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The answer is simple. During and after the COVID crisis we pumped so much money into the economy through tax breaks and low interest FED money that mostly went into assets for wealthy people (look at stocks during COVID after the bailout). All that money caused dramatic inflation the rest of us working folks are still paying for. So, the wealthy accumulated a lot of assets and increased value on those assets while the rest of us got stuck with the bill in the form of inflation. Having said that, all the economic reports are showing a good (not booming) economy that is growing. But don't confuse growth with well-being. Most of us are not benefitting dramatically from that growth unless we own a lot of assets.
The problem with the economy is the overall effect of inflation. It is down to normal now, but because it was so high for so long, everything I more expensive. Wages have gone up for some at a higher rate than the inflation, but not for all.
I am so tired of people talking around the issue, your guest included. She's missing the point so perfectly it almost feels intentional. The economy refers to the ebb and flow of capital and the access to the levers of power that affect that. Neither of these are controlled in any capacity by regular people and we are all at the total mercy of those that do control them. When the economy is "good", we get to watch as the owner class' prosperity shoots off into the stratosphere, sometimes literally, as our own (liquid) wealth stagnates, our meager assets depreciate, and everything gets more expensive around us. When the economy is "bad", we all get to lose our jobs because God forbid these people make less money for a single second, and if it reaches the level of a recession we get to watch the rich treat the depressed price of assets as a sale that allows them to consolidate even more capital around themselves so that they'll be in an even stronger position when things recover. A so-called "healthy" economy is one that finds the perfect balance of driving regular people right up to the cliff's edge without quite pushing us off. We can see all of this happening around us and we are powerless to stop it. We're never going to own anything, we're never going to have enough to attempt to achieve our goals and dreams, we're never going to retire, and even the superficial distractions of life that we use to numb the reality of all this are expensive to the point of being impossible to indulge without extreme guilt. It is soul-destroying to live like this. Stop treating this like such a mystery.
Savage and so sad. Although it may not be "never." The great wealth transfer they say is just beginning, and it may repair this feeling for the young people that stand to inherit. If your family is poor though, you're screwed. All any of us can really do is be thankful lfor what we're given and beg for something better from the unhearing titans. Or is it all we can do? It would be so amazing to see a country-wide labor strike to put the fear into the owner class.
@fj81191 My parents are lower middle class, retired, but are sacrificing what little wealth they've managed to accrue on my dad's government salary on elder care for my last living grandparent. There will be very little left for them to care for themselves and no way for me to help them, so certainly nothing left to inherit. But hey, fuck us right? Retired people are useless eaters anyway, according to their values.
The answer is simple. We live in two separate economies. One is doing great: That's the one the corporations and billionaires and economists rave about all the numbers being high because their profits and pay have increased exponentially. The second is the economy of working class Americans who can't afford anything because prices continuously increase.
The US moved to an investment economy that left the working class behind. The investment class captured the largest portions of the US GDP while the government stimulated the growth of their investments. The working class has watched others make more for doing less for decades, widening the wealth gap to historic levels, and causing this divide between classes. To top it off, the wealthy has so much wealth, they don't know what to do with it, so they inflate markets such as housing for the tax breaks on their revenue. The wealthy are inflating the cost of some goods because they have so much wealth.
@@WiReDApe The US didn't move to an investment economy - that's just capitalism. This is how it functions. This cycle happens literally every 40-80 years lmao
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Yeah, financial advisors could make a lot of difference, particularly in a market such as this. Stocks are pretty unstable at the moment, but if you do the right math, you should be just fine. Bloomberg and other finance media have been recording cases of folks gaining over 250k just in a matter of weeks/couple months, so I think there are a lot of wealth transfer in this downtime if you know where to look. I have been using an FA since 2019, and I return at least $121k ROI, and this does not include capital gain.
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I just got laid off from a job i was amazing at and had spent 15 years working my way up to lead an entire department so that the ceo could give himself a 42% raise. Tell me again how great the economy is.
I think there's really 3 major issues. 1. Wealth is being aggregated. So even though people have "more" as old people will say, it's more affordable on some level to travel, go to restaurants to some extent, and there's better TVs and better tech (as mentioned early in the show), real wealth and children stuff has gotten worse and worse. Even if you have more conveniences, you feel bad having less wealth. As a corollary, people don't have wealth to generate more moving forward. You can't use your house as leverage for instance. 2. Wages have stagnated. Full stop. This relates to point 1, which is why it's my point 1, but worker efficiency and productivity has skyrocketed in the past 40 years, but they are effectively paid less. 3. Price gouging and enshittification. Things we buy are worse, and we pay more for less, so it just feels worse. What this all adds up to is the everything is fine but it sucks, that's the feeling of not having an immediate financial crisis but not building wealth, in a meaningful way. So you feel stuck, and it's a slow moving disaster. The middle class is a boiling frog right now. It's not bad enough to jump out, but the temperature is rising and has been for forty years. The pessimism is warranted because the trend line has been worse and worse. That's something else to understand about econ, is that all decisions are made at the margin. The margin, the change over time, is bad for the middle class. You might not be there yet, but it's getting worse.
When housing prices means will have to have a household income of two degree professionals with stable work, all while fighting against absurd unchecked rental prices from landlords/investors trying to claw their way up too. Its no wonder, its becoming dystopian and many, myself included can feel like we aren't making progress but just slipping backwards into poverty
I really liked the point about how homeowners wouldn't want prices to go up if they ever want to be able to move again. The other point that struck me was that to prosper in this economy, we all need to be investing in the stock market instead of housing. I wish there was a way for the govt to step in and help first-time stock buyers like they do for first-time homebuyers.
@@NickCombsthe stock market is a shell game. The government isn’t going to help people start gambling. The stock market doesn’t generate real wealth. It’s just a trick so companies can earn more than they produce.
I’m sorry but this is one of the most frustrating and depressing discussions I’ve ever heard. And the guest said something at the end that really helped me clarify why. I’m paraphrasing a tad, but essentially it was “if you’re going to be a citizen within a system, you should be invested in that system” and I’m sorry to this woman (she’s clearly knowledgeable about her area of interest and I respect that) but fuck off with that. The idea that economic investment of any kind is a prerequisite to be a good citizen is just beyond gross to me. It is not the moral responsibility of those living within a system to invest in it. Rather, it is the responsibility of those in charge of the system to invest in individuals. What she’s basically saying is, if you’re poor it’s your fault for not investing in the stock market. I know she would say that’s not what she’s trying to say, but that is the logic behind the argument she’s making. I’m sorry, but all the economics education and careful incremental investment in the world will not save you if you’re one of the people the system excludes, either implicitly or explicitly. She claims that it just requires “sacrifice” but then goes on to say that her dad helped her set up her portfolio with her “own money.” Sacrifice my ass. What do you have to say to all the people who don’t have money to “sacrifice” in the first places That’s not sacrifice, that’s luck. That’s luck that you had a parent who encouraged you to invest that young, and luck that you had your “own money” to put in. And I can’t put enough quotes around “own money” because at 14 or 15 the only money you get is from adults in your life. Unless you’re stealing it, and somehow I doubt this woman has ever been in a situation where stealing was a necessity. So, in short, fuck this rhetoric and this line of thinking.
While being aware of the issues surrounding economic and social policies is great and we should absolutely keep demanding more out of our governments, I think it's only half the picture. The odds are we are not going to change the system in our lifetime, even as we continue to push towards a more just one. So while we are living within the system we should strive to do what we can within it to ensure our (and our families') wellbeing. So it's not that investing in the stock market means you get to ignore the system's problems, it's that in this system investing in the stock market, even if it's just a few dollars at a time (or pesos, in my case) is a proven way that helps people deal with the problems and unexpected circumstances life throws at them. It's solid financial advice. Otherwise what's the other choice? Lay down and take it? Focusing on what we can do is the only way to actually solve problems, even economic ones.
