“The economy is doing great, sweety.”
Don’t you love being gaslighted about the economy?
I’ve been saying this for months now. If every metric of the economy says things are doing great but people are reporting unprecedented levels of economic anxiety, then the only thing we know is that the metrics we use to measure the economy are flawed!
Seriously. An economy isn’t dictated by natural law. We’re not finding the diffusal rates of two different viscous liquids or trying to piece together why particle X behaves the way it does in light, in other words: there is no “right answer” to be revealed through observation. We’re talking about an entirely man-made, artificial social construct. If the people who make up “the economy” are saying the economy’s bad, we already have the conclusion and should be working backwards from that.
This is what’s going to help Trump the most, sadly.
Ok. Most of you aren’t broke. My mom, with two child daughters, having left an abusive relationship was living in a studio apartment having to choose between food for her daughters or paying rent.
Most people I know who consider themselves broke complain about ticketmaster fees, and inflation on fast food.
If you even CONSIDER eating fast food, or going to concerts, at all, you’re NOT broke.
Broke people think differently. They repurpose every little thing they can in life to get more milage to avoid spending money. Any money. On anything that isn’t strictly needed for survival. Forget streaming. Forget entertainment. That stuff is for rich people.
Until you reach that level, you aren’t broke. You’re just bad at managing money.
“Okay I cut back on the SODAS and AVACADO TOAST and CONCERT TICKETS(!) and now I’m saving $76/month. Any tips on rent taking up 40% of my income?”
you’re just bad at managing money.
No, this country is bad at paying people.
Eh… Little bit of column A, little but of column B.
At the same time we’re breaking travel records: https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2024-07-08/us-agency-screens-record-3-million-airline-passengers-in-single-day
The truth is somewhere in the middle. Some people are hurting. Others are splurging for whatever reason.
I’m one of those who don’t spend my money on anything except the essentials and splurge for trips and stuff. I don’t see a future any more, so I might as well enjoy whatever little I can get in this life.
That’s what I’ve been seeing more of my millennial friend group doing. Basically said fuck saving for retirement. The world is going to shit before then.
So…their plan is to be destitute later in life?
Nope. Just dead.
Certainly heading that way by their actions. But flip side they think I’m saving for a retirement that won’t be worth having because the environment will be collapsing.
40%? That’s not broke. My rent takes up closer to 75% of my rent. And I live in a tiny apartment with no pets, despite wanting a cat, but knowing it’s unfair to have a cat that I can’t afford.
pity Olympics
If 40% of your income every month is being vaporized into nonequitable housing, you’re probably broke. You being taken advantage of even more than most people doesn’t make them “not broke” and that reply makes you frankly come across as a jaded cynic more than anything.
In 1989, I knew that the gas station nearby had loaves of bread for a quarter, the Aldi was fifty cents, and while their bread was better, they were also a bus ride away. More than once, I scrounged coins around the apartment in order to walk down to a further away gas station and buy a couple of loosies. We didn’t have a phone. We had a 13" black and white TV with rabbit ears. I stole. Friends stole for me. I slept all day and was awake all night, going to one hangout or another where there was likely to be some pizza. I would pop loose popcorn and throw it in a paper grocery bag to take out into the world with me.
Even then, I wasn’t really “broke,” because I was at college, and when push came to shove, I had a little bit of family that I could return to. There was always a light at the end of the tunnel, and I knew it.
One of the department Directors I work with keeps complaining like this. Has a $4k mortgage, new cars, went on family vacation to Greece a couple weeks ago.
Dude you’re not broke. You’re an idiot with your money. Don’t cry to me about inflation.
