy is getting worse.
By most metrics, the economy is still gloomy long term. It's a prediction over the course of years not months.
Consider the great depression, the economy was fucked months before the stock market crashed, but if you only looked at the stock market to determine that, you would think everything was fine up until it was too late.
I recommend watching wealthion and anyone they interview on their channel.