Why Americans are bummed out about the economy
Why Americans are bummed out about the economy
Because grocery bills and rent prices are unlikely to return to where they were just a few short years ago, the psychological scars from the war on inflation will linger, write Dana M. Peterson and Erik Lundh.
US consumers remain unimpressed with this progress, however, because they remember what they were paying for things pre-pandemic. Used car prices are 34% higher, food prices are 26% higher and rent prices are 22% higher than in January 2020, according to our calculations using PCE data.
While these are some of the more extreme examples of recent price increases, the average basket of goods and services that most Americans buy in any given month is 17% more expensive than four years ago.
You're viewing a single thread.
I'm not a R but the Democrats seriously need to stop pushing this shitty "economy is awesome" narrative. Because everytime someone hears it who isn't feeling the economy, it makes them hate the Democrats a little more. Staying home and not voting because your candidate has pissed you off, is just as bad.
For anyone who hasn't recieved a 20% pay increase, the economy is not good. In fact you'd need about a 35% to 50% pay increase to be feeling the same as you did pre pandemic. If you job hopped during the super awesome fun times of Covid hiring and got a boost in salary, then yeah you're new salary offset by new higher prices makes the economy feel better than it was.
But if you're the majority of people who did not get 50% adjustments, you are having a bad time. You are factually worse off financially than you were.
The idea of blaming who or what made the bad economy is a lost game. Bush tanked the economy, Obama got the blame. Trump tanked the economy, Biden got the blame. But just because Biden didn't tank it, doesn't mean it isn't tanked.
There is nobody, not a single person, I know of that is doing better today than 2020.
It's the gaslighting that's pissing people off. "The economy is great!" ... "For who?!"
In fact you'd need about a 35% to 50% pay increase to be feeling the same as you did pre pandemic.
https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=100&year1=202001&year2=202402
That's high -- CPI is up 20.29% from January 2020 to February 2024.
Yes but the data is skewed. The 20.6% is true. But if you don't buy those items that's not the amount. Many items are double what they were. Lots over 50% increase.
Vehicles, insurance rates, computer components, huge increases. Eggs, milk, and bread 20%. Not everyone is buying only staples.
I'm doing better. Though I did switch jobs in 2020 and 2022, which offset most the inflation.
Yes you'd be one that job hopped during the best time to. Before layoffs with huge increases. For you with 2 hops even with high inflation, you're probably better off. Which is awesome. But abnormal.
I did increase my salary by close to 50%! I still hate it. I still can't get out of debt without spending the next 5 years repaying it and you bet your ass I'm not seeing a possibility to ever buy a house unless I land a unicorn local first time buyer scheme which I imagine has a massive demand for.
Shit is fucked. I'm in the top 1 or 2% but so much of my money goes to rent in a tiny ass village with a 30 min commute that the situation is just depressing.
So you're making 200k+ a year and can't afford to pay your debts? Sounds like a money management issue with that kind of salary. To put it in context a modest rent of $2000 a month would be about 24000 a year out of your 138000 take home pay. So either you're not in the top 2 percent or something's fishy.
People accrue debt during bad times then have to pay it during good times, but often couldn't have made it through to those good times without spending on the way. I am still paying off the accrued deficit from when we had a family of 4 living on 15k a year, then later 6 on 50k, we were always so close to ok but not quite and year after year it accrues. Well during that time I went to university, made more but still not enough for a family, eventually split with my ex, now in a functional 2 earner plus couple of part time jobs situation we are sorta raking it in now but both still paying for when we were not.
People who make good money probably didn't always make good money. People who raised other people also take a financial hit for awhile. I'm assuredly better off from having kids, wouldn't have bothered getting the degree and better job without them, but the payoff is slow not immediate.
That's why there are bankruptcy protection laws. If you have a debt you cannot pay off you should strongly consider bankruptcy. Your credit can recover in a couple of years.
It's the same reason Republicans are asking "are you better off than you were four years ago?"
Anyone with an existing ideology probably knows who they are voting for. Swing voters are emotional.
Republicans are whistling to those just willing to judge the economy based on a Democrat being in office.
Biden is trying to thread the needle by pointing out there have been positive indicators without shirting on his own policies or advocating straight up anti capitalist messages.
After the primaries, the race is always a race to the middle.
The issue is the Republicans are correct. Are you better off now vs 4 years ago financially? For the majority of Americans, that's a no. For almost all Americans that's a no.
Even on MSNBC they never answer that question financially. It's always about being locked up during Covid, stacking the courts, etc. The only thing doing better are stocks which are worthless until you cash them out. And the minority of people who job hopped.
Democrat voters aren't idiots like republicans. Telling them you're doing better when they factually are not will grind many peoples' gears.
Yes the Biden years have not been some sort of economic triumph, but if you take the question at face value, how were things four years ago? They were horrible. Unemployment was record highs. Stocks had tanked. Hundreds of thousands of people were about to die. Etc etc etc.
That's the problem with the binary decision, about the role of president, who doesn't even make a lot of the critical economic decisions anyways.
The economy is not "good" but many indicators have been improving or are better than expected. But mishandling an event like a pandemic will certainly tank the economy, just like neoliberal policies will generally lead to a good stock market and little else.
But the Democrats are specifically touting you are better off financially. The whole pandemic thing and death and unemployment is a different topic. If you add up all the Americans that switched to a higher paying job in the past 4 years that offsets inflation I don't know what the number would be.
If it's 6 million jobs a year (6.4m in 2021) and 50% get a raise, that's 3million peeps a year better off. 4 years, 12million people. 12/300 is 4%. So the economy is factually better for 4% of the country.
That's not a "the economy is doing great!" slogan. That's a "4% of the working class is doing great! The other 96% can suck rocks and like it"
Edited: The 50% came from a self reported study in 2022 that said 50% of respondents said they were paid the same or more in their new job. Even if it was 5% more they're included in the above number. So I feel this is a very generous number of 4%.