Is the economy good or bad, and what is the economy, and how much should a person care about it

I think a lot of it is just human nature. As some observed if prices go up people intuitively know it was a force external to them causing it so blame the politicians. If their wage goes up people likely to not attribute that to external economic conditions and instead think it’s due to them wisely switching jobs / performing well / finally negotiating a raise / having a nice boss / etc.

A bitter old man

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Spider posted a chart a while ago that showed how people viewed the economy vs where they received info about the economy.

Don’t forget stupid

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Are those people being fooled by news sources they trust or are they seeking out news sources that confirm what they already believe?

Regarding income inequality…

Seems like it’s really bad now, and has steadily gotten worse during all our lifetimes.

Are there any historical lessons we can learn from Gilded Age politics? I feel like that’s the first time US society dealt with the implications of the new idea of capitalism, and its social effects on the media-consuming public.

You had robber barons (Vanderbilt), titans of industry (Rockefeller), and financiers (JP Morgan) all founding companies and leveraging competitive advantages into then-incalculable personal wealth. And then there was a backlash, with organized labor like unions, and the Sherman Antitrust Act.

I don’t really know where I’m going with this… other than to say I wish people who know more about this could chime in with what happened then, and draw parallels to what’s happening now.

Too much regulation for major corporations surely has to be it, says 15% of survey respondents.

I also learned that 15% of those surveyed were executives at major corporations.

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Oh and also a big problem for the “Americans just really hate inflation” explanation:

https://x.com/jamessurowiecki/status/1793390434565165316?s=46&t=N0_fcOKIYYmlCS2e4YShsQ

People just really do think that everyone else is doing poorly

What is the exact question here? “Satisfied with your life?” is not a good barometer for economic attitudes.

To be clear, I basically agree with your commentary in this thread. People don’t have a good objective understanding of reality. Ignorance is the natural state of man. I’m not sure what the conclusion is that we’re supposed to reach.

People are stupid and the price of shit has been going up literally forever. It is in fact official government policy that the price of shit should go up by ~2% per year. That everyone freaked the fuck out over two years when shit went up at 8% instead (which followed a period in which it actually went up by much less than 2%/year) is in fact evidence of their stupidity.

And yes, poor people are still poor. That is not evidence of “bad inflation” either.

This post sucks and says nothing. gg.

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Good comeback imo

Poors: the economy doesn’t work for me

Smooth palmed dipshits: I’m going to pretend this is about inflation

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You literally concede that food, fuel and housing take up way more percentage of wages in a short timeframe

But it’s poors who are stupid and don’t understand that inflation is normal and it’s not even currently that high on yachts

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Actually, no. Wages have gone up too! Welcome to math.

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https://x.com/ReubenR80027912/status/1793275108821254198

Hmmm who came on the political scene in 2015 and completely turned the board over?

:thinking:

Up is the same distance no matter what it applies to. Welcome to math

If you don’t concede the percentage thing then you’re denying the data