Current Events > Majority of Americans wrongly believe US is in recession

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/22/poll-economy-recession-biden

Something both Republicans and Democrats agree on: they dont know who to trust when it comes to learning about the economy. In both September and May, a majority of respondents more than 60% indicated skepticism over economic news.

People saying the economy is good by quoting stock prices just conveniently ignoring companies having massive layoffs and price gouging to do it. Also that housing is just unaffordable now to the majority of Americans.

Yeah that's totally normal, there aren't any implications to the overall state of the economy on that. Number is green that means good!

We may as well be for regular people. The rich getting richer might day otherwise but fuck them.

Economists: "there isn't a recession. You're just as broke as you were 5 years ago and things are marked up 200%"

Cool.

Of course people are skeptical over the economic news. Most people are drowning just like they were in other recessive periods, but all anyone can point to is stuff like the DOW hitting 40,000 for the first time ever.

And theyre trying to increase transactions because transactions have slowed/stagnated with current price increases. Ty for agreeing.

This is the point where people usually blame Dems on bad messaging.

But Biden made the economy a big part of his SotU address. He's given interviews blasting Greedflation, and he and the Dems tried to tackle price gouging. Never mind putting the rich on blast.

At this point, people are just stupid. Even "groceries prices up brrrrr" has already been addressed by Biden and the Dems. But if this narrowminded attitude is all it takes to doom and gloom, then we may just be fucked as a society.

As far as I can tell, it's just inflation/greedflation.

Unemployment is at record lows. Wages have been on the rise (albeit not fast enough, but this has been a problem for decades). Unions are getting stronger for the first time in decades. The stock market is quite strong, not that that means anything. And inflation has dramatically shrunk. The cost of eating out and other things has starkly increased, but again, this is companies using inflation as a cover to raise prices. Nothing to do with any government.

This is literally the exact opposite of what you said.

I said Target is currently increasing prices to decrease transactions??

Target, McDonalds, and car companies are lowering prices out of the goodness of their heart and not because things arent selling like they were.

And theyre trying to increase transactions because transactions have slowed/stagnated with current price increases. Ty for agreeing.

This is the point where people usually blame Dems on bad messaging.

This is what you said.

So when someone sees

Were not in a recession

And disagrees with that by saying

So companies are lowering prices out of the goodness of their heart and not because some things are bad?

You take the response as literal, that I really thought corporations are lowering prices out of the goodness of their heart. And ignored my disagreement with the premise later that post.

Im pretty stunned by this ngl lol

I don't care about your recession comments. You were claiming sales slowed down. They haven't. Not for McDonald's anyway, which beat their expected EPS for the entire last FY and Q1FY this year. There's another earnings report coming soon for Q2 but it's expected to be beaten again.

I mean, we literally are, regardless of what the government or a tabloid says. Housing, food, and gas are way too expensive for a 1st world that could claim they werent in a recession.

When your weekly $50 grocery now costs $125

It feels like a recession. Record profits for the rich is not a good forecast for how healthy the economy is.

It feels like a recession. Record profits for the rich is not a good forecast for how healthy the economy is.

Recession is code for "we're unhappy because we have to pay too much". We're not in a recession, but rising costs coupled with wage stagnation, and if there isn't wage stagnation just more rising costs, is really making people tired of the capitalism treadmill of bullshit lately.

People have lost any sense of accomplishment they get is the problem, honestly.

What the fuck are you guys buying

Not to pile on with anecdotes, but since you asked.

The handful of groceries I get from the regional grocery chain were $50~ in 2019 and now its $110~ so that sounds right.

My veggie Tropichop went from 4.99 in 2019 to 12.99 now.

Car insurance is up 5x~ as yall know. I own now, but the place I rented is 2.3x what it was 2019.

The handful of groceries I get from the regional grocery chain were $50~ in 2019 and now its $110~ so that sounds right.

You should shop around if your car insurance went up 500%.

Oh the economy is doing fantastic. It's just also wildly disconnected from actual experience on the ground and has been for quite some time now.

Took folks long enough to notice

People always start noticing the nuance when democrats are in office.

Aka, the vibes feel bad.

For the same type of groceries?
God damn man.

Cycle? How long are your cycles? The moment they wanted to jack my rates up, I went from Geico to USAA. I'll have no qualms dropping USAA the moment they try upping it.

That says more about how the government chooses to crunch numbers more than American peoples misestimation of how bad the economy is for the average person. They can change the parameters of the unemployment statistic is measured for instance so it looks prettier than it actually is, and I believe they actually did that during the Regan administration. Im sure many other metrics are tinkered with for the numbers to look pretty, its like a company that does funny things with their balance sheet to impress shareholders.

I mostly eat bulk rice and beans from Costco so Ive escaped big noticeable changes.

It's weird because people are NOT acting as if we're in a slump.

Its interesting that the local economy in every state is better than the national economy. More people think they're doing fine, but that the country is doing bad. At some level, you can't have both.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/fcc5d649.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b18db5c0.jpg

People are eating out more than ever, traveling more, etc.

Same here. Most non junk and non frozen foods have not increased in price much. The real price increase has been in frozen meals and packaged snacks, and like...I just wait to buy that shit on sale as much as I can.

I pay by 6mo. I desperately tried getting USAA but the fam didnt serve long enough smh

Same here. Most non junk and non frozen foods have not increased in price much. The real price increase has been in frozen meals and packaged snacks, and like...I just wait to buy that shit on sale as much as I can.

I acknowledge i might be way to frugal with grocery shopping though. I do most of the shopping but my wife at times will follow me, see something she wants, comment how it's so expensive, and then put it in the cart instead of putting it back. Couldn't be me man.

This is not true at all. We mostly buy meat, veggies, eggs/dairy, and staples, and that has all gone way up

I may be wrong, but I don't think you're locked into insurance like you are, say, a phone plan. If you switch insurance they should refund you the prorated amount.

To clarify, I'm not saying things haven't increased for people, but for my groceries the increases I've seen are for items that I don't regularly buy.