She made a video about the longshoreman strike where she blamed the union workers for threatening to destroy the economy when only 5-10% of them would be losing their jobs due to automation in the immediate future, which they should be fine with since that automation help the broader economy. She claimed it would be the worst man made disaster in modern history and that the union workers and organizers were entirely to blame. Not only was she completely wrong about the outcome (the strike was over almost instantly with the company conceding to certain demands) but she was also wrong that the whole thing was the worker's fault and that they should be fine with being cut out of the economy just so that others can enjoy it. Her claims were way off base and her slant was strictly economic. absolutely no room for the suffering of real people who were being exploited. Frankly, I'm mad Adam thought she was worth talking to.
@ I’m so glad you said this. I haven’t had a chance to check out the rest of her online presence, but based on what she said in this interview I felt like I pretty much understood her deal already, and based on what you’re saying it sounds like I was right. It’s such a shame to see Adam talk to her. He can be a little bit centrist/liberal in his takes sometimes, but I’ve never seen it be this bad. The very fact that they spend the whole thing acting as though the disconnect is a mystery is appalling.
@@astroemi I understand what you’re saying here, and perhaps if the discussion had been framed as being about what we can do to help insure our survival I guess I wouldn’t have as much of an issue, but this discussion was framed (at least initially) as being about the disconnect between how the economy is doing on paper and how well it actually seems to be serving average citizens. And if we take that framing at face value, then the answer she arrives at seems to be that it’s because poor people don’t invest enough. And I think that’s a really gross reading of the situation.
People on SSDI and SS retirement are NOT OK!!! SSDI gets $15k or less per year. There's no housing for us and the food bank is mandatory just to make it thru the month.
@@Heritage367Ppl on SSDI get a cost of living increase every January. The amount is based on a percentage of your current amount and the past year's inflation rate.
@@Heritage367 there is literally adjustment every year. It’s called the cost-of-living adjustment, and it matches the rate of inflation. They gave Social Security recipients, a 9% cost of living adjustment in 2022.
Yeah, I'm on SSDI. I'll never be able to afford a house or apartment. I tried getting a work from home job for like two years. But I'm not included in homelessness or poverty rates because I have to live with family.
Depends, do you mean _the economy_ or "the economy"? One is people buying and selling things they want or need, the other is rich people using computers to gamble on the former.
She literally works for the Capital Group (see her wiki): Capital Group is an American financial services company. It ranks among the world's oldest and largest investment management organizations, with over $2.6 trillion in assets under management. How can she even been unbiased and in touch with real people ?
She doesn’t need to be unbiased…? And people can do two things at once? Plus sometimes it’s easier to change things while participating inside the system you want to change. Or even as someone who appears to want to help people learn about a general topic, having credibility probably helps a lot. I’m not making any claims about her specifically, just speaking generally
What do you mean?! Did you see how she was dressed? Very casual, very working class. Don't mind the elitist rhetoric coming from her mouth. Look she said "Vibeconomy," haha...
@@chrispederson6956 Capital owners of course. The working class is exploited so the capital owners can thrive. Pretty well documented stuff at this point.
I’m pretty sure the reason that most people don’t invest isn’t because it’s “too complicated.” It’s because they’re stuck with debts that have higher interest rates than anything they’d get from reliable stocks. Compounding interest goes both ways.
Also it’s bullshit. Investing in already successful going concerns is a pointless gambling game. It doesn’t produce wealth. If anything it encourages worse behavior by corporations by giving them even more leverage to buy out, close down, and strip for parts.
i agree. no money to invest, not just too uninformed to invest. I didn't get to invest until i was in my 30s, and i am a master budgeter. my knowledge of what to invest in has been there since i was like 16.
I thought I was done after my first comment but the idea that the stock market is simply too confusing for the majority of us to use is absolutely insulting. We dont have excess money to put in to the stock market when we can't afford food, housing, healthcare and an education in the first place.
I usually love this podcast, but holy sh!t was this one out of touch. I'm underemployed and have been since 2021 (editing to add) AFTER WORKING IN MY FIELD FOR 15 YEARS. As conceited as it's going to sound, I am excessively qualified in my field, meaning 4 inter-related degrees, and I have 3 award-winning projects in my portfolio. The job market is full of fake job posts and scams. The unemployment number isn't even completely accurate to begin with. The job I had before paid well, especially compared to the average, and I was still unable to afford a house. My groceries and utilities have exploded in price. I'm on state healthcare and even using THAT is prohibitively expensive. It's not fuckin vibes, it's my material conditions. Even the glib mention of climate change is enraging. I'm going to go ahead and posit that the way we measure the economy only measures things that benefit a certain class of people. Edit: Dear God, the predictability of some the Idiotic replies to my comment. It's easier to add it here, than to reply to the a$$ clowns. Yes, my comment is an anecdote, just like the anecdotes this TikToker referred to where people they interviewed said their financial situation was "fine" but "felt bad" about the economy. And I'm clearly commenting on the 'vibecession' bullshit. Well spotted, skeezix. I knew listing my specific degrees was a waste of time, which is why I didn't. Even without listing them, there's some chucklefuk whipping out the tired blaming bullsh!t of "yOu DoN’t HaVe A mAjOr In EnGiNeErInG." as if that's the only fcking thing anyone can be paid to do. Newsflash, you dumb sh!ts, it's not. Besides, I bet you bots will be bleating the same thing when all the people pushed into engineering oversaturate THAT job market. It's almost as if a functioning society requires people to do different kinds of things! The absolute insanity!! /s Also, the claims that "yOu DoN't KnOw HoW tO sPeNd YoUr MoNeY" are hilarious considering that they mention the exact grocery stores I shop at, and I grew up poor. I know how to spend my gotdamn money, probably much better than this dipsh!t in their mother's basement.
Normally Adam seems pretty in touch with the stuggles of oppressed groups, often including the working class, but when he said food was affordable as he explained how he couldn't understand why the working class "feels bad" about the economy, I breifly considered unsubscribing during a flare of emotion.
Any working-class citizen with working eyes and ears can understand why we feel the way we do. It's not some looming mystery that people are baffled by, it's plain as day for anyone actually living in this hellscape. We've been saying it for YEARS now. The economy she's talking about is the corporate, capitalistic one that focuses only on how business profits are going up, not on how the majority of us are suffering and unable to afford anything because our wages refuse to go up while our groceries skyrocket. I'm disgusted by how out of touch this entire interview sounds.
Also, the growing and tangible lack of control we have over our political process, as Democrats keep saying 'You NEED to vote for us, abortion rights are on the line," while the roll over and let GOP stooges plant judges everywhere they want just because old Dems want to go home for the holidays, and we recall that Obama and a huge D supermajority conveniently forgot about codifying RvW into law years ago... and the constant "You progressives are simultaneously a loud minority that we're gonna completely ignore in terms of policy demands, but also you're also completely at fault if we lose this election" Democrats would rather become more fascistic and become best friends with Liz Cheney than court the entire Muslim subpopulation of the Midwest to help secure that vote in battleground states, because the former doesn't entail giving up the love of genocide
"Am I better off now, or was I better off 4 years ago?" is a loaded question. I mean 4 years ago we were fighting over toilet paper, now, I'm fighting to pay the rent, keep the lights on, and eat. Wait, I forgot the toilet paper scare of 2024... Here is what I know and understand... I am making more now than I ever have, I am working more than I ever have, and I can barely, just barely keep up with the bills while working a full time job. My rent eats a full paycheck, the power bill eats almost half of one, and I am scraping the bottom of the barrel for housing. My car insurance is in constant rotation as I switch for the cheaper insurance companies... Food prices are still high, even with inflation remaining fairly low. And forget about getting a (used) car right now, and boy oh boy, I'd love to have something that gets 30-40 mpgs. You know, I'd also love health insurance... As it is, "reality" or not, I see corporate profits being called record breaking, I see the stock market at record highs, while my washing machine came from a pawn shop, I don't see things as going well. Maybe it would be different if I owned stocks, or had a 401K (or some other retirement plan), or if I didn't have to take on a roommate for a singlewide trailer... Speaking about junk fees for things like concert tickets or flights... Well, I'm not going to be flying anywhere anytime soon, you know pesky little problem like, not being able to afford to take a vacation... But have you seen the prices for some concert tickets? That pesky little fee is a drop in the bucket when a concert ticket is $300-500 for a show, removing that fee isn't going to help me afford the ticket. Well, as long as I smuggle in snacks and drinks, I can still go to the movies...
