The relentless increases in insurance, property taxes, food, clothing, etc have destroyed the purchasing power of all but the wealthiest Americans. Almost everyone is significantly worse off than they were only a few short years ago.
The real question is: why is the media trying to gaslight the public into believing there is something wrong with you if you think the economy is bad.
There is quite a large contingent of Americans who are better off. Those with equity investments and those who had already purchased their "final" home (or most expensive and next step is downgrading) are doing very well.
Also, the SP500 is up 12% per year since Feb 2020.
I would estimate half of all voters (not half of the population) are better off (even if they don't feel like it), especially between Social Security cost of living adjustments.
Many W2 incomes also saw healthy gains, so while they might not be lockstep with increases of prices of goods and services, between equity in home and markets, nominal wage increases, and cost of living adjustments to fixed income, it is not all doom and gloom. At worst, many people should be in the same situation as before.
>In 2023, the average household in each income group could purchase the same bundle of goods and services that it purchased in 2019 with a smaller portion of its adjusted income after transfers and taxes because such income increased more than prices did from 2019 to 2023.
>For all households, adjusted market income also increased more than prices did; the average household in each income quintile could spend a smaller portion of its market income in 2023 than it did in 2019 to purchase the same consumption bundle.
I’d argue that home equity doesn’t really matter all that much. If you want to sell, you need to buy another home at inflated prices AND an higher interest rate. How are you better off?
Inflated 401ks are a cherry on top for the Boomer vampire squid generation, but the overwhelming majority of people have lost real purchasing power and are undeniably worse off.
Also, do we really buy any inflation or other numbers given by these Federal Agencies? It seems to me they have become highly political and now only serve to push a narrative.
Not only is CPI very suspect (iPads got faster so we can ignore that pesky food inflation), the postive economic numbers pointed to are now frequently adjusted downward[0] after the fanfare settles.
Reminder, too: an estimation above was based on voters.
The United States (assumed, quoting census.gov) doesn't have compulsory voting. We have a lot of ballot opportunities. "Voters" is vague at best.
Points being: participation often ends up abysmal. I mention this because it's also suspect/misleading - intentional or not. Posting down here to not appear as a criticism. I'm lacking facts too.
Counter-intuitively... voters as a category lose each of our elections to non-voters; outnumbered like 2:1. A majority of a minority is doing better - yay!
I should verify this, but I'm here rambling instead. Someone may check/correct me :)
Trick is, the non-voters implicitly cast no vote. They're probably in substantial numbers, doing the same or worse, and yet don't "count" in this hypothetical.
I need to make sense of the rest of the claims, but I know this: I was making $160k. It stopped feeling like the lucrative amount it was.
I had to get a significant raise to be comfortable with no new costs - only the same, expanded. I didn't choose for everything to cost more.
The relentless increases in insurance, property taxes, food, clothing, etc have destroyed the purchasing power of all but the wealthiest Americans. Almost everyone is significantly worse off than they were only a few short years ago.
The real question is: why is the media trying to gaslight the public into believing there is something wrong with you if you think the economy is bad.