| > No, it's about the same as 2019: Thank you for for the source, this helps my point perfectly. If household income is only just reaching 2019 levels, but food has gone between 100-200% up in price[0], then that means the effective buying power has been cut in half if not more (depending on the good). > Inflation is over and done with. No, it’s not. It returned to a more normal level, but the effects don’t just magically disappear. > We even fixed income inequality; it's sharply reduced since 2019 Fixed is pulling a lot of weight there. The lowest 10% of earners had wages that returned to pre-pandemic levels faster than those who make more, a lot of which were solely HS grads, and have increased proportionally higher. This does not in any way mean income equality is “fixed”, it’s still obviously there. Additionally, this coincides with your first link that wages for 90% of the population aren’t what they used to be, and those within the 10th percentile are hit the hardest by food prices anyway. Also “economic indicators” don’t matter until either food prices go down or wages meet inflation. As they say, everyone anxiously hopes for bread and circuses. > One thing you can say that may be true is that voters are upset because they remember inflation from 2021-22 and are still reacting to it. Or that they don't like high interest rates. And housing prices are bad in blue states and that is the local governments' fault. They’re going to react to it as long as it’s still affecting them, obviously. No one likes high interest rates. And that’s part of a handful of reasons there’s been more movement out of blue states. > But one thing we see from US voters is that R voters claim the economy is bad under a D president and immediately switch to claiming it's good under an R president. So I think you should consider those people are lying. This is just hypocritical. So the people you disagree with are liars because they disagree with you? While you’re claiming the economy is great under a Dem, and downplaying one of the most significant bouts of inflation in living memory? [0] - https://www.bls.gov/charts/consumer-price-index/consumer-pri... |
No, the chart I linked is income after accounting for price increases. That's what "real income" means.
The other thing we can see in surveys is that people think their personal economic situation is good, but then think the economy is bad anyway. So they don't generally believe their income is down at this time, though they do remember it being down recently.
> No, it’s not. It returned to a more normal level, but the effects don’t just magically disappear.
Inflation is a rate. When the rate goes down, then it's over. ("disinflation")
When it goes negative ("deflation") it means a severe economic crisis like the one in 2008.
> They’re going to react to it as long as it’s still affecting them, obviously. No one likes high interest rates.
Luckily they've been going down all this year. I think savers like them though.
> And that’s part of a handful of reasons there’s been more movement out of blue states.
Wellllll… the US has a gigantic welfare program for homeownership called 30-year fixed mortgages. Many people bought homes in 2021 when rates were low, so it literally doesn't matter to them if it goes up after that. It does make it harder to move though, or to borrow money for other things.
The housing costs issue more affects young people who want to move out of their parents' places.
> This is just hypocritical. So the people you disagree with are liars because they disagree with you?
It's because they immediately switch. I also thought the economy was good in 2019, but it was definitely bad in 2020. (And worst of all in 2008.)
Also no, I didn't say they were liars, just that it's a possibility.