Why am I not feeling it?

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YourNameHere

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I hear all the time about how the economy of the United States is going well.
But as a working-class citizen, I see not signs of that prosperity?
My paycheck remains pretty much the same, why the cost of groceries, gas, and other consumer items seem to be going up all the time.
Wall Street and Main Street do not always coincide, do they?
It is possible for stocks to thrive, while the average working person is getting nowhere fast, right?
 
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Why do you assume that just because you specifically have not gotten a raise that nobody outside of Wall Street is better off?

Do you have a 401(k)? If so, you’re benefiting from stocks’ doing well.

The US is incredibly wealthy by world standards. Just because you aren’t personally seeing a rapid increase in wages doesn’t mean that the economy isn’t doing well. Odds are, your annual income is in the top 5% or so globally and the top 0.001% of humans throughout history.
 
One person’s experience, however unfortunate, does not an economic trend make.

What does this have to do with ‘popular media’ by the way?
 
I did not say that the economy is not doing well. What I said was that I am not feeling the “so-called thriving economy” myself.
I read every day that stocks are doing well.
But all I see is prices going up, while I am no better off when it comes to my pay.
That 401 (k) does not benefit me right now.
The U.S. may be incredibly wealthy by world standards, but what does that fact have to do with me?
Since the years of Ronald Reagan, I have heard the term trickle down economics. I have to say that that trickle is really a slow process. It must be moving at the speed of sap flowing from the side of a tree or with the speed of a snail.
 
What is more important, the subject or where you feel the subject should be placed? Come on, Tomarin! 🙃
 
YourNameHere said:
The U.S. may be incredibly wealthy by world standards, but what does that fact have to do with me?
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It means that you’re probably doing quite well, even if you’re not “feeling” it.
YourNameHere said:
Since the years of Ronald Reagan, I have heard the term trickle down economics. I have to say that that trickle is really a slow process. It must be moving at the speed of sap flowing from the side of a tree or with the speed of a snail.
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I’ve never met a proponent of “trickle-down economics.” That’s a term invented by critics of supply-side economics. If you think the economic policies of Reagan failed to improve the common person’s lot, perhaps you’d like to go back to the crippling stagflation of the late 1970s; I think the folks who make up the difference between that double-digit unemployment and our current very low unemployment rate might have some beef with that, though. The typical American now is much wealthier than the typical American the day Reagan took office.
 
I not concerned with what was.
I am concerned with what is now.
Prices are up. But my wallet is no fatter.
Call it what you will - trickle down, supply side, the rich get richer, no tax cuts for the working class, or whatever. I am not into political rhetoric. I am into life.
All I know is that I am not feeling the economic prosperity that our country is supposedly going through right now.
 
Hey, I am just fooling with you friend. If I am a mistake in placing it here, I apologize to all. It was not my intention.
 
YourNameHere said:
I not concerned with what was.
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Then why are you saying that you’re not getting better off? That’s a judgment that cannot be made without looking at what was.
YourNameHere said:
I am concerned with what is now.
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Then saying that you can’t tell that things are better now is a meaningless point, since that statement only makes sense in comparison to the past.
YourNameHere said:
Prices are up. But my wallet is no fatter.
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It’s certainly fatter than it was prior to Reagan.
YourNameHere said:
Call it what you will - trickle down, supply side, the rich get richer, no tax cuts for the working class, or whatever. I am not into political rhetoric. I am into life.
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There’s nothing wrong with the rich getting richer.
Supply-siders have repeatedly cut taxes for the working class. Reagan did, Bush did, Trump did. You’re either misinformed or a liar. I trust it’s the former.
You’re the one who brought up supply-side economics, not me.
YourNameHere said:
All I know is that I am not feeling the economic prosperity that our country is supposedly going through right now.
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You may not be feeling it, but you’re likely experiencing it. I suppose someone who is “not concerned with what was” would struggle to notice that things are better than they were.
 
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Social justice might have been a better place to put it, just sayin’.
 
HR, please don’t get annoyed with me.
I am just explaining how I feel. And I feel like prices are going up, but I am not any better off economically speaking.
Just because an economist on TV says the economy is going well, that does not necessarily make it so for me.
You may have a lot of money and may be prospering.
I will tell you that I am not the only person who feels the way I do. Most of my friends say that same thing.
When someone says the economy is going well, they all kind of laugh collectively, and then start talking about the price of this or that.
It you want to attack what I am saying, go for it.
But I am just trying to explain how things are for some of us average working class stiffs.
 
I’m not attacking you, though I am frustrated at the way that you move the goalposts whenever I respond to a thing you said. It is nonsensical to say that you don’t feel like things are getting better, then when it is pointed out that that things now are better than things were, you turn around with “I don’t care how things were.”

I’m not wealthy; I’m only three years into my career and I live in an extremely expensive place. I have some financial struggles, though things could certainly be worse. But I’m better off now than I would have been 10 years ago (especially since I’m in the construction industry…that would have been a terrible time to start my career). And we’re almost all better off than we were prior to “trickle-down economics.” If you think things are bad now, imagine them if you were losing 10% of the value of your savings every year and more than 1 in 10 people couldn’t find a job.
 
I am sorry you are frustrated with me.
I am not trying to move any goal posts or anything else for that matter.
I am just saying that I am not feeling the thriving economy.
You seem to take offense, because I am expressing how I feel.
You speak in terms or this and that. I am just telling you that I do not feel economically better off today than I was a year or so ago.
The price of everything seems to be up. While my paycheck is the same.
 
YourNameHere said:
You speak in terms or this and that. I am just telling you that I do not feel economically better off today than I was a year or so ago.
The price of everything seems to be up. While my paycheck is the same.
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That’s the tricky thing, isn’t it? Even when the economy as a whole is improving, some pockets don’t reap the benefits. There are individuals, even entire industries, that aren’t getting wealthier. Some of it is a matter of patience; some fields take time to mobilize resources. Mine would be an example of that. Other fields become obsolete and die off (coal, for example). I don’t know your specific situation to speak to why you and your group of friends don’t seem to be getting ahead. It could be that your industry isn’t doing well while the rest of the economy is, it could be that your industry is just slow-moving, and it could be that whatever town you live in is stagnant. No idea. But it would be a mistake to infer from the situation of you and your friend group that it’s just Wall Street reaping the benefits while Main Street flounders.
 
Exactly. The economy doing well doesn’t necessarily mean anything for the average worker. Fact is wages have been pretty stagnant the last decade. While unemployment is down, the quality of many jobs is equally down (for example the use and abuse of IC status is rampant). Most people I know “aren’t feeling it” either.
 
I am not an economist.
I am an average working man.
All I know is that my wages have not gone up, while prices are going up on just about everything.
The U.S. economy on the whole may be doing well, but I am not feeling it in my part of the country.
If things do not change, I may have to pursue a second job, if I can find one that fits my regular work schedule.
To me, it just does not seem like things are going well.
 
Padres1969 said:
Exactly. The economy doing well doesn’t necessarily mean anything for the average worker. Fact is wages have been pretty stagnant the last decade. While unemployment is down, the quality of many jobs is equally down (for example the use and abuse of IC status is rampant). Most people I know “aren’t feeling it” either.
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What about supply and demand? When there are more jobs than qualified people to fill them, the employer has to offer more money and/or benefits to lure workers to their company - which means better wages as other employers follow suit.
 
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