• oxjox
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    4 months ago

    The first problem is that one group is talking about one thing and another group is talking about another thing but they both call it the same thing.

    Then when the normal American who believes we’re in a recession is told we’re not in a recession, they look at their bank accounts and resent being told they don’t know what they’re talking about. Resentment breeds a defensive stance and isolationism.

    So many people are told they don’t know what they’re talking about these days. Meanwhile, fringe organizations (or what used to be fringe) are happy to comfort those who’ve been told they’re idiots.

    This isn’t a political aisle or philosophical issue. This is about general intelligence. This is about taking your face out of your screen and looking up and around your environment - or, seeing the forrest for the trees. You may not give a crap about anything other than your wallet but a veiled perspective is going to warp your reality.

    There’s a lot to criticize in politics / everything today. It would be nice if people were using facts to inform their criticism. It would be nice if people weren’t getting their facts from social media and what amounts to today’s version of the check out aisle tabloids.

    • MagicShel@programming.dev
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      4 months ago

      I’ve been out of work for seven weeks with no relief in sight. But I’ve been watching my industry laying off tens of thousands of people for months. I’m not surprised in the least to find myself in this situation. Meanwhile, I’ve also seen unions winning big for the last couple of years.

      I’m personally doing poorly, but overall things are looking up and my turn will come around again before long. I just have to wait for things to return to normal after a bubble pop.

        • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          4 months ago

          And if you haven’t worked in a warehouse or fast food recently they often tell you to get fucked anyway!

          As if that isn’t proof enough that these are skilled jobs.

          • PopOfAfrica@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            The layoff was due to the college I worked at going under and closing. The vast majority of coworkers in my circle are still unemployed after all this time.

            People act like its so easy to get a job, but it seems impossible in rural America especially.

            The solution just can’t possibly be everyone working in food or labor.

            Addition: Bruh who would downvote this?

            • Seleni@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              The same people who are in this thread saying that everything’s great because 60% of the people who responded to the survey say their conditions have improved.

              • PopOfAfrica@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                Which is crazy because 40% is not a small number of people who havent seen improvement.

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Facts: workforce participation rate never recovered from 2007, the cost of medical insurance/tuition/housing have all outpaced wage growth of all but the wealthiest people, meanwhile the earning ratio between the lowest paid and high paid workers have exploded.

      You can call me any nasty name you want but we are in a recession. When I start seeing those numbers I listed change is when I will stop saying that.

      • oxjox
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        4 months ago

        Thank you for perfectly illustrating my point. We are NOT in a recession. I don’t know the correct terminology to describe the facts you’ve laid out but “recession” is not it.

        • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Pretty sure I used the correct word. If economists need a safe space away from it I am sure their banker friends can pay someone else to build it for them, you know with my money.

          • oxjox
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            4 months ago

            You’re wrong and ignoring everything you’ve been told to rationalize your feelings and direct your resentment. You don’t get to re-define words because you’re upset.

            “Recession” is a specific word based on specific measurements. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/recession.asp

            The problem is that you’re angry at the wrong thing. As I said, there’s a lot to complain about and it would be nice if people knew what it was they were complaining about. Like, you’re yelling at Netflix because you don’t like that HBO is now called MAX.

            • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              No you are wrong. You and your economists friends took a word that had a well known meaning and redefined it to get the result that they wanted. Then have the audacity to demand that we all use the definition they created. They can all go and fuck themselves for all I care.

              Recession: noun, bad shit happening to poor people for a while.

              I get it in a way. They read 1984 and decided “hey this is double plus good way of getting what I want. Rather than deal with the real universe I can just redefine words and declare everyone who disagrees a heretic”. Wealthy = scarcity, peace = war, slavery = freedom, and recession = economic boom.

              It is so so much easier to just attack people compared to solving issues. I can’t wait until the day when your economists friends decide to redefine climate change as normal.

              • oxjox
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                4 months ago

                K. You’re just delusional. Again, thank you for very perfectly illustrating my point.
                You’re even doing the defensive thing I described when I’m on your side and agreeing with your frustration.

    • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      Nah, this is about the fact that the moment a Republican is in office, half of these people will immediately think the economy is doing great.

      Every presidential election I have seen where the incumbent is a Democrat has followed the exact same pattern.

    • iopq@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      More than 60% of people poll they are okay financially. But the 30something% are much louder than the people who are not struggling

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        4 months ago

        When you aren’t sure where your next meal comes from or if you can afford rent and you already work full-time…

        I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that is probably a valid time to be vocally loud about it.

