Is the economy really as bad as they're saying?

[Findthetone1]

Lots of victim blaming going on here.

"Hey if you're struggling, just get a better job". "Hey if you're struggling you just didn't manage your money right like I did cuz I'm a money stud LOOK AT ME!!!!".

Lol.

 

[JamesTiberiusKirk]

You're a 1%er larping as a 99%er.

And you're kicking down on those less fortunate than you.

Ya, I'm a 1%er. I was smart, I was lucky, I worked hard and I was lucky. Did I mention that I was lucky? I KNOW that I wasn't born on third base and think I hit a triple. I was lucky.

 

[JamesTiberiusKirk]

…and a total faggot.

Someone's awfully upset today. Did you spill something on your best party dress Princess?

 

[Robostyle]

And you're kicking down on those less fortunate than you.

How am i "kicking down" exactly?
It's not always about luck, you have no idea about my background or how i grew up and how fortunate or unfortunate i am.
I'm not broke because i scrimped and saved, lived within my means and made sound financial decisions.
I bought used, cheaper guitars and gear instead of buying top of the line musical equipment or golf clubs.
YMMV

 

[Floyd Eye]

And gas, and electric, and phone bill, and food, and fuel, and lunch, and Netflix and chill, and vape, and Takis, and eyelashes and coffin nails…. Yadda etc.

And wages still suck. I saw a study where an hours work gets you 2 potato’s and a loaf of bread.

Insurance.

 

[TheBiggestJerk]

Insurance.

Insurance, vape juice, Celsius, Pokémon stuff, and compulsive gamblers.

 

[Picasso]

Captain Faggot Kirk is on the dole.

 

[Findthetone1]

And you're kicking down on those less fortunate than you.

Ya, I'm a 1%er. I was smart, I was lucky, I worked hard and I was lucky. Did I mention that I was lucky? I KNOW that I wasn't born on third base and think I hit a triple. I was lucky.

You see kids? Proof that even the dumbest motherfucker in the room can suck dick into financial affluence.
Don't give up hope!

 

[Stumplegriltskin]

It's not so much the economy, it's shit the little shit that get you. Taxes. Everything out to fuck you no matter what way your turn. If the government didn't steal 1/3 of my paycheck, that'd be a nice fucking start. I live better than a lot of people, but I don't enjoy the government stealing my money. I would willingly, on a weekly basis, donate the same amount of money I pay in taxes, to a family in need, or even a crack addict before the government.

 

[JamesTiberiusKirk]

Captain Faggot Kirk is on the dole.

Dole? You mean welfare? Or this?

You see kids? Proof that even the dumbest motherfucker in the room can suck dick into financial affluence.
Don't give up hope!

I appreciate you calling me affluent but I'm not. I'm comfortably middle class.

 

[Findthetone1]

Ya, I'm a 1%er.

Oh, so this was bad sarcasm? Oh well. There's still time.

 

[kmanick]

I've looked into this a bit myself me and the Mrs are doing fine but I have a 24 year old daughter who is doing great for someone 2 years out of College, She decided to stay home for another year and is saving her money so she and her fiance can actually buy something. A lot of People her age are paying $1800-2300 a month just for rent. She refuses to do that (and I don't blme her) Ordering Uber eats, going out for lunch every day, odering every streaming service they can get their hands on, and then wonder why they are broke. There definitely is an air of entitlement to the GenZ'ers. A lot of them have no idea how to handle their finances.
So housing costs are a big issue, I'm in Mass , so Heir Healey , has caused our enrgey prices to soar since she took office, the "Green Deal bullshit"
is costing us a lot of money, with really a net zero return.
But the one thing no one seems to be addressing is this. When Covid hit prices went souring due to "suppy chain" issues.
Those issues are long gone yet I haven't seen any prices drop , well basically on anything. Going shopping even at market Basket is a 'scared straight" event
everytime I go. Companies are price gouging us across the board ( I am as strong a Capitalist as you'll ever meet) but this is bullshit

 

[Floyd Eye]

I've looked into this a bit myself me and the Mrs are doing fine but I have a 24 year old daughter who is doing great for someone 2 years out of College, She decided to stay home for another year and is saving her money so she and her fiance can actually buy something. A lot of People her age are paying $1800-2300 a month just for rent. She refuses to do that (and I don't blme her) Ordering Uber eats, going out for lunch every day, odering every streaming service they can get their hands on, and then wonder why they are broke. There definitely is an air of entitlement to the GenZ'ers. A lot of them have no idea how to handle their finances.
So housing costs are a big issue, I'm in Mass , so Heir Healey , has caused our enrgey prices to soar since she took office, the "Green Deal bullshit"
is costing us a lot of money, with really a net zero return.
But the one thing no one seems to be addressing is this. When Covid hit prices went souring due to "suppy chain" issues.
Those issues are long gone yet I haven't seen any prices drop , well basically on anything. Going shopping even at market Basket is a 'scared straight" event
everytime I go. Companies are price gouging us across the board ( I am as strong a Capitalist as you'll ever meet) but this is bullshit

