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Ask HN: Is America in Recession?

25 points| register | 3 months ago

Official numbers say the U.S. isn’t in recession—does real life feel different?

39 comments

order

WarOnPrivacy|3 months ago

America is in a 4 income economy - the number of typical incomes needed to reliably meet basic bills (rent,transpo,food,utils) in most markets.

I've lived thru 8 recessions, none had achieved this level of difficulty. None had so completely barred new entrants to society.

ksaj|3 months ago

Most people now forget that 50+ years ago, the husband was the sole bread winner, kept his job for most of his life, and could afford the house, car, 4 children and a few pets.

I read somewhere that when women started working in the war efforts, businesses took advantage and skewed home prices and whatnot to make it so women had no choice but to continue working. This worked out well, because women wanted to work and have similar social treatment as men.

The issue then is that things kept skewing to the point where today a childless couple with high paying jobs can barely afford a vehicle and tiny apartment.

This may or may not be accurate. But it is an interesting opinion that I've heard a number of times over the years.

nrhrjrjrjtntbt|3 months ago

You mean the average number of full time jobs a single person needs to do to survive? or a couple? or a couple with kids?

paulcole|3 months ago

In your estimation what was the peak for ease of new entrance to society?

flag_fagger|3 months ago

I’m really curious about the 08 recession. I definitely remember some of the fallout, but I was young and insulated from much of what it meant. My parents were also lucky enough to be employed with a mortgage.

The one thing killing me in the economy is housing. Rent is up like crazy, but even more so rental criteria is ridiculous and competition is insane.

And this is in a dilapidated rust belt city with maybe one industry propping up the entire economy. It’s a bit cheaper than when I was in Florida a few years back, but not by a ton.

If I could figure out housing, all other problems would solve themselves, but it’s the one problem I can’t solve. My credit score took a battering during a long period of unemployment, and now I’m about as much of a pariah as a three time felon with two evictions, and I don’t even have an eviction.

But how was in after the 2008 crisis. How hard was it to find rent them. If you had a job, and income were the rents still ridiculous? Or was it easy enough to find a place if you had money?

hnthrowaway0315|3 months ago

Not sure about the US, but IT industry in Canada definitely is in a recession. When good graduates from Waterloo CS cannot find an entry level job, you know something is wrong.

kasey_junk|3 months ago

If you are talking about as defined by NBER there is no “official numbers”. Recession by that definition is a) not a fixed set of numbers, the board determines it each time based on lots of different things and they aren’t necessarily the same metrics every time and b) explicitly a backwards looking descriptive designation. Most of the time you will be _through_ a recession before it’s declared.

JojoFatsani|3 months ago

They’re running out of cards to stack up in the form of a house

farseer|3 months ago

GDP is growing so its not a recession by the traditional definition. But the number of well paying jobs is not increasing overall. You can still become a bartender or a contract/gig worker, those are still in demand.