How is the US economy right now?

[Mr Holmes]

Food, healthcare is up 50% from pre-pandemic times. The cost of a mortgage is up 80%. We have record consumer debt as well. A few of us are doing okay but the middle class is suffering.

 

[Cajun]

Things are coming down. Heartburn from the recent chaos is my thought. Some things like housing are still really high.

 

[Mike]

Huh? No, the poorest live on the streets. Tent cities are real, bruh. Even up here in Canada with all of our safety nets and low population, we still got a pretty hefty homeless issue.

I can get in my car and drive less than 5 blocks and find tent cities all around. Hell I can't even remember the last time I lived in a city and didn't see homeless everywhere.

 

[Cajun]

Sure but your poor people are still quite good compared to poor people in, let’s say Poland.

Yes, compared to other countries its not as bad. But a far cry from the standard historically. Covid destroyed many with layoffs, inflation etc. There is a long recovery. For the middle class they may hang on but debt has gone up and funds are low. Taxes hurt a bit this year for peeps as well. Mortgage credit gone and a few other key ones that at least give our boost in the spring.

 

[SandisLL]

Things are coming down. Heartburn from the recent chaos is my thought. Some things like housing are still really high.

With cool boost in weapons and LNG sales to EU ( supposed village is 3 rd largeest economy in world ) ? Sure yet not bad, especially after had threw Ukr under the bus like kurds ....so all is cool. Soon new vaccines and mask era maybe too will help again to boost economy ..

 

[USA!USA!]

Prices have gone up but its not so bad for me personally. I work from home so I don't spend as much on gas or going out to eat. I'm also a homeowner and not paying absurd rent or got into a bad mortgage.

I have been doing just fine financially - but I haven't had any huge expenses like health or vehicle problems. I can understand how it is much tougher for others. It just depends on your situation, of course. I am not a rich guy but I'm not struggling at all either.

Prices have undoubtedly been going up though.

 

[Seano]

I don't know a single person who says they are doing better or even as well as they were four years ago, and that was during a damn pandemic.

 

[Natural Order]

General poverty in the US is having to buy a pair of no name brand shoes for your five year old child instead of Air Jordan's.

 

[Cajun]

With cool boost in weapons and LNG sales to EU ( supposed village is 3 rd largeest economy in world ) ? Sure yet not bad, especially after had threw Ukr under the bus like kurds ....so all is cool. Soon new vaccines and mask era maybe too will help again to boost economy ..

Sorry bud I missed your point?

 

[Jack V Savage]

republicans - it's awful!
democrats - it's great!

if trump wins :
republicans - it's great!
democrats - it's awful!

if biden wins:
republicans: it's awful
democrats: it's great!

there, this primer should work for the next 5 years.

Well, to people who actually care about getting things right, it's really, really great right now. And on your point, it's not really symmetrical, though there's something to that.

In reality, the economy was good through most of the '90s after the early recession. We started recovering in the early Aughts, but the recovery was always pretty flat, and then the bottom dropped out in 2008. Huge international collapse. We started recovering in 2009, but it wasn't until 2015 that we could really say that it was getting pretty strong again (and continuing to improve). Then it continued on that trajectory until the pandemic hit, when it was disastrously bad. We had a really quick recovery, and we're now not only fully recovered (i.e., back to the pre-pandemic level) but ahead of the pre-pandemic *trend*.

 

[Sinister]

For the most part, Poverty in America means you still live in an apartment, tv, video games and have a cellphone.

American poverty is like Dustin Poirier’s bjj black belt. There’s levels to it and other countries poverty is in a different level.

People like to use credit cards here and being in debt is normal. This includes the low and high wage earners.

It’s true though that everything is more expensive after Covid and service is crappier. I’d say people overall are less happy.

That's not what poverty means in America. Thats what people who consume too much media without actually talking to poor people think poverty means in America.

This is what poverty means in America:



And this:

 

[Jack V Savage]

That's not what poverty means in America. Thats what people who consume too much media without actually talking to poor people think poverty means in America.

This is what poverty means in America:



And this:

When people talk about the current state of the economy, that's in reference to cyclical changes, generally. Poverty in the developed world is not that strongly affected by cyclical changes because it mostly affects non-participants in the economy--kids, the elderly, and the disabled. The solution to that is transfer payments (SS, SNAP, etc.). We're actually doing better there relative to the pre-pandemic situation, but during the pandemic, transfers were amazing, and things are worse on that score. We got my long-time top policy wishlist item for a little (monthly payments for kids), and it cut child poverty in half, but then Manchin and all Republicans in the Senate voted against extending it.