100%

 

[Findthetone1]

( I am as strong a Capitalist as you'll ever meet) but this is bullshit

I'm 100% for Capitalism. But ethics should be involved, and that isn't always the case as witnessed by the covid prices still being applied.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

I've looked into this a bit myself me and the Mrs are doing fine but I have a 24 year old daughter who is doing great for someone 2 years out of College, She decided to stay home for another year and is saving her money so she and her fiance can actually buy something. A lot of People her age are paying $1800-2300 a month just for rent. She refuses to do that (and I don't blme her) Ordering Uber eats, going out for lunch every day, odering every streaming service they can get their hands on, and then wonder why they are broke. There definitely is an air of entitlement to the GenZ'ers. A lot of them have no idea how to handle their finances.
So housing costs are a big issue, I'm in Mass , so Heir Healey , has caused our enrgey prices to soar since she took office, the "Green Deal bullshit"
is costing us a lot of money, with really a net zero return.
But the one thing no one seems to be addressing is this. When Covid hit prices went souring due to "suppy chain" issues.
Those issues are long gone yet I haven't seen any prices drop , well basically on anything. Going shopping even at market Basket is a 'scared straight" event
everytime I go. Companies are price gouging us across the board ( I am as strong a Capitalist as you'll ever meet) but this is bullshit

Good on your daughter and her fiancé for not buying into the culture of eating out all the time or having everything brough to you. My SIL is on the opposite end. Goes out 2-3 times a week, uber eats a 20oz coke for $17, has all the streaming services where she couldn't possibly be watching them all the time, and has run up consumer debt buying crap off Amazon. After all that she's wondering why she can't afford things she actually needs.

I agree there's some price gouging and corporate greed going on since the supply chain issues have cleared up. I guess now it's the price of gas/transport that's the current excuse. The other factor you have to work in is people are still willing to pay those high prices. <- Not counting food and true necessities in that statement, but general consumer goods. The only way corporations will lower prices is if people stop paying them. I'm not saying the corps are doing no "wrong", but there is some shared blame with the consumer.

Thinking of a random example to illustrate that point; Cell Phones. People are paying several grand each year to get the latest and greatest model. If people weren't paying those prices then the phones wouldn't cost as much. And of course corporations will push the line of what costs consumers will endure.

The shitty part about that is it's pretty much built into law starting with the Dodge vs Ford lawsuit in the early 1900's. The courts ruled that publicly traded companies first duty is to maximize profits for shareholders rather than benefit the company (for say growth) or consumers. That initial ruling has been upheld any time it was challenged. So even if they wanted to lower prices if it creates more profit for shareholders by law they may not be able to.

Here's the wiki about the Dodge vs Ford case if you want to read more on it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co.

 

[shit butt poop party]

This question is stemming from a conversation I was having with the wife this morning. We were talking about they should bring home ec back in schools, but expand it past teaching girls how to bake. Change it to Household Management and teach budgeting, basic home repair, and life management in general.

Part of that was saying people don't know how to manage their finances, budget, and live within their means. That lead to the economy and people not being able to afford things. I asked the rhetorical question is the economy really that bad? Or is it that people are not tracking their finances, trying to fund a lifestyle outside their means on credit, racking up unnecessary consumer debt then bitching they never have any money blaming it on the economy instead of their poor decisions.

You turn on the news and it's nothing but Trump's economy is crippling the nation. No one can afford basic necessities because the economy is so bad. The cost of everything keeps going up. Then you watch some man on the street type videos asking about people's finances. You see stuff like I have $90,000 in consumer debt plus student loans. Oh I didn't realize I was paying $300/month for subscriptions I didn't know I had. We couldn't afford eggs but just came back from a $10,000 destination vacation we put all on the credit card. Basically everything saying the average person doesn't track their finances and spends outside their means.

In my personal life I've seen prices on select items go up; like beef and gas, but overall I'm not seeing/feeling any effects of a bad economy. We also track our finances, have zero debt, budget for the future/savings, and overall live within our means. The needs are met, the savings goals are hit, and we can generally afford the wants with no issues or struggles. I haven't had to adjust our monthly budget since back when Biden was in office and there was the runaway inflation. In most months we have more money left over than planned/expected. Oh, and as an added personal stat, my retirement and investment accounts have been doing really well this year.

With all of that and an attempt to answer that rhetorical question I had AI pull the stats. I'm definitely seeing a disconnect between what people are saying about the economy and what it's actually doing. The numbers say the economy isn't perfect, but overall it's better than it was prior, trending in the right direction, and generally floating in or doing better than historical averages. My conclusion is the economy is growing a little slower than normal, but pretty decent right now. It's people's poor financial habits and life decisions that are the problem. Instead of taking responsibility, they blame it on a bad economy.

