I’ll admit that I was one of the privileged few who were comfortable and secure during the pandemic: i had a job that could be remote without issue and i lived in a city that took precautions seriously
But
- remote employment was a 100% improvement to being stuck in my office and in a toxic environment
- because I was remote, there was no pressure to work extra hours when my projects didn’t require it, which meant my work-life balance was much better
- the student loan moratorium helped me and my wife finally save up for a house down-payment and get ahead on our debt
- with the extra financial and work security, I finally reached a healthy weight and was the most fit i had been since college
Now, my weight is back up, my job is much less secure, my finances are strained again, and I feel like our future financial security is in question because the economy is dominated by two or three companies that may come crashing back down if AI turns out to be a bubble
This question is so subjective and incredibly personal, so i question the utility of it. But there’s no question for me about how precarious my personal situation feels now vs back in 2020. Back then, our primaries and much of the Campaign revolved around questions that had significant impacts on my life, but this cycle none of what is being discussed in the campaigns have much to do with my personal security. I don’t know if my remote job will last, I don’t know how long my house (that I bought in 2021 thanks to covid stimulus efforts) will be worth more than my mortgage, I don’t know if the items I rely on will continue inflating in cost or not, ect.
Again, I’m incredibly privileged. But democrats have switched focus to what happens if Trump wins, instead of focusing on what happens if they win. Seems like nothing significant is on the table for my family’s security, and that doesn’t comfort me at all. There’s just no hope in this election, all there seems to be is fear.
Democrats (72%) are much more likely than independents (35%) or Republicans (7%) to view themselves as “better off.”
So, it’s basically all political. I bet if exactly the same economic scenario played out over the past four years,but with Trump as the president, the numbers would be reversed with 72 percent of Republicans and 7 percent of Democrats viewing themselves as better off.
Yeah, I would mostly agree. The poll peaks in 2020 when there was COVID, a virus that was putting people in the hospital on ventilators and had a mortality rate we hadn’t experienced for over a century. Along with a healthcare system barely holding on, lockdowns, masking, social distancing, a major recession, people losing their jobs, kids going back to school with all that chaos, and in the middle of one of the most chaotic and stressful presidential elections in history. BUT 55% of people were better off in 2020. Hmm…
Humans believe things they hear constantly repeated to them, and somehow every right-wing party on earth has money to run constant ads telling people things are shitty.
The median net worth for millenials tripled between 2019 and 2022? How the fuck did that happen?
a truly baffling data visualization thank you
Yeah wtf is going on. Can the WP no longer afford to edit anything?
Funny, because four years ago I was afraid of dying if I got too close to a stranger. And I was massively depressed (I’m on an antidepressant now). There was no timeline on things getting better.
I’m now vaxxed, boosted, in treatment. I’m cooly watching to see what develops and if the wrong one wins, I’m leaving. I badly hope that I get to stay where I am because I love the area, but I’m not sticking around if fascism wins.
Thanks for leaving those of us who can’t afford to leave behind to suffer, instead standing by your fellow citizens.
No a single US citizen has a real collectivist bone in their fucking bodies. Just “save my own ass and fuck everyone else” from top to bottom.
I’m sure some Jews in Germany said the same thing when their compatriots got out. My politics make me a target. I’m not sticking around. It sucks that you don’t have the means to do the same and all I can say is that I’m sorry I don’t have the means to help you escape too.
Yet here you are complaining about them because your circumstances are different. You encompass exactly what you’re complaining about here.
Hurting bad people with money (as in leaving) seems to be effective, no?
Odd, I seem to remember reading the exact same headline in 2020. Perhaps Americans just hate life in America because of 60 years of nonstop existential bullshit.
The downward spiral of education, the constant fight or flight news cycle, and the rise of the unfettered oligarchy have vastly contributed to the current state of America.
I’m reminded nearly every day of Carl Sagan’s “foreboding” quote from “The Demon-Haunted World”.
Nothing will fundamentally change, things will get 10% worse every year and the weapons shipments to the genocidal frontier will continue. Same as it ever was.
So everyone just give up! No point in trying!
What have you been trying?
For one thing I’ve been very active with Jewish Voices for Peace for months. What about you?
Edit: Sorry, sleepy posting. That was not contextually relevant at all.
You just contradicted yourself…
I believe things won’t get better in this world.
and then:
And if the opportunity exists to make the world better, I take it
Or do you mean that such an opportunity will never exist?
Ah, sorry. I edited that away, after rereading the context. I didn’t want to inject personal philosophy into what was clearly not about my beliefs.
But the second clause was given (or was intended to be given) in the context that I don’t believe hope is actionable. It’s just wasted emotional energy. If I can take an action that directly improves things, I do.
The scale is also poorly defined - sorry. The first: world at large. The second: the world that is around me - my family, my local environment (radiating out from my house, into my community, etc - but I know I can’t impact the national level).
I mean I keep saying they should stop sending weapons to Israel but none of my democratic reps will give me the time of day
You just said it will continue no matter what.
Why say anything?
I said “nothing will fundamentally change” ironically paraphrasing Biden because quite a lot changed lol
Also the statement that “the weapons shipments will continue” was more of an observation
That is not all that you said. This is what you said:
Nothing will fundamentally change, things will get 10% worse every year and the weapons shipments to the genocidal frontier will continue. Same as it ever was.
So that was all a joke? Things could fundamentally change and things might not get 10% worse every year?
Otherwise, seems like we all might as well give up.
Look I’m just quoting the president, sorry if Biden makes you so hopeless, that’s why I’m voting PSL
I should have gotten into the bomb making business
If you live in America, you already are.
The MIC is a great career for kids who studied computers because they wanted to make video games. It’s the profitable side of the school-to-global-prison pipeline.
People assume that covid was super miserable for everyone… But a global plague is preferable to pointless forced attendance at “employment” for many many people. I know lots of people who miss it. And much of that progress has been completely reversed.
People forget about how much it felt like labor and employment were about to be revolutionized for the better back then. It really seemed like employers were finally going to be forced to adapt to better conditions.
Now it feels like that’s all being undone. How many companies still have their remote work options? How many people are willing to leave their jobs for something better now?
Covid was super miserable because some operational ties have formed on top levels of bureaucracies and businesses, which weren’t there before it. And the covid tech bubble added to that. And the data collected by everyone using things like Zoom and Teams and other such, and probably accessible to governments, - owch.
It’s a bit like neural connections in our brains, say, an ADHD person has severe lack of some of them, but if they take meds when they are still developing, some subset of those will actually form and make them more capable for various tasks.
This consolidation has really accelerated our time’s remake of something like 30 years war.
Majority of Americans don’t remember struggling to find toilet paper.
Yeah, 4 years ago was the pandemic. Either people can’t do math, can’t remember 4 years ago, or just think “worse” means “bad now”…
Majority of people would rather wipe with their hands than be trapped in their “workplace”.
Maybe because that shortage lasted about a week
Is this specific to the US? I could see this worldwide.
Notice how it says four years? It’s trumputinist propaganda. And yes, you can see it worldwide.
A lot of countries have four year election cycles, but I think it’s just a general “are we doing better than a few years ago? no!” vibe.
I would say that a poll which is about the majority of Americans is specific to the U.S., yes.
The poll is specific, my question is whether the issues underlying this poll are worldwide and not just affecting the US, meaning the US is just following a worldwide trend.
Income inequality, the pandemic, the recovery from it, greedflation are issues that affect more than just the US.
But every year I read that the rich are getting ever richer…
Makes sense, things have been on a downward trend for decades.