Does anyone else really, really, really not trust Kyla? Like, I'm no economist, but it seems to me that this nonsense really isn't all that complicated. The wealthy have become wealthier and a lot of our industries and companies have consolidated under monopolies over the past two decades. So overall, the economy is doing great...if your definition of "the economy" is limited to how well the wealthy are doing and you're only measuring the quantity of money being moved around from one mega entity to another. Because it all gets averaged out across the country and all of the entities in it. But seeing as how economics don't take into considering the increase of food or housing costs, the primary things that actually effects the majority of American workers, there's a huge disconnect between how well we are told the economy is doing vs how well we ourselves are doing. The ways in which we are measuring "the economy" is broken and irrelevant to the American worker. To hear this dynamic reduced to the phrase "vibecession", as if the only reason we feel awful about things is because we're all easily influenced fools being emotionally misled by the media rather than the fact that many people literally CANNOT AFFORD to buy their own homes or feed their children, feels like gaslighting. And I know that's an overused phrase, but damnit, that's exactly what it looks like to me and I'm calling it. And in all the time I've been watching Kyla on TikTok and on other platforms, it seems like she keeps waffling back and forth between whether the economy actually is good, is actually garbage. And on top of all that, she went from being on TikTok to being platformed on everything, everywhere, in rapid succession, despite never arriving to any sort of conclusion about anything and never actually being concise about what she's trying to communicate. And what even is she trying to communicate? Like, I keep listening to her and she never actually seems to arrive at any point that isn't negated by the next thing she says or the next video she puts out. I honestly get the sense that she comes from an extremely wealthy family and is out of touch. Like, she studies and talks about the economy but it all just seems so trivial and dethatched to her, like some abstract puzzle that doesn't effect her own life in any way. Like, she might as well be studying some magical world out of a fantasy novel for as personal as any of this sounds to her.
It's boring to say facts but these are just facts. It's kinda simple why economy looks great right now but people feel bad about their situation. Wealthy people get all the money and are feeling good and they can put their propaganda to media how economy is so great and other nonsense
I completely agree and I'm glad I'm not the only one who had these thoughts. To me, she comes across as a very unserious person. She was serving up a lot of economy buzzword salad and name dropping other economists. I get the impression she took some economics courses in college, but lacks any real world experience in economics. Seems like Dunning-Kruger strikes again!
Hi there - I am Kyla in the video. I come from Kentucky, and am absolutely not rich. I grew up very solidly middle class and really struggled in college and in my first few years out of college. I talk a lot about structural affordability, and really try to get to the points in my other videos. I apologize if I wasn't clear in this video, and I hope my other work speaks for itself. I apologize if you think the work is not concise - it's something I am working on, but the economy changes so rapidly. But you're right, a clear thesis is important.
Rent, car (including car maintenance) and grocery prices are all ASTRONOMICALLY higher than they were just 5 years ago, and nobody on an hourly wage has seen pay-raises to match. I see so many pundits/news shows/articles asking about the "disconnect" between our "great economy" and how the public views it and I'm left wondering how thick they have to be! The real disconnect is between the well-paid people looking at charts and "indicators", and the people who have to live in the world they fly over. Analogy: Economic Indicators are to the lived experience of "The 98%" what Climate is to Weather. Edit to add: The surveys saying "I'm doing okay" are wrong. That's the answer! What do indicators say about personal savings? About housing security (not just housing)? About health-care (REAL health care, not "access to health-care" or "affordable...". If you make 16bucks an hour, and your deductible is $2000, you DO NOT in fact, have health care. We do not "feel bad about a good economy". We are all 2 paychecks away from homelessness, and economists are gaslighting us when they say it's just the media is scaring us into pessimism. THIS ECONOMY DOES NOTHING FOR THE WORKING POOR, and telling us "everything's going gangbusters, you're just looking at it wrong" is f***ing infuriating. Tldr: Just watch the movie Demolition Man. That's the world right now.
I came to the comments as SOON as he said this. We don’t even buy much and we still can’t leave the store without spending a hundred bucks, and since that’s not getting us much we are having to go more often 🥲
@@PureKNFDrake Would love to have a garden, but we’re not allowed to have gardens where we rent and also have super long winters with tons of snow. We make our own bread, and slow cooked meals that last as long as we can make them. This is just an unnecessary, unhelpful response considering it has nothing to do with the actual problem.
Compared to everywhere else in the world, your food is cheaper, the US is the second-biggest food producer in the entire planet, it also has the lowest food expenditure compare to income, so if you're bad, all of us in the rest of the world are fckd, which is actually the reality, most people in the world are poor, the US government just chose to inflict what they do here in the global south, domestically.
@@PureKNFDrake The amount of work and actual money that needs to go into growing those seeds at a small scale is not even in the ballpark of breaking even. I have a balcony garden because I like gardening; I am sure it has not saved me any money.
I think the main message here is that there is a disconnect between "the economy" and "the individual." Individuals don't actually *make* the economy. The economy is driven by several different factors. We know, in general, numbers can be used to tell lies. Numbers are not a determination of the overall experience of the individual. For example, unemployment is calculated through the use of individuals that *want* jobs and are still *searching* for jobs. But if those individuals simply stop searching for jobs, they no longer are counted as part of the equation for unemployment rate. It also is not taking into account people that are taking lower paying jobs out of desperation, lower quality jobs, or multiple jobs to fill the gap. That's one simple way to explain why someone may be feeling awful about their situation, but it doesn't reflect in the numbers. Consumer spending can be driven by the top 1% as well, and therefore, once again not reflecting the average individual. All this to say that people *should* be upset with the current state of things. We need to continue to push for change and bring the middle class back.
There are multiple statistics reported for employment/unemployment, which include the things you mentioned. The jobs report supposedly has data on if people have multiple jobs and stuff too (never personally looked but seen it mentioned a bunch)
@@franjkav It is true that those stats exist. From 2020 onward, the number of jobs held by an individual has been on the rise, surpassing the numbers before the shutdowns hit. But that number is not used to indicate the "health" of the economy. We're often shown the unemployment rate as the ultimate determinant. Which has also been rising since it bottomed out in April of 2023. From 3.4% to the current 4.1% reported in September. I suspect unemployment will keep rising as companies are still laying people off.
Also telling people that investing is the solution and "it requires sacrifice" then saying well I started with 50$. That is not the solution to wealth inequality and it really is more of the avocado toast BS. Leaving 50$ in an account will not fill a retirement account, even 50$ a month will not.
Then the solution is to organise, to protest, to try to change the system in some way, otherwise, you should try to invest or just unilive yourself, that's the reality of the system.
@@bluester7177 It's shocking to hear Adam say all this because he's a union organizer. He should know the kind of resources, effort, and luck that it takes to speak to power and make gains.
@@chasethechase2298 I give him some benefit of the doubt that he's just trying to discuss this with an "expert". He did ask some good questions but for how frank his interviews are I think there's some critique missing.
In fairness, $50 a month for 40 years with historic real returns ends up being about $100,000 at the end. Not a ton of money to retire on, but it’s way more than most people have when they retire.
Good point! GDP is garbage left alone as a 'measure of progress', even the man who invented it said it should not be used like it is today. Genuine Progress Indicator would be better and regions calculating their progress towards Doughnut Economics, as Kate Raworth has described, would be even better. Ideally, we accept capitalism is unsustainable and we boldly move to build a better system. End capitalism before it ends us. That's what the Party for Socialism and Liberation openly states. They got on the ballot in over 15 states and are going to keep building the grassroots movement. Green Party with Stein and Ware got on for 95% of Americans and will also keep the movement going past November. Adam has had some good videos and interviews, but this is one of his worst, most pointless ones. Hope he gets back on track with someone like Lee Camp, Prof Wolff, Abby Martin, JT from Second Thought, Jason Hickel, Kate Raworth (they are European, but that doesn't matter if he does it over the Internet!).
he follows with "compared to income, in america". proportion of food to income in USA is low compared to other countries, i believe shelter to income is pretty high comparatively
Yeah, that raised my eyebrows. Made it's *supposed* to be cheap, but retailers are doing so much price gouging that it's hitting the consumers hard. Regardless of the why, I have never paid as much for food as I am now, either at the grocery or at a restaurant. I think high food prices are one part of the economy that the traditional economic indicators don't factor in.
