Comment by happytoexplain
3 days ago
This has nothing to do with reality, where reality means "what people have", rather than "the economy".
3 days ago
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.
What are you relying on if not information about reality?
Home ownership being one of them? What about % of people turning to sex work (either in person or online) for income?
This information is just... available to you. Yes, homeownership being one of them - improving.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RHORUSQ156N
Yes, "sex in exchange for money or drugs" - improving.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr046.pdf
You are out of touch with reality
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.
Some people are regurgitating social media. Most people are expressing the actual reality they are experiencing first- or second-hand.
Give a shit.
1 reply →
Who are you going to believe? Your lying bank balance or statistics?
> 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.
Look, don’t know what to tell you, there is lots of extremely reliable well vetted and well understood information about the welfare of people on this planet and in what directions it is moving. Pretending information is imaginary or offensively abstract because you’re upset about income inequality (which is even more of an abstraction) is not good or helpful.
4 replies →