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NeverFade | 2 years ago
So the average working person is in fact worse now economically than they were 2-3 years ago. It's not just a subjective feeling, and the other positive metrics don't change that.
NeverFade | 2 years ago
So the average working person is in fact worse now economically than they were 2-3 years ago. It's not just a subjective feeling, and the other positive metrics don't change that.
seadan83|2 years ago
Though, I was responding to specifically: "by any metric", and the presence of one poor metric does not justify that statement.
> So the average working person is in fact worse now economically than they were 2-3 years ago.
I don't think that logic holds. Real wages is not _the_ one measure of economic health. I would agree that it is likely a significant portion. I would posit that whether you are employed or not is another significant measure, as would be things like net household wealth (which are back to early 2022 levels) [1]
> It's not just a subjective feeling
To some extent, the metrics do not show that to be an objective feeling. For example, real wages are back to 2020 levels, would we expect consumer confidence to be at the same level? If real wages and economic health strongly correlate, I would suspect consumer confidence would as well.
The data shows we're a good bit under 2020 and are at confidence levels of 2017 [2]
On the other hand, economic sentiment _is_ subjective. For example, if you and everyone in your town is in the 30th percentile of the economy, it's not going to feel like things are going well. Which is to say, no one person can easily get enough anecdotal experience for it to be statistically significant.
What's more, economic health is hard to measure. $30/hour might be great if you live with parents & have no debt, but it could be crushing if you have children and rent. Which is to say, I'm quite sure you can't therefore accurately say 'in fact worse now economically' based on one measure.
[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/BOGZ1FL192090005Q
[2] https://www.conference-board.org/topics/consumer-confidence
NanoYohaneTSU|2 years ago
Keep believing in the unemployment rate despite massive layoffs bro. Just one more quarter bro. People won't be unemployed bro everyone is working!