There’s two ways of looking at the facts, and I don’t think either of us are particularly wrong. The average American family did see their wealth increase but that doesn’t mean that people who aren’t as established in their careers yet aren’t having a really shitty time. What it does mean is that all the factors are pointing to a better economic future for everyone as more boomers retire and more jobs become available
Uh, as you can see by actually using the source of your source, going to the interactive charts button, checking net worth and displaying by either mean or median, 80% of Americans by income percentile have barely seen their net worth rise, if at all.
See when you just rely on one big mean or median for everyone, this means /nothing/ in a society like America that /has the greatest wealth disparity of all societies in all of recorded human history/.
The Fed chart there doesnt even allow for net worth below zero, and right now, via other, more accurate ways of counting net worth than what the Fed uses, roughly 25% of Americans have significantly negative net worth, and another roughly 25% have 0 to slightly negative.
Yes thats right the New York Times is being misleading by saying the Fed numbers are the ‘gold standard’, theyre a good way to get a general overview of things, a jumping off point to do more detailed analysis from.
So yeah, it is not just ‘vibes’ as you so callously dismissed the person you were replying to.
People generally interact with people, and live near people who are roughly economically similar to them in the sense of overall wealth.
So if you are poor and/or in more debt than you are worth, and as established, roughly 80% of people are poor, and roughly 50% of them have more debt than wealth, there’s pretty good chances most people around you are in similar situations.
If you’re well off, you live in a gated community or high priced condo and only interact with the poors when you tell them you would like them to make you a latte, or fix your car, etc.
You know, like the author of this New York Times article.
For the top percentile and the next highest percentile, it certainly jumps up but we also aren’t seeing the numbers of the lowest fall. Theyre not just steady. Theyre slowly rising across the board. Unemployment hasn’t been this low in quite a long time. The gains won’t end here. Especially if the Dems can flip the House and impose higher taxes on the percentiles that can obviously afford it
I don’t trust unemployment statistics because of how they count people. If everyone looking for a job gave up tomorrow the unemployment rate would go to zero.
I agree, but they are working, and wages are up. There’s reason to be optimistic. The issue is how fucking expensive housing is compared to 10 years ago, when rent was already unaffordable in many major cities. Tackling housing costs and passing legislation that increase pay and reduce hours is a must. No one should be working more than 40 hours a week without fair compensation, and the pandemic revealed just who exactly is deemed an essential worker, and they should be paid as such.
Yeah, vibes are probably a trailing economic indicator. People won’t feel better until they feel better.
Then again, power concedes nothing without struggle so we’ll probably have guillotines before a four day work week. I’m looking forward to the general strike of '28.
I’m just hoping that the GOP collapses and the Democratic Party stops drifting to the right. Once it effectively pushes out the Sinemas, Manchins, and Liebermans, we could actually see what a more progressive government could accomplish. And I wouldn’t even call myself a progressive. I’m a liberal who just thinks that maybe we should pay essential workers enough so that they can afford to save for retirement and not just sort of skate by
There’s two ways of looking at the facts, and I don’t think either of us are particularly wrong. The average American family did see their wealth increase but that doesn’t mean that people who aren’t as established in their careers yet aren’t having a really shitty time. What it does mean is that all the factors are pointing to a better economic future for everyone as more boomers retire and more jobs become available
Uh, as you can see by actually using the source of your source, going to the interactive charts button, checking net worth and displaying by either mean or median, 80% of Americans by income percentile have barely seen their net worth rise, if at all.
See when you just rely on one big mean or median for everyone, this means /nothing/ in a society like America that /has the greatest wealth disparity of all societies in all of recorded human history/.
The Fed chart there doesnt even allow for net worth below zero, and right now, via other, more accurate ways of counting net worth than what the Fed uses, roughly 25% of Americans have significantly negative net worth, and another roughly 25% have 0 to slightly negative.
Yes thats right the New York Times is being misleading by saying the Fed numbers are the ‘gold standard’, theyre a good way to get a general overview of things, a jumping off point to do more detailed analysis from.
So yeah, it is not just ‘vibes’ as you so callously dismissed the person you were replying to.
People generally interact with people, and live near people who are roughly economically similar to them in the sense of overall wealth.
So if you are poor and/or in more debt than you are worth, and as established, roughly 80% of people are poor, and roughly 50% of them have more debt than wealth, there’s pretty good chances most people around you are in similar situations.
If you’re well off, you live in a gated community or high priced condo and only interact with the poors when you tell them you would like them to make you a latte, or fix your car, etc.
You know, like the author of this New York Times article.
For the top percentile and the next highest percentile, it certainly jumps up but we also aren’t seeing the numbers of the lowest fall. Theyre not just steady. Theyre slowly rising across the board. Unemployment hasn’t been this low in quite a long time. The gains won’t end here. Especially if the Dems can flip the House and impose higher taxes on the percentiles that can obviously afford it
I don’t trust unemployment statistics because of how they count people. If everyone looking for a job gave up tomorrow the unemployment rate would go to zero.
But we know it’s extremely low because there’s a labor shortage across multiple industries. Unemployment is low no matter how bad the vibes are
Maybe the vibes are bad because people are working too much
I agree, but they are working, and wages are up. There’s reason to be optimistic. The issue is how fucking expensive housing is compared to 10 years ago, when rent was already unaffordable in many major cities. Tackling housing costs and passing legislation that increase pay and reduce hours is a must. No one should be working more than 40 hours a week without fair compensation, and the pandemic revealed just who exactly is deemed an essential worker, and they should be paid as such.
Yeah, vibes are probably a trailing economic indicator. People won’t feel better until they feel better.
Then again, power concedes nothing without struggle so we’ll probably have guillotines before a four day work week. I’m looking forward to the general strike of '28.
I’m just hoping that the GOP collapses and the Democratic Party stops drifting to the right. Once it effectively pushes out the Sinemas, Manchins, and Liebermans, we could actually see what a more progressive government could accomplish. And I wouldn’t even call myself a progressive. I’m a liberal who just thinks that maybe we should pay essential workers enough so that they can afford to save for retirement and not just sort of skate by