As a proportion of income, grocery prices are at around the same level as 2015-2019. Spending on eating at home actually hasn’t increased by much post-pandemic, but spending on eating out/restaurants has spiked massively. This matches with very strong consumer spending. People like eating doordash and stuff
37:38 No, this isn't the rate *you* can borrow money. You're a peon, you don't borrow directly from the Fed. This is the rate *banks* can borrow money, which they can then loan to you at a higher rate.
8:51 .. The actual report from the federal reserve is more nuanced than what is being said. Actual quote is that 72% of Americans believe they are doing "at least ok" with one in six Americans with bills they can't pay and one in three Americans admitting they couldn't cover a $400 surprise expense (NPR article May 22, 2024) As someone who considers herself liberal it drives me nuts when people talk about a disconnect between the "actual" economy and people's perceived economic reality. Everyone talk to experts or people who write books and neglects to actually looks at people's income and expenses. All you have to do is talk to the people around you who check you out at the grocery store, deliver your food, change your oil. People work harder and take home less. And then you add the rising cost of everything (we can't even go to the vet without having to pay a grand) and people are feeling like they are disposable and that no matter how hard they work, they can't get ahead. Data is important but if unemployment is down because people are working two to three jobs then that is still going to affect people's perceived idea of their economic situation. Calling all of this a "vibecession" in my opinion is a tad tone deaf. Personal opinion
Sounds like she misused a survey designed to show that most people have little idea what “OK” actually means if they can’t even float $400 but feel “OK” about it financially.
Really not hard to understand. Excellent for the upper half at the expense and harvesting of the rest of us now but especially our future hope in the context of anticipated career trajectory and home ownership.
These two are blind to power and it shows. The majority feel bad because the basic necessities of life are artificially and perniciously paywalled by private actors whose only goal is personal profit maximizing.
It's so wild that the Democrats gave free rein to Citizens United and were more than happy to use it to outspend Bernie, but now that Orange Cream Hitler is threatening to win again, they're begging us to outspend Musk and Bezos, just for an underdog's chance of hitting Snooze in November and being in the same place again 4 years from now. We really need to win this election, but this feels like grinding a floor or two in a roguelike game you know you've already lost.
0:53 The disconnect is that when economists and their publishers talk about "the economy", they really mean how well the capitalists are doing. How well the peons are doing isn't the point.
This is exactly what I was about the say. If the only ones really thriving in this economy are shareholders and millionaires, then "well it could be worse, just look at other countries" doesn't really take the sting out. People are feeling like everything is a grift these days. Every consumer product is made as cheaply as possible and still expensive, your groceries are all owned by 5 global conglomerates, every online store is selling knockoffs and has no customer service to speak to, companies are posting ghost jobs that they never actually fill, AI is getting shoved into everything, and at every stage of the economy someone is making record profits because who's gonna stop em? It's like after Covid, the capitalists' gloves came off and everything turned into a zero sum race to the end game.
@@kyleinpa5285 that's a very misleading statement. Half of America holds stocks, sure. But the wealthiest 1% own 50% of stocks, and the wealthiest 10% own 87% of stocks. So when I say "shareholder" I'm talking about those people, not single moms working 2 jobs to put money in their 401k.
@@BrentARJ because of how compound interest works, older people who have been investing for decades are going to have a exponentially larger amount than someone who is just starting to invest. So a 60-year-old with $2 million has a much larger share than a 30 year old with only $80,000 in retirement. But that 30-year-old is on their way to getting to the $2 million, as long as they just keep putting a small percentage of their income into the stock market. I know people don’t like it, but if you don’t make yourself a shareholder by investing in the stock market, then you will be one of the people that are stuck, living on only Social Security and constantly begging the government for more money. Do whatever you want.
You are. Waste of time to watch that whole interview. It got in 12 minutes and she didn't mention capitalism as the root problem and I left! BS detector went off! Know this: NOBODY today should be respected talking about the problems of the economy if they don't lead with: "Capitalism is structurally unsustainable, unjust and unhealthy" or something to that effect. Adam, what happened man? I thought you knew better. Please make some better choices for guests who admit capitalism is the root problem, because it is. Can't you get Prof Richard Wolff on? Or Lee Camp? Or Arjang Jameh from World Beyond Capitalism? Or JT from Second Thought? Or Zachary Marlow from Moneyless Society? Your audience would love it, because they know what is up, they want honest talk and solutions, not beating around the bush.
It sounds like people are "doing fine" because we have a culture where people are unwilling to admit to struggling, not because they are not in fact struggling.
People say they are fine because they see a lot people doing worse than them. They don't see the economy going well because they feel (and subconsciously know) that they are one extra unexpected expense or a round of lay off at their industry to be really bad. There is not safety net and they see that any growth in the economy is going to increse the wealth of the 1% instead of helping does who need it and build a support system for any one the bad things that could happen to normal people that they can't control or prepare for.
@ and you hit on the exact reason we don’t fix the homeless problem. People have to be scared into believing they’re fine, because they aren’t doing “That Bad”.
Or like in my case, I'm doing fine because I made some huge sacrifices to make that happen. Primarily moving to the boondocks to cut housing cost. But I don't think the economy is great: because I can't live any place remotely comparable to where I grew up, despite having the exact same career my dad had. I'm objectively worse off than the previous generation, despite working harder to get here, and getting more help. Like, my dad got training on the job, I had to pay for my own training to get that same job.
I feel like these two are way off. Its the majority who are not doing well, not some small subset. The economy is doing well because they are price gouging. If they want to argue supply chain, why have prices not dropped significantly back to the normal rate of inflation? Its because they dont have to. There are not enough controls in place for the cost of prepared food and goods. If they want to overcharge they just can and they are. Only reason gas is coming down is because thats one of the few things the government can actually influence. Housing issues are real in spite of th "good" economy. Personally i cant even afford to live without a roommate and i have a decent job and i know im not an outlier. The economy clearly doesnt take housing into consideration so its clearly not taking into consideration peoples quality of life. Unemployment is down but everyone knows pay is not matching inflation which is why we are seeing so many unions boycotting work. People are barely scraping by and thats apparent. If you asked me if im doing ok financially, i would probably say i am but only because i havent gotten sick or been in even a minor incident. Anything that happens would be a major setback now and people are aware of that. I dont think people are dumb and i think they understand why the economy is doing good. Its doing good for the top and clearly at the expense of everyone else. Its not complicated.
I stopped at 12 minutes. This chick is missing the point by a mile. Adam is just feeding into it, I guess to be nice, but he should know better. The sickness is the system, to reference Professor Richard Wolff! It's capitalism! Capitalism is unsustainable. It will never NOT be unsustainable. That's what we need to change. Collective efforts to end capitalism before it ends us. See Party for Socialism and Liberation, see US Green Party with Stein and Ware, see Kshama Sawant with Workers Strike Back, see Dangerous Ideas with Lee Camp, see World Beyond Capitalism and Second Thought. So many good sources if you really want to know. I'm disappointed with Adam on this one. If I don't see a much better episode coming up, I see no reason to stay subscribed.
Her take on things uses a lot of academic language, which is alienating to most people rather than illuminating. Let's talk about companies, which companies? Where? Let's talk about real people and real experiences instead of more Economics 101. Markets, what does that really mean? Markets don't do anything by themselves. Markets are not living entities. The economic system is not logical, so how can people's response to it be otherwise? It's hard to listen to someone wax philosophical about a subject that affects so many people so profoundly, without ever getting into the weeds. Life is not a game.
Is this interview meant to be satire or parody? Seriously. "Vibecession?" so she coined a term to describe her own disconnected understanding of the economy? The irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife.
It isn't about her specifically though, it's about how we aren't technically in a recession but everyone feels as though we are in one, specifically because we're all doing poorly. DId you watch past the first ten minutes?
