The firm asked over 4,000 people, from baby boomers to Gen Zers, about the categories they intend to splurge on this year. Groceries ranked highest for millennials and Gen Zers, outpacing restaurants, bars, travel, beauty and personal care, apparel, and fitness.
Yeah I mean, we can't afford any of those listed, we just have enough to EAT, crazy right? And it's not even that we spend more on those, it's just that everything has become so expensive
The typical American household would need to spend $445 more a month to purchase the same goods and services as a year ago
No that cant be true. Every media outlet says workers are making hand over fist right now and the economy has never been better.
This is really doing my head in. Democrats keep touting how good the economy is, and while the IRA and infrastructure bill were definitely good, the lived experience of your average voter isn't that they're doing so much better. Inflation has gone back to normal levels, but that doesn't mean that prices went back to how they were, it just means prices aren't going up as much as before.
New sandwich place opened up down my block. Everyone by me was praising it. Went in last weekend, 3 sandwiches and 2 drinks. A bit over $50 dollars. Yeah not going that again. Only two years ago that would have been half the price.
Yep, going out for brunch or whatever else we used to do just a few years ago has become ridiculously expensive. And no, my wage hasn't gone up enough to compensate for that.
I mean, the economy has been doing great if you look at a purely wall-street perspective. The problem is, that doesn't translate into shit for the average person. Corporate/stock profits != individual financial health.
Objectively the health of the US economy is pretty great now. All the B2B indicators are green, Velocity of Money finally bounced back, etc.
Unfortunately, the health of the economy is divorced from the health of the US laborer... but for those that own business, they are pleased.
(I always thought how funny it would be if they all took the republican advice of "pull up your boot straps and start a small business". The labor force would evaporate, and it would all be small independent contractors that will take you to small claims if they need to...)
The average economy is going great, but that number is heavily skewed by a small number of big earners. The median economy, what reflects the income of most households, went down.
Funnily enough, median income actually went up quite a bit here in Romania over the last year. Mainly because of successful union action.
Yeah I mean, we can't afford any of those listed, we just have enough to EAT, crazy right? And it's not even that we spend more on those, it's just that everything has become so expensive
No that cant be true. Every media outlet says workers are making hand over fist right now and the economy has never been better.
This is really doing my head in. Democrats keep touting how good the economy is, and while the IRA and infrastructure bill were definitely good, the lived experience of your average voter isn't that they're doing so much better. Inflation has gone back to normal levels, but that doesn't mean that prices went back to how they were, it just means prices aren't going up as much as before.
New sandwich place opened up down my block. Everyone by me was praising it. Went in last weekend, 3 sandwiches and 2 drinks. A bit over $50 dollars. Yeah not going that again. Only two years ago that would have been half the price.
Yep, going out for brunch or whatever else we used to do just a few years ago has become ridiculously expensive. And no, my wage hasn't gone up enough to compensate for that.
I mean, the economy has been doing great if you look at a purely wall-street perspective. The problem is, that doesn't translate into shit for the average person. Corporate/stock profits != individual financial health.
Objectively the health of the US economy is pretty great now. All the B2B indicators are green, Velocity of Money finally bounced back, etc.
Unfortunately, the health of the economy is divorced from the health of the US laborer... but for those that own business, they are pleased.
(I always thought how funny it would be if they all took the republican advice of "pull up your boot straps and start a small business". The labor force would evaporate, and it would all be small independent contractors that will take you to small claims if they need to...)
The average economy is going great, but that number is heavily skewed by a small number of big earners. The median economy, what reflects the income of most households, went down.
Funnily enough, median income actually went up quite a bit here in Romania over the last year. Mainly because of successful union action.