        • iopq@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          There aren’t more people struggling now than before, though. We just hear more about it and that’s the difference

    • bobburger@fedia.io
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      4 months ago

      I don’t know why Biden would cause so much inflation in Canada, England, France, Germany, and just about every other country on earth, but he did. What a dick.

      Obama is also at least 10% to blame. Vote Trump 2024 to teach the Dems a lesson.

    • PopOfAfrica@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Money isn’t real, we made it up. Anyone who continues the lie of capitalism is contributing to the problem.

      We’re sitting here debating literal actual monopoly money.

  • whotookkarl@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    The article defers to NBER but then says they are purposely excluding inflation and the higher cost of living from their criteria. Call it whatever you want, but if you’re going to use a definition most people don’t use to pretend there isn’t a problem you’re fucked.

  • GrundlButter@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 months ago

    It may not be a recession, but our economy is in shambles. It turns out, all that money that was supposed to trickle down for over 40 years didn’t. Apparently if you let the rich keep their money, they do. Who woulda fuckin thought.

    What are we gonna do about it? removed on the internet, cause if we even got a general strike going, we would just be slaughtered selectively and demonized universally until the protest dies down. All because we would dare to ask for our fair share.

  • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    More than half of Americans — 56% — mistakenly believe the U.S. is currently in a recession…That’s not the case…The U.S. economy, as measured by GDP, is growing.

    I think it shows that GDP is not necessarily a very good measure of how an economy, or society, is doing. GDP can go up for reasons that don’t really have anything to do with the lives of average people improving in any meaningful way. Plus, the rate of growth in Q1 was, what, like 1.5%? That’s very modest growth. The economy is not exactly roaring.

    So GDP is growing and we’re not in a recession, but that doesn’t mean the economy is “good” or “strong,” necessarily. It takes much more to determine the strength of the economy than just looking at GDP figures.

  • UnpluggedFridge@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    We are not in a recession. The problems with wage stagnation are not some temporary hiccup in the economy. It is a systemic problem. Stop conflating the two, complaining that a macroeconomic term with a very specific meaning isn’t defined the way you want it to be. Stop expecting the problem to heal itself if the fed lowers rates or taxes get nudged up or down or whatever. We know how to fix wage stagnation because we have done it before. Regulation. Labor protections. Minimum wage increases. Wage stagnation occurs in the absence of these things, and they can only be done by Congress.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Total compensation packages including benefits derived from speaking engagements, endorsements, discounts for family members, and insider trading. Have multiple independent auditing agencies produce numbers and make it a ten year federal offense prison sentence to take a bribe for determining it.

    • fukhueson@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 months ago

      Agree, while we’re not there, progress is being made.

      https://www.epi.org/publication/bidens-nlrb-restoring-rights/

      Summary: The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) during the Biden administration has supported workers’ rights to form unions and engage in collective bargaining, standing in stark contrast to the Trump administration’s anti-worker record.

      Key findings

      President Biden has nominated experienced worker advocates and increased funding to the NLRB—the independent agency responsible for protecting private-sector workers’ organizing and bargaining rights. The Trump administration, however, appointed corporate lawyers to leadership positions and hollowed out the agency by not filling vacancies.

      President Biden’s appointees have advanced the NLRB’s mission by addressing issues such as employee status under the law, the scope of concerted activity protected by the law, the representation process, and remedies for violations of the law.

      The Biden NLRB has made significant progress in undoing the damage inflicted by the Trump administration’s appointees and in restoring workers’ rights, but more remains to be done.

      Structural weaknesses in the law continue to be an obstacle to workers seeking to organize unions and engage in collective bargaining.

  • HootinNHollerin@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    As the daily show bit pointed out, the type of people who actually reply to these surveys gives very skewed results. I never respond to any of those and doubt any of you all do either.

  • kerrigan778@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    American economic output is not in a recession, this is important for a lot of things but does not solve domestic issues with the economy. The majority of US workers are seeing a massive economic recession in terms of wages vs costs of living. But the distinction is really important because it proves that most if not practically all of our hardships are fuelled simply by greed of the owning class.

  • finkrat@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Boy trickle down economics sure is looking GREAT, huh?? Share holder success is better than ever, now if we could just do a thing about those pesky peasants… They better not go after poverty assistance or work benefits, that comes out of our taxes, can’t have our portfolio drop a fraction of a percent, can we?? Yep we’ll just exploit the masses until there’s nothing left and then… Uh…