@@demetergrasseater Yes, I did; did you? She threw out a bunch of buzzwords that lay people aren't going to understand, and name dropped some economists to obfuscate that she doesn't really have a grasp on this topic. Her advice to the 78% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck was to invest in the stock market. With what fucking money!? She literally admitted that her dad gave her money to start her investment portfolio when she was a kid, and then, in the same sentence, has the gall to say that it was "her own money," my god, the privilege and entitlement. The biggest factor in people not investing in the stock market is not that it's "just too complicated," though that is certain _a_ factor. It's that people don't have the capital to invest. It's really easy to say "just invest" when your daddy gave you a head start, and you benefited immensely from his income and credit score. Most people don't have that luxury. Most people aren't just "vibing." Are you the type of person who is impressed by people using big words and insider jargon, or by the fact that they wrote a book?
Did you stop listening when they said “vibecession”? Because she explains how it’s the disconnect between people having negative feelings about the economy despite economic indicators showing it’s doing well and that they view their personal economic situation as comfortable.
I am really disappointed to find out after watching the interview all the way through, writing out my considered thoughts of the topic to participate in the discourse, only to find out that the comment was unceremoniously auto-purged when going back to edit a typo I noticed after the fact when getting an error. It's really disheartening to say the least.
I bought my current house well before the pandemic, back in 2017. Interest rates are now only getting back up to where they were then, so that isn't it. It's that the value of my house apparently has gone up by 50% in those 7 years, but my salary has only gone up about 25%. Combine that with homeowners insurance costs going up by 300% in that time, and I could not afford to buy my house now.
No one mentions the fact that inflation is cumulative. Everyone is "happy" the inflation is closer to desired 2% now, but everything raised quite a lot in price and peoples wages did not keep up. Inflation is down but prices are still sky high. Also the mentioned statistics do not take into account the credit card debt is at a all time high, peoples savings are at an all time low, people are working multiple jobs earning shittier wages just to try to make ends meet. An economist will look at this and say number of employed people seems fine, but those working people are NOT fine!
To be fair, that's mostly due to corporations stockpiling available inventory to actively keep rents high. Increasing the available stock by adding more homes would help promote competitive rates that consumers could compare with easier access.
the issue is different by region. yes, some areas in the US have an abundance of vacant houses that corporate landlords refuse to sell or rent out. other areas have a severe lack of housing options.
The issue is populations are moving into congested areas, everyone trying to live in LA, Seattle and NY. The Midwest is empty, the jobs there are gone and now everyone is shoved into coastal areas and fighting for housing and jobs. There is more than enough housing available, we don't need more. If you are living on $800/mo, you sadly have to live somewhere more affordable. we can't build a low income apartment for half the country.
Low income apartments can absolutely be build for 400 million people. That will never happen because if you had access to an apartment like that your landlord couldn't charge as much for you to live under their housing.@@madamebutterfly851
@@gpsfinancial6988 $100 worth of food before the pandemic now cost $300 today. It’s not just the food I buy, it’s the entire supermarket. Everything is more expensive now. Try shopping sometime and you’ll know that.
99% of economic growth is being sucked up by the top 10% of incomes(the top 1% takes over half of what goes to the top 10%). Over half the country has gotten poorer over the last decade. These two are blind to power and it shows. The majority feel bad because the basic necessities of life are artificially and perniciously paywalled by private actors whose only goal is personal profit maximizing.
I'm in the top 5%. It's not me, your local doctor screwing you over, it's the capitalists who own shit. Taylor Swift is the 1%, but even she has to fight capitalists to make money. The landlord corporations capitalists control your rent.
I think Adam has been trying to get the democrats elected, and that a "the economy is doing fine" message coming at the end of October is an effort to help that. What a shill
That also doesn’t account for the massive amount of money that never even touches a human hand. Corporations spending income on other corporations each taking a bite of profit out of it before it ever gets paid to any employee. The money just floats up to the ceiling as intangible “valuation” spinning around and around growing as unrealized “profit” for use as leveraging.
Do you have stats for that compared to the rest of the world most of the US has gotten a lot richer, there are a lot more millionaires than ever before, it’s not just that the top one percent is getting more and more wealth it is that so much new wealth is being created, and more and more people are joining the upper class.
In capitalism, people aren't human beings they are 'human resources', and nature isn't something beautiful, interconnected and important to be protected, it is "natural resources" that private corporations can own and extract and sell to the people for maximizing profits. It's a game of bloody Monopoly and it is sick, unsustainable and needs to end. The era we are in, I will take a page out of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and call it the time for "Ending capitalism before it ends us." Want to join the movements? Check out PSL, US Green Party, Workers Strike Back, Lee Camp, World Beyond Capitalism, Moneyless Society, TZM official channel, Second Thought, 1Dime, Michael Tellinger and One Small Town and trusted independent journalists like Abby Martin, Caitlin Johnstone and BreakThrough News.
Oh, and another thing... They reference these surveys where "70%(+/-) people say they're doing fine...) and I'm wondering who was actually surveyed? Adam points out he's seeing a lot more homeless people on the subway. (Ignoring the irony of that in a video extolling the great economy) were any of them included in the survey? Any fast food workers? Unemployed college grads? Didn't think so. The economy may be doing great for people who have money, but for the millions just scraping by, it's not. Being constantly told we should feel better about the economy, while it actively works to exclude our voices and systemically refuses to address our concerns, is jusr rank elitism. This economy sucks because it's leaving more and more people behind, but it can solipsistically boast about its greatness simply by not counting its growing number of victims. Adam, there's a reason there are more homeless people on your train. It's called income inequality (but, oh, that's not considered an "economic indicator" by economists so yeah, everything's great!!)
I mentioned the Sydney Sweeney thing to my partner who laughed immediately and pointed out that she bought a 6 million dollar house in 2022, and a 13 million dollar beach front house in 2023. Cry me a fucking river "she can't take 6 months off or afford a baby". If you can spend 20mil on 2 houses (not including the one she bought in Idaho I assume for her family) then you can certainly stow enough away to have a baby and take some time off. This is the last time I believe anybody famous is "struggling".
This is only my opinion but I seriously question a poll that says 70% of Americans are doing just fine financially. To what extent are marginalized groups being polled accurately? To what extent are people willing to be completely honest in a poll about what "fine" actually means for them? More broadly, I think the general statistics people use to quantify the health of the economy are becoming increasingly disjointed from real world experiences. Employment rates are specifically tailored to not include certain populations and while there may be an association with low unemployment and rising wages, it is so clearly not the only factor there when wage suppression is happening in various sectors. I believe you've already done an episode about the gig economy and how nefarious it is. All the while, as you began with, the economy is personal and with widening class differences in the country, the variance in that personal experience is likely to be widening as well. All while housing, healthcare and education are becoming less affordable and accessible. I think we need to put real thought in to which economic indicators are the most relevant and realest truth, as well as where and how we're sourcing this data. What does it mean that the stock market is doing well when so many of us can't even afford to be meaningfully invested in it? What does it mean for unemployment is low when employed people can't afford food, housing, healthcare and education? Ultimately how are we not taking any kind of personal responsibility for telling people who are struggling that nothing is actually wrong and everything is fine?
I seriously question that poll as well! I've heard numerous times that about 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, so how do 70% feel they are fine, financially? I think what that might be is that people, obviously, WANT TO be fine, want to have basic needs met and don't want to admit they are in crisis so they say on a poll "I'm doing fine" but they really aren't. They can't afford a $500 emergency so, no, they aren't 'fine'. Billionaires in a capitalist society are hoarding wealth and power and it is unhealthy. That's the structural flaw of capitalism. Let's take a page out of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and say it clear: "End capitalism before it ends us." How? Get educated and activated. From Lee Camp to Peter Joseph to Abby Martin to Caitlin Johnstone to Michael Tellinger to many more like that, we can find good sources for change, but only if we are open to it.
Y'know, usually, I enjoy hearing Adam having discussions with people, but I've noticed a distinct detachment from all the subjects recently It's starting to sound like wealthy people complaining that the poors just don't get it
The same tech gets cheaper, but the average tech people actually use gets more expensive. Like cell phones. Not that long ago 500 bucks would have been a lot for a phone, now that’s a budget smartphone.
@nicolasgirard2808yes there is. Smart phones have deliberately gotten worse to try and force the owner into paying monthly subscriptions for basic features.