Classic Scalize piece (from 2005) on poverty in America here:

Being Poor

Visit the post for more.

whatever.scalzi.com

 

[PaleMoonlight]

That's not what poverty means in America. Thats what people who consume too much media without actually talking to poor people think poverty means in America.

This is what poverty means in America:



And this:

LMAO. Sounds like you’re the one that doesn’t know how good you have it here in the USA compared to other countries.

 

[Sinister]

When people talk about the current state of the economy, that's in reference to cyclical changes, generally. Poverty in the developed world is not that strongly affected by cyclical changes because it mostly affects non-participants in the economy--kids, the elderly, and the disabled. The solution to that is transfer payments (SS, SNAP, etc.). We're actually doing better there relative to the pre-pandemic situation, but during the pandemic, transfers were amazing, and things are worse on that score. We got my long-time top policy wishlist item for a little (monthly payments for kids), and it cut child poverty in half, but then Manchin and all Republicans in the Senate voted against extending it.

Classic Scalize piece (from 2005) on poverty in America here:

Being Poor

Visit the post for more.

whatever.scalzi.com

Considering 75+ is the fastest growing work force right now, and the targeting of children via roll-backs or child labor laws, I'd be careful calling children and elderly "non-participants."

But the point is that American poor are often described as living in relative luxury, this is often put forth by those who vote down social services. People who say homeless Americans should be grateful that we have such fine dumpsters to eat out of. Its just classist sentiment and doesnr reflect the actual experience of being working or non-working poor in the US

 

[Sinister]

LMAO. Sounds like you’re the one that doesn’t know how good you have it here in the USA compared to other countries.

No I'm aware of how good I have, you're just unaware of how sh*tty the worst of us have it. No one has a monopoly on suffering, and telling people who are suffering "well someone is suffering worse than YOU" is a callous, sociopathic argument.

 

[Jack V Savage]

Considering 75+ is the fastest growing work force right now, and the targeting of children via roll-backs or child labor laws, I'd be careful calling children and elderly "non-participants."

But the point is that American poor are often described as living in relative luxury, this is often put forth by those who vote down social services. People who say homeless Americans should be grateful that we have such fine dumpsters to eat out of. Its just classist sentiment and doesnr reflect the actual experience of being working or non-working poor in the US

Sure. Just saying that that's a different issue.

Also, between this thread and the Clinton one, it's funny how many far-right posters are embracing a socialist outlook because it's become politically convenient for them to do so.

 

[Gotosleepho]

Rent and housing costs are way too high. Food is high. Gas is alright at the moment. Life is still good overall, and I'm grateful but I believe the USA can be much better to its citizens.

 

[PaleMoonlight]

No I'm aware of how good I have, you're just unaware of how sh*tty the worst of us have it. No one has a monopoly on suffering, and telling people who are suffering "well someone is suffering worse than YOU" is a callous, sociopathic argument.

Just like I suspected you missed my point. But Didn’t know this thread got moved to war room. I’ll just peace out from this thread.

 

[N13]

The most important thing is what is happening in the debt/bond market. Other countries are not buying US treasuries. This means that we can't finance the debt. We are going to monetize the debt with the federal reserve and the Treasury buying it all. This leads to massive inflation.

Checkyslovakia: the fed needs to sell 2 trillion of debt to cover the 2024 budget deficit. But the fed also needs to Re-finance all of the maturing bonds. That amount is 7 trillion. So the fed needs to sell 9 trillion of bonds during 2024. That's about 750 billion a month. At the last two bond auctions, the fed failed to sell a mere 150 billion.

Houston, we have a massive problem.

 

[CatchnShoot]

Huh? No, the poorest live on the streets. Tent cities are real, bruh. Even up here in Canada with all of our safety nets and low population, we still got a pretty hefty homeless issue.

Well, it's only a problem if you have to walk in their shit.

So, honestly, we should have a bilateral agreement to house all the socially/mentally defectives in N.Dakota or something. Remove them all from the cities, problem solved.

Or, even better, include Mexico in the deal and build a Warm Permanent Holiday destination for them somewhere currently uninhabited.... that way they cold wouldn't kill them (ND winters are no joke) --see, I'm a humanitarian @ heart.





Seriously, the homeless issues we have are linked pretty closely with Mental illness as much as poverty. Having visited Ottawa, I think that's true there as well... runaways, drug addicts and/or mentally ill @ large.

But that's just my observations, I am certainly no expert on the subject of homelessness.