Here's the stats I pulled.
Of the categories shown, GDP and Consumer Spending are the ones you want to see stable/go up and the rest trend down to indicate a healthy economy. Housing price is nuanced and influenced by other factors. So that category can be a bit over the map due to that.

What are y'alls thoughs on the matter?

Economic Indicator	Current Stats	Last Year	Year 2022	Projected EOY 2026	Projected EOY 2028	Historical Average
GDP Growth	1.5%	2.2%	2.5%	1.8%	2.1%	3.1%
CPI Inflation	3.4%	2.7%	8.0%	3.0%	2.5%	3.2%
Unemployment Rate	4.3%	4.1%	3.6%	4.2%	4.0%	5.7%
Consumer Spending Growth	4.4%	3.8%	7.5%	4.1%	3.5%	3.0%
Interest Rates (Fed Funds)	3.6%	4.5%	4.3%	3.25%	3.0%	4.6%
Housing Price Growth	1.3%	2.0%	7.5%	1.5%	3.0%	4.0%

Problem is, none of these metrics are really usable or even truthful. GDP doesn't matter if it's just going to the top 1% in the country while things get worse for everyone else. CPI inflation is completely fake, unemployment rate is completely fake, the others are fuzzy and gamed at best.

There is absolutely no fucking way in hell consumer spending is above average...I work in this area (sort of) and it's insanely bad right now.
When you look at the average cost of life's necessities as percentage of median pay (housing, food, transportation, medical), things are incredibly bad compared to anytime in the past 100 years, at least in terms of plain numbers...I know stuff has gotten better in some areas of life from the past, but a lot has been getting significantly worse over the last 40 years and it's accelerating how bad that stuff is getting.

 

[JackTripper]

Everybody is driving $50k vehicles and is leveraged to the hilt. Add all the other unnecessary expenses and they are just getting by paycheck to paycheck. They assume all their other costs will remain fixed, which works until it doesn't. Rent, grocery, insurance, energy all spike within a short span, and now they are overleveraged. And then the credit/debt cycle begins to keep the life style going. It's a house of cards.

Most businesses are not gouging. In fact, they are struggling. Big businesses understand "price effect," meaning it's more profitable to sell a lot of items at a lower price than it is to sell fewer items at a higher price. There is no incentive to gouge unless there is a supply restriction.

If you are a smaller business with fuel pumps, you are double screwed because of the supply restriction. Contrary to what most people think, retail fuel stations make less per gallon when fuel prices rise. To remain competitive, their margins get compressed as pump prices rise. An average customer comes into their store a year ago and spends $40 on gas and $20 on sandwiches, soda and other snacks. Today, they spend $60 on gas and $5 on snacks. Year over year sales for that business go up on paper, but their profit margins drop because sales have shifted from high margin products (food) to low margin products (fuel). Employees feel the pinch in the form of low-wage increases. Then the employee becomes delinquent on the payments for their $50k vehicle.

 

[The~Kid]

IMO these "experts" projections are always off NVM the stupid ass Congressional Budget...... Year after year after year.....


They spend billions on these retarded models and whatever and think tanks only to be wrong year after year.....


That being said its not the end of the year and a lot of the underlying factors of the economy remain strong and healthier than ever especially officially really coming out of the Pandemic and putting the economy in full swing.


Lets not forget the Big Beautiful Bill is yet to take full effect and Powell is gone too no?

 

[VonBonfire]

I was looking at rentals for member Techdeth in my area the other day and realized area rents have basically doubled since I last rented in 2012. I thought I was crazy renting a beach house in '09 for 1100/mo, my daughter was paying that for a half assed studio apartment in north St. Pete as of this summer.

Grocery costs have gone up at least 30-40% since 2021, fuel nearly doubled, electricity only went up a little for me, but my water bill doubled for "improvements" yet I still reliably lose service once a month. My garbage service shot up about $40 along as did the price of car insurance which is basically criminal enterprise pricing even with our clean driving records. To top it off my property taxes have consistently risen since buying this place in '16 despite years of cheap talk from gov Abbott.

 

[84superchamp]

I knew when the covid price increases hit, there would be no turning back for the most part. I have actually seen some prices at grocery stores drop and some manufacturers I deal with at work have done the same on a few things, but I also see things I believe to be nothing but political price gouging. The housing market is my biggest concern. If it doesn't correct itself soon, many will be looking at government owned housing as the only option. Which IMO is by design.

For sure, prices go up fast and hard but come down slowly if at all. Definitely some price gouging going on but no one seems able to stop it. The only recourse left is shop around.
My sitch is similar to @Floyd Eye, investments are doing great but I still gasp at grocery prices.