@nicolasgirard2808Aside from durability, manufacturer support for security updates etc…. Ssneeze at a cheap “freebie” off brand Android phone and the screens still crack.
@nicolasgirard2808 yes there is. Modern phones today have deliberately restricted physical storage space. To try and force you to pay a monthly subscription to have your data held hostage in cloud storage.
It only good for the upper 1%, for the rest stagnant wages, skull high food prices, insane utilities, unaffordable housing and health care. Those are all the basic and that is the only economy that really matter and most economist seem to totally ignore it.
I always use the idea of "hands in the pot" If a worker makes a thing how many people have to be paid off the thing before it get into consumer hands. So If worker makes a thing, another worker puts it on a truck, the ceo of the factory also takes a cut, it gets moved to a warehouse where it is unloaded and reloaded so that's another person, the owner of the warehouse wants a cut, then it goes to a store where it is stocked and sold, but the store CEO also wants a cut. They talk about the price of the labor, but seem to ignore that in a pretty basic supply chain 3 CEO's are trying to get rich off the items that pass through. Then each of those steps can also have investors as well. With the rise of franchises and that alot more companies are public there are even more hands in the pot. The amount of our goods cost that goes to "admin" is ridiculous.
The fed cutting rates will NOT benefit home owners. I'll benefit those with capital, who will dump their liquidity into capital investments like property and bid up the price of things like homes, as has been happening since the 2007-2008 crash. Home owners only benefit from an increase in value in their homes if they sell their home... and if they do that they'll either buy another home withan inflated price of they join the rest or the serfdom in a rental. Edit: I feel like this interview is brimming with misconceptions about the cause of our economic problems... very little structural critique, as Adam is trying to do, and way more justifying excuses for its failures.
I feel like a great piece of legislation would be corporate interest rates and personal interest rates. But since corporations are people in the eyes of the powers that be, I really doubt we’ll be getting any of that anytime soon
This episode demonstrates that as long as there is a single media professional who is more or less comfortable, there will be someone to tell us that things aren't really that bad. The Black Plague wasn't apocalyptic. Permit me to dispute the originality of the observation.
Wealthy inequality…. Done. Economy is shifting to an asset based economy and less and less of a goods and services economy due to the money concentration at the top of the income brackets. So the economy stays “strong” because the wealthy keep the stock market up and revenue is being generated but the workers are stretched extremely thin. Done
"The economy is personal" - a.k.a, rich people say it's fine, politicians say it's fine, meanwhile lower income families can't afford basic necessities and middle class are living paycheck to paycheck or putting everything on credit. Current inflation may be down, but prices are still at post-pandemic levels and wages haven't caught up with that. Politicians use semantics just like everything else to cover up the disaster they created.
Capitalism is a structurally unsustainable system. There: Said it faster than this long, winding, unproductive video. I'd rather listen to hours of Revolution Now podcast with Peter Joseph or Dangerous Ideas with Lee Camp than one more second of this interview. Note: I only made it 12 minutes in.
The world may go on for you Adam, but some of us rely on SSI.... and I'd prefer not to lose my lifeline, with the potential of a Trump victory, the Reps projected to take the House and Senate, & the Supreme Court stacked with Trumpers x.x
Millennials literally spent the first 30-40 years of our lives working on these causes trying to make a better world, and all have gotten for it is screwed. Tell somebody else to pull their weight for a change. We have done more than our share
My main issue with the stock market is how unethical I feel it is. If companies have a priority to their grow their shareholders investment, they aren’t going to pay their employees the true value of their work.
I get your sentiment and generally agree but since it’s not something that’s likely to significantly change anytime soon, it’s probably not wise to not participate ya know? It doesn’t make you unethical or whatever.
bingo. there are zero ethics in stocks. AND our US president signed into LAW the fact that corporations must put shareholders above all else. its all by design. we could have put the employees and customers first, people, but instead we put money first. we put the already powerful first.
The stock market is a Ponzi Scheme, literally. 80% of stocks are owned by 10% of the population, so it isn't necessary for most people. Stock market should be abolished. Our retirement or savings shouldn't have anything to do with the stock market. Look at the One Small Town model, not well known at this point, but based on cooperation, collaboration and co-ownership to meet people's community needs for prosperity, peace and abundance. No investor can own more than 30% of any business, the community retains at least 60%. That's a way of the future. If we are going to have a future worth living in, we need system change and transition towards that system.
I think that a lot of the way people feel is because of corporate greed. People that should be doing just OK aren’t doing as good as they should because everything is so expensive. Almost everything is still made cheap, poor quality, doesn’t last long or a fraction of nutrients so more has to be purchased used or eaten more often, but is twice if not more expensive. All the important things, as mentioned is almost unaffordable, like health care, daycare and housing. There are people in their 30’s who got an education and good paying job with a couple kids living in 800sqf 2 bedroom sleeping in the living room because the homes and apartments are so much, never affording the down payment, plus the other costs because almost 3/4 income going to present rent. People that should be able to afford a vacation or things to do in free time can’t and or have no free time. Never mind the millions that work in the service industry ( our largest industry) that works in all the services people that have money to spend use, can nearly survive and not many people of the majority are thriving.
Because I’m making more money than I’ve ever made but I can’t afford to take a vacation even at the same cost as the vacations which I previously took. I’m not even sure I’ll be able to keep making my house payment thru the winter. His guest is clueless.
How are there 16 million vacant homes and yet we’re not building enough homes? The new homes we’re building are 2500 MINIMUM square foot mini mansions for $1.8 Million. Eff that. Build more 780 square foot starter homes so they dont cost $400k.
@@simplenews325 I got a lot of insight into that world selling my mom's house after she passed. Everyone has this feeling that home builders selling a $800k house are making $300k profit and they just aren't. The costs of those projects are much higher than people know and that final selling price has to generate more profit than taking that invested money elsewhere, even on the stock market, and letting it grow there. I mean, why would you make less profit building a house than putting it in a mutual fund or something for that same year?
@ This is why single-family starter home construction needs subsidized. I mean in a perfect world we wouldn’t be working for “profit” in the first place but rather the utopian ideal of labor for the betterment of society. But barring that, tax money funding sustainable housing initiatives rather than the abject wastefulness of 3400 sqft homes sold at absurd markups is fine.
@@ZeketheZealot Agreed, although that subsidization could take many forms: tax breaks on profits within limits, simpler permitting for like projects on similar land, much higher taxes on corps owning more than three homes (prevent hoarding by corps to charge high rents instead). There also might be some areas like reducing risk for investments in there, etc. I'd avoid the blunt hammer of tax funding (as much as possible) because that can lead to other problems/exploitation. I think we can get to the goal of making that market profitable via addressing the costs/risk. It's all complex policy wonk stuff but carefully targeted, it can do a lot.
It’s pretty weird for a lady talking economics to say that homelessness and crime are very very different issues….. that’s like a Dr telling a flu patient that your headache and your nausea are very very different issues…. It’s like…. No…. It’s the flu…. It’s the same issue… just different symptoms…. Same with crime and homelessness…. It’s a wealth disparity issue
The problem is that you misunderstand what the economy is. Your understanding is that it is capitalism at work, whether positive or negative, when in reality it's the structure by which a government is funded and attempts to check inflation in a capitalist system. It's not windows, it's your anti-virus.
Homelessness isn't a crime. How it's been made into one makes no sense. So your saying the hundreds of thousands of homeless people just woke up and chose to be a criminal by losing their home? By not being able to afford anything? Like "hmm, I think I'm going to commit the crime of being broke today and leave my house for the streets."
The economy doesn't say anything about how the money is distrubuted. It's like being a child of a wealthy family. The amount of money you have is proportional to the family wealth but it's not your money, it's your parents money. If you get lucky you might have some of the wealth. Capitalism is the same. It's hopes and dreams you'll have a benevolent rich people who will give you some wealth.
