NPR notes that a record half of Americans can no longer afford housing. This article is worth the read. If for no other reason than its stark honesty.
For over a year, almost every economic news report has been some variation on 'things are looking up.' The hilarious - and yet sad - part is that such reporting is often flanked with stories of Americans unable to afford groceries, utilities, housing, automobiles, needed repair work and other necessities. Just today, CBS crowed over the growth in consumer spending. Oddly enough, people pay more when the things they are buying have to be bought even if prices are at all time highs.
I will give CBS credit. It also mentioned that personal debt is at staggeringly unprecedented levels. It even suggested the two might be connected. Though it assured us economists are optimistic, there should be no recession, and take it away Paul:
If you don't want President Biden to be reelected, I would do nothing at all about this. I've long maintained that a reason Trump won in 2016 was because the press purposely downplayed or ignored the problems in the country. Having learned no lesson at all, it appears that the press will try it again.
Funny thing about people. They will believe a lot that seems unbelievable, but they won't believe they've never had it so good when, in fact, they have it so bad.
My frustration is that I know, I just KNOW that the day Trump is elected (if he is) the media will immediately begin talking about how horrible the economy is and running nightly segments about all the hardships folks endure. (Like the observation that you only saw homeless people in movies during the Regan years.)
ReplyDeleteYou know it. I recall in the late 1990s, some economists were beginning to ring the warning bells that the greatest economy in history wasn't so great, and was built on staggering levels of personal debt. They were generally ignored - until Bush took over, then almost immediately (and before the 9/11 attacks), the press began stories about how shaky our economy was and how recession might be looming (I heard the mentioned in 2004). It's been said there is one indisputable reason to vote GOP: The press will finally be honest and admit there are problems in the nation.
DeleteI am old enough to remember when soldier casualties were always, always the top news story in the Bush years. But when Obama was elected casualties suddenly were no longer top stories. They became page 6 news.
DeleteWe were watching old music videos one night and a couple of the boys were about. One was a Bruce Hornsby song, one was Springsteen. Both touched on the disparity in wealth, the prejudices, the poverty. They thought of seeing the opening sequence of Beverly Hills Cop sometime this year. We didn't watch the movie, just listened to the opening song with the opening credits. They noted how many things from that era made sure we always, Always, ALWAYS saw or focused on the poor people. I told them that was a major focus through my high school and college. No matter how much the economy seemed to improve, we were constantly reminded of those who 'were falling through the cracks' or 'being left behind' the great Reagan era prosperity. All that stopped with the Clinton years, until the GOP took congress, then it came back - and always the fault of the GOP. With the Bush years, it became about nothing but the floundering economy. And then during Obama? That's when we learned, like war casualties or Global Warming, that no matter what the news, it always shows things could never be better (in MMGW case, no matter what is happening, it all proves Global Warming). The problem isn't that I think people believe this. I fear they simply are happy it proves their biases. Even if done at the expense of people's suffering.
DeleteDave:
ReplyDeleteI remember when it was once very hard to get a credit card, when people like my working-class folks got turned down once in a while when they applied. Somehow credit morphed into a virtual right and we have seen (as we should have foreseen) why that's a bad idea. The original idea was to allow people who had money to spend it more easily and efficiently outside the area where they banked and where their checks were recognized. Unfortunately it quickly became a way for people who had little money to pretend they had more. How we move back to the older idea I don't know. Some like Don at "American Catholic" suggest changes to bankruptcy laws could help a lot, but we need to change the culture.
I recall my parents saying there was a time when you couldn't buy things without a substantial down payment. As for credit cards, I think that was beginning to change by the time I came along. It seems to have reached a peak in the 90s where they practically threw them at you walking down the street. From what I can tell, it does seem to have tightened a bit in recent years. Though still far too easy.
DeleteI was getting four or five credit card offers in the mail almost every week in the eighties and nineties. Every once in a while my wife or I would get a check written to thousands of dollars, ready to cash after a short application of credit. None of these offers were requested, you just got them.
DeleteIt's hard finding historical price information online. This is partially due to the temporary nature of most internet sites, partially due to how bad search engines are, and partially due to people outright hiding the data.
DeleteAfter about an hour of digging, I can confidently say that the average price of a Big Mac went up by about 2 bucks since about 2012 to 2022. Since the average price in the early 2010's was around 4 dollars, this is pretty significant. Anecdotally the price increase from 2022 to now has also been significant; but I wasn't able to find any sites with hard data on things. The explosion of prices in housing and used cars has been much worse, but again it's hard to find places that actually list "this was the price in 2022, this was the price in 2023, etc." You have to shake out data from various articles talking about inflation or complaining about high prices.
What makes things worse is the number of official reports that basically say "nah, inflation's fine, there's no need to worry." The things that you are buying might be far more expensive now, but we decided not to track them, so everything's okay. Like you say, the reports are all about how bright the current situation is and how so many people mysteriously are out of money.
For over a year the press has been pouring tons of manure on the economic news in the hopes that something beautiful will grow. Almost every 'economic report' has been 'not that bad, but future looking bright!' Even if they then flank the stories with reports like the one above, or how people are making it despite the disastrous prices, or similar. The most hilarious was last year on CBS, where they had a story about how the staggering grocery prices could be good for your family's health (that is, you can't afford as much food, you're bound to lose weight, and that is a good thing after all!). That mendacity and partisan hackery on the part of the news media is why journalism is about two steps off worthless.
DeleteI definitely agree with this! As a side note, sometimes I think there's an untold story in the story. For instance, when Mary Lou Retton was hospitalized with pneumonia and everyone was freaking out because she didn't have insurance? Well, the primary reason for that was she got divorced. The family highlighted in this story...single parent. It's a LOT harder to do things when you are in these kinds of situations. In our household my husband has always worked two jobs to make ends meet, sometimes I've done small extra jobs as well, but our familial stability has given us a buffer to the worst of situations. Even if it's only moral support knowing we are in this together.
ReplyDeleteI always wonder if you crunched divorce numbers, just in terms of households, and then combined 80% of them into theoretical joint households, what would the housing market look like? What would rent demand be? What would it do to poverty levels?
Rent is ridiculous though. Our mortgage is less than half of what we'd have to pay to rent locally.
Rent is ridiculous, but then so is almost everything. No matter how the press tries to sugarcoat it, people won't believe they have it good when they don't. But yes, the single parent angle is worth noting. It's funny, because we all know - from the stats and all that important research - that broken homes are far more likely to produce troubled kids. I don't know if any research has ever said otherwise. Yet how much effort do we put in trying to prevent or downplay divorce? How much in our culture or general society is there emphasizing the need to stick to it and get through the tough times? Just the opposite. It's almost 'how many ways can you justify ditching your spouse?' I guess so much for 'follow the science.'
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