Comment by wilg

3 days ago

Fortunately the complaints about the economy and homeownership are also just folk wisdom that doesn't really reflect reality https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/05/how-gen-z-outpaces-past-gene...

The economy, real wages, etc are basically higher than ever (despite idiot Trump's best efforts).

People are mad because being mad is fun and we're all on being mad machines 24/7.

This has nothing to do with reality, where reality means "what people have", rather than "the economy".

  • "What people have" is robustly measured, well-understood, and pretty much all available evidence suggests that people (at least in the US and developed countries) are doing better than ever on most important metrics. But it is not as seductive as "everything is terrible"!

    • Sorry to sound harsh, but you are out of touch. Many social metrics are very complex objectively and are not accounted for by "robust measuring", and this is the biggest example there ever was. Data is king where it can describe reality - but the elephant in the room is that data can't describe reality in some very high-profile societal contexts, and pretending it can is dangerous with a capital D.

      1 reply →

    • You will never break through the thousands of hours of doomer bullshit people are fed on TikTok all day. The post you first responded to, for instance, is talking about not being able to afford a home in the entire state they work in, which is obviously ridiculous, but it feeds the same "woe is me" bullshit from people whose only outlet for existential angst is now bitching about how poor they think they'll be in five years when they turn 18.

      2 replies →

    • > doing better than ever on most important metrics

      I'd say the most important metrics are those that matter to people, not those that other people say should matter to them. Births are going down, suicide is going up, but they're just drama queens, we ran the numbers... that is what turns mere criticism into hatred.

      Less and less people own a bigger and bigger share of wealth, and they're too often not decent people who respect democracy and the fact that they're still just one person, not a particularly special one, and still only have one vote. No, many of them are not content with that, and have assaulted the people ever since they successfully fought for the few worker's rights they have now. That is bad enough, and not even close to the full picture. That "it used to be worse" in some metrics isn't relevant, what matters is now, how it is because of robber barons, and how it would be without them.

      If someone steals most of your shit but leave you with more than "people used to have, on average, in historic times", you wouldn't be placated by that. Because, weirdly enough, you don't view yourself as a mere abstraction to be talked about that way, and billions of other people don't view themselves that way either.

      5 replies →

Where are you getting your numbers from because the stock market has ceased to be linked to reality for the last decade. Trump fired the stats and numbers office. The only numbers we have are "trust me" numbers which are completely false. Most people would agree that the economy has ground to a halt and everyone I know complains about the gas prices and grocery prices. The reality is there are a lot of people out of work that aren't factored into unemployment numbers because we can't accurately calculate unemployment numbers anymore.

  • Whether most people agree is irrelevant to whether it's right. You can look at all kinds of numbers which are not the stock market to determine how well people are doing and whether things are getting better or worse. Your conspiracy theories about unemployment numbers are wrong.

    • The job market is objectively terrible, groceries are insanely expensive and people can’t afford to buy homes until they’re 50. Your attempts at gaslighting aren’t going to work anymore buddy

      2 replies →