@@blasphimus exactly…. Wealth disparity it the biggest social issue we face… a majority of our problems are directly or indirectly caused by money pooling at the top and the rest of us being unable to afford the oxygen we breathe
The continuously changing economic conditions in our society have made it necessary for thousands of people to find additional sources of income. Personally, I am looking at the stock market to fuel my retirement goal of $2m, my concern is the recent market crash.
buying the dip has proven to be profitable although for majority, the solution to their problem can be found only in specialized knowledge hence they seek guidance from well experienced advisors
Agreed, despite my rookie knowledge of investing, I have a financial advisor who did the trick in a bit more than 6 months after a lump sum capital of $500k, and I've so far made a fortune. I'm now buying real estates, gold and silver as advised by my FA.
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excellent share, curiously copied and pasted Sophia Verdekal O'neal on the web, spotted her consulting page ranked top and was able to schedule a call session. Ive seen commentaries about advisors but not one looks this phenomenal
The math of modern economics doesn't add up. What are savings rates? What about credit card debt? People don't have any money left over. So you can say it over and over that wages are beating inflation, the reality of the financial situation doesn't add up though. I suggest that even within income brackets, wage gains are extremely unequal. Most people are not keeping up with inflation. But a few people are and making the overall wage gains look better than they actually are.
The metrics we use to judge a strong economy don't translate to comfort to the citizens the economy serves. An economy in service to only the top 10% of the nation isn't of any benefit to the majority. We need a fundamental shift in the metrics in which we judge a strong economy.
In a competitive marketplace, the price of something should reflect the cost of production… the knowledge that the customer has more money in their pocket SHOULD be irrelevant.
Because "the economy" doesn't really look at the working class household budget. It looks at what shareholders are making. Except most of us don't buy our toilet paper and eggs or pay rent with shares
1:12:54 I am certainly glad Adam raised this point. While I pursued a career in education that has ended up being far more volatile than I ever imagined it would be thanks to school budget shortfalls resulting in layoff after layoff which has hampered my ability to make a steady living, my younger brother decided to pursue a career in mechanical engineering - and while I do not envy his choice of work for a second as his job chronically overworks him, the outcome of that choice has been that my brother has had more stable income that he has then been able to turn around and invest in index funds and whatever else. As such, just as Adam gave voice to here, I feel incredibly frustrated whenever my brother brings up how he has made significant money through his investments in conversation with mutual friends or whatnot because whether intentional or not, he makes it sound like of course it was the logical thing to do and that I should totally have done the same, to which I can only respond "well, yeah, of course I would have loved to invest in index funds or whatever...but with what money, on a teacher's salary?"
@@lazersword66 I mean…unfortunately, investing in the next generation of kids/teens from other families unfortunately does not do much for one’s own financial security, which is stupid. As they say in this episode, America has not done much in terms of social investments since…what…pre-Reagan? And as such, every generation from Gen X onwards has paid the price.
Depends on which one you're talking about - rich people gambling on BS using computer algorithms or people buying and selling things. Because they've sucked up the majority of the wealth in this country and left the rest of us with scraps, of course places that actually serve normal people are going out of business. Unless you're providing premium services to exclusive clientele, you mean nothing to the excessively wealthy.
the answer is that when metrics become the goal, they cease being good metrics. so the metrics of a “good economy” have become a goal to look good on paper.
When you say "if you invested in Monster Energy...." my question is, how did you pick that company? What if instead you picked one of Monster Energy's competitors who got crushed? Or you picked electric cars but two decades too early? "Diversify!" OK, but then you're not going to get that Monster Energy return, are you? You're going to get the average of all the beverage companies. Or better yet, the average of every company. At which point, what are you even talking about? If this is something everyone should do, why is it optional? And what if everyone did take this advice? Consumer spending would decline because more people are buying S&P 500 index funds. Monster Energy would do worse because that consumer spending decline would hit them hardest. And the price of stocks would rise not because of growth, but because of demand. It would be harder and harder to get a return because everyone is putting their money in and driving up the price. The ones who would see the greatest immediate benefits of all this stock investing would be those who are already wealthy. You're back to the same complaint you have about housing: when it becomes an investment vehicle, then it gets pushed out of reach of normal people. It's a lie to pretend that normal people, and especially poor people, just need to make better choices. The reality is we have massive inequality. It's like telling workers in a sweatshop to pool their pennies and take over the company by buying up the stock. In what universe could such a thing even remotely occur?
It's incredibly difficult to pick stocks 94% of them don't beat obligations in 10 year period most of the time. If you're right 50% like Buffet or Lynch you're terrific in this business. Even then you need to wait few decades to get some decent returns and then it's already too late to have a family and kids.
I think a big reason some people think the economy is doing bad is the massive difference wealth. And how much we see that wealth gap. If you’re doing “okay” but don’t have extra spending money, seeing all these people on social and mainstream media have all this stuff and going on these extravagant vacations would make you feel like you are really behind. And no matter how much you work, you cant catch up. So it would make sense to rationalize it by viewing the economy as being bad instead of it working as designed.
“The Economy” looks at macro numbers and assumes the growth and wealth is evenly shared by all Americans. It’s not. It’s skewed towards wealthy Americans making even more money. Less wealthy people are receiving little to none of the wealth created. What good does that wealth do when it is squirreled away into an already rich person’s portfolio that does not improve or change their life in any way. It improves no one’s life. It’s only a number change on a spreadsheet somewhere. It needs to be put back into the economy to make it true growth. Also, as Americans, we are told/sold on the American Dream. Younger people in the prime of life cannot afford any of the markers of the American Dream. It’s a cognitive dissonance among anyone younger than a Baby Boomer. We’re surviving, but not achieving the markers of adulthood we’ve been told to expect.
The whole idea of vibecession is so deeply elitist and condescending(to me). The reason we don’t feel good about the “economy” is because the one that matters to us mortals is not the one that’s doing well. We don’t have investments, houses, etc… so the economy just doesn’t affect us beyond sometimes meaning we can lose our jobs. Beyond that, what they call the economy is a misleading term to distract from our realities. Buying power, personal debt, spending analysis etc are all way better at explaining why were not happy with the “economy” and why the rich will look surprised when they start getting guillotined again
This was not a good interviewee, Annie Lowery did a way better job of covering the issue. This is a cost of living issue that has existed for at least a decade, neither party has addressed it and the pandemic exacerbated the problem.
One thing people always say when talking about housing is "There is a shortage" yet NOBODY ever talks about how we are building but private equity is buying out a significant portion of new builds! The boomers are the biggest generation of homeowners... they are also dying. Who gets the houses? Certainly their children are getting some, but those who would rather sell, or if there are multiple kids and they want to sell so they all get a cut... who buys it?? Private equity!! The ONLY WAY out of our housing crisis is to ban private equity from buying houses and force them to sell the houses they do have! If they were forced to sell then there would be a crash. Bar them from being able to repurchase then they cannot reinflate the market artificially.
From what I know, it goes like this. If you invest a RON, you no longer have a RON. You have a derivative of a RON. In the same way acceleration is the derivative of speed. It can go up, it can go down. And the RON you invested is a function of value. How much does that thing you invested is worth in other people's opinion. Now, the question is, who decides value? Imagine a race driver that never made it to the big league to get the money. He stopped at 18 because of an accident and got a job as a mechanic. He doesn't make that much money, but still can drive really well. So he buys a car. A not so expensive one. Goes to some road and passes with great speed a much more expensive car. Which car is better? Well... the most expensive car should technically be considered better. But it just got wrecked by a less expensive one. What does the driver of the expensive car feel? He might feel really unsatisfied. He spent a lot of money on a car with a lot of power and just got owned by a car with less power. Obviously, he feels dissatisfied. And might start saying that the car is bad. How does such a world feel? One in which people with expensive car keep saying that their cars are bad? And those with less expensive cars say their cars are amazing? Who's to blame? Well... The question is, how is it that the guy that never made it as a race driver got so much value and no money to show it? Also, think about it. Value can not be inherited. If you were very successful as a business man, you can live you kid your money, but not your success. Which automatically in some cases raises a lot of problems. Problems that can be seen all over history when it comes to royalty. Now a question might be what happens if a person has the value, has the correct amount of money attributed to it and loses the money. I am not really sure. But I suppose it's a sort of degenerative process. I also think it depends on how that person lost the money. Did it get stolen, did he spend it on drugs? If he spent it on drugs chances are he would no longer be a great driver anyway. Maybe he bought a house, got married and the wife doesn't let him drive recklessly anymore. Or he simply has new priorities. To some extent, I am under the impression that the more money a person has, the more he treasures stability and stuff. And by money I mean money. Not bonds or anything else. If you have 100000000000 RON in stocks, you have 0 RON.
