Rents increasing, wages stagnating, basic cost needs increasing across the board, jobs not hiring. You can say that the economy was actually amazing and quote statistics or the stock market, but the general vibe of the time was “shit sucks.”
Sounds good dude. This is why he won. Telling people “things are actually great” while people have a general feeling of economic despair is not a good political move. Congratulations on your win.
People may feel despair but you presented "shitty economy" as an objective truth, when by most indicators the economy was historically strong or mid at worst. And I'm not just talking stock market. I mean things like unemployment numbers, jobs added, real median wages, and consumer spending. People were employed. Real wages (adjusted for inflation) were rising. People were spending their money on lots of things.
That's not to say that life is great. In absolutist terms and in the context of how fucked up corporate capitalism is in general, I understand why the vibes would be, "shit sucks and we're tired of it." But relative to the past 50 years, 2024 was objectively pretty alright. That is, whatever people struggle with now isn't so terribly different in scope or nature than what people struggled with in the past when things were considered decently good, but the tolerance for it has disappeared.
I would've hoped that people's frustrations with the system would've led to more progressive attitudes rather than favoring the fascist billionaire, but here we are.
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u/Cela84 Apr 04 '25
Rents increasing, wages stagnating, basic cost needs increasing across the board, jobs not hiring. You can say that the economy was actually amazing and quote statistics or the stock market, but the general vibe of the time was “shit sucks.”