Saying that homelessness and crime are not the same problem is both accurate and misleading. It’s obviously true that being homeless does not mean that you are committing a crime, or will commit crime. But it’s also true that homelessness is a pretty strong indicator of general economic prosperity. And you know what tends to happen a lot more when economic prosperity is low? Crime. I honestly can’t believe that this conversation is real. I’ve seen Adam talk about these issues well in other contexts. It’s like all of that understanding is absent here.
1:20:36 In many places, there *is* a fee for calling emergency services. Instead of fire departments being a publicly funded service, the individual gets a bill, and hopes their insurance covers it.
I'm not currently struggling but I still have economic anxiety because I know that at any moment my employer could decide I have no more job (and their stonks haven't been doing well so that's a very real possibility in the future) and though I've been looking at other jobs for almost as long as I've worked at this one, I haven't found one that's as good as my current job that I feel I stand a chance at actually getting. I also don't have enough in savings to feel comfortable with that happening, but I don't know that I'll ever be able to save enough to feel comfortable with my job no longer existing. So if someone asked me 'how are you doing in this moment', I'm fine. I am fine. But how do I feel about the future? Not good. Quite anxious and fearful, really.
Vibecession? You, Adam, and your guest should get a real job and return to this topic in a year. You're showing a similar detachment from regular people's lives as politicians.
They look like two people who can be unemployed searching for a job for a year and treat it like vacation while actually doing this same influencer job and writing/ghost-writing a book and doing comedy specials for Robert Reich's son on the side.
4 years ago we were in the peak of COVID and into an economic downtrend. We are improving now but as usual the most benefits go to the top because capitalism and Republicans
Great episode of the podcast, but i would push back a little bit against what you said around 51:30 about people not using philosophy to make decisions. There are some highly educated people and policy makers who do use philosophy to influence their personal, political, and business decisions. Utilitarianism is the first one that comes to mind that a lot of philanthropy and humanitarian investments are made with a utilitarian mindset of "most good for least money."
The stock market is literally a Ponzi Scheme! Literally! Just gambling BS for the rich. I'd abolish the stock market if I could. I'd abolish billionaires and end capitalism before it ends us. But that's just me. How about you?
This conversation felt like it spent the entire time dancing around very, very obvious stuff and trying to pretend it isn't real. Inflation was massively impacted by price gouging, and it does not matter one fart if the overall numbers are going up and therefore the average is still looking good when the reality is that people can not afford their basic needs at a level they have never experienced in their lifetimes. The averages are not a good indicator because the rate at which the capitalists increase their share of the wealth so quickly outpaces the normal working class producer that the averages are skewed to show you a story that does not fit the lives of 90+% of the working class. Even those of us that are in the labor aristocracy are struggling and paddling for our lives with no savings and desperate moves to find security. Sure during the upswing in the cycles we can temporarily forget we are drowning until the waves kick up again, but most are not building wealth. I am only 25 minutes in but I can't keep listening to this "we're doing fine actually, y'all are whiners, the ruling class isn't fucking us". I was already uncomfortable when y'all were lightly dancing over the first part about averages and what not, but now saying that its supply chain and downplaying the price gouging? That's getting to be pitch fork territory.
"The Economy" should just be replaced with "rich people's money". Everything ever said about the economy makes instant sense when put in this context. The economy is doing great, but you feel like it's terrible? You're not a rich person, so you don't matter. Makes perfect sense.
Yeah, no. This interview is just so out of touch from the average working class American. Disappointing to see Adam be so oblivious to this issue. The moment i heard him say "food is cheap" i knew this video would be BS. You expect us to agree with the "vibecession" theory? The numbers are "good" to economists because of corporations maximizing profits at the expense of the rest of the working population (layoffs, negative real wage growth, etc), simple as that.
You have a solid BS meter, my friend! I noticed it too. Got only to about 12 minutes in and stopped. Too much BS and beating around the bush without saying: "Capitalism is the root problem! The system is the sickness." I would much rather have seen this interview with Professor Richard Wolff than with this chick who seems compromised.
The economy seems great for capitalists. But I'm not a capitalist, and most people who live under capitalism aren't capitalists. We're workers who own almost nothing outside of our labor, which is exactly what we're exploited for. So yeah, the economy is booming if you're a thief/conman. That's what you get out a a thief and conman based economy. Glad to know where Kyla puts herself. Sad to see you wavering on that Adam.
Super disappointed in the framing from the guest on this episode. Every time I thought she was about to go into discussing ownership of the means of production, unionizing, and taking control of our destinies AND the companies that are pulling all the strings, she instead urged people to fruitlessly attempt to play the game. Compound interest will never outpace rising costs of living and keeping ourselves alive, and it's laughable to try and suggest that this is any kind of rational long term strategy for anyone in the bottom 50%. My gf is literally dumping their shares given to them by sbux because otherwise they can't pay for rent. As soon as she said she started investing at 14 years old it was the last piece of the puzzle here. I can agree with the idea of needing to know how the system works if you are part of it whether you like it or not, but suggesting "this is just how it is" and that you need to play the game too is exactly what the predators above us want us to think. There's a reason none of them are fighting tooth and nail to keep common folk from investing, and instead doing everything they can to keep us from unionizing.
This is all neoliberal (trickle down) propaganda… if inflation is a function of the money supply then raising interest rates shouldn’t counteract it… but it does (sometimes), because inflation happens when employers either get greedier or decide to pay workers more and raising interest rates creates unemployment… it didn’t totally work THIS time because most of the inflation we’ve experience was the result of greed.
Originally Trickle down is neo conservative, started under the Reagan and now adopted by both party establishments, since now both parts are bought by corporations. The dems are probably just a little less at this point.
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@@TheAdamConover this is probably your most out of touch video. Which is a perfect reflection for where modern economics in the West is at.
Try to get a job, Adam, that's not TV or being a podcast host and then talk about the economy.
The answer is simple. During and after the COVID crisis we pumped so much money into the economy through tax breaks and low interest FED money that mostly went into assets for wealthy people (look at stocks during COVID after the bailout). All that money caused dramatic inflation the rest of us working folks are still paying for. So, the wealthy accumulated a lot of assets and increased value on those assets while the rest of us got stuck with the bill in the form of inflation.
Having said that, all the economic reports are showing a good (not booming) economy that is growing. But don't confuse growth with well-being. Most of us are not benefitting dramatically from that growth unless we own a lot of assets.
You know better than this.
The problem with the economy is the overall effect of inflation. It is down to normal now, but because it was so high for so long, everything I more expensive. Wages have gone up for some at a higher rate than the inflation, but not for all.
I am so tired of people talking around the issue, your guest included. She's missing the point so perfectly it almost feels intentional. The economy refers to the ebb and flow of capital and the access to the levers of power that affect that. Neither of these are controlled in any capacity by regular people and we are all at the total mercy of those that do control them. When the economy is "good", we get to watch as the owner class' prosperity shoots off into the stratosphere, sometimes literally, as our own (liquid) wealth stagnates, our meager assets depreciate, and everything gets more expensive around us. When the economy is "bad", we all get to lose our jobs because God forbid these people make less money for a single second, and if it reaches the level of a recession we get to watch the rich treat the depressed price of assets as a sale that allows them to consolidate even more capital around themselves so that they'll be in an even stronger position when things recover. A so-called "healthy" economy is one that finds the perfect balance of driving regular people right up to the cliff's edge without quite pushing us off. We can see all of this happening around us and we are powerless to stop it. We're never going to own anything, we're never going to have enough to attempt to achieve our goals and dreams, we're never going to retire, and even the superficial distractions of life that we use to numb the reality of all this are expensive to the point of being impossible to indulge without extreme guilt. It is soul-destroying to live like this. Stop treating this like such a mystery.
This is exactly it - very well articulated.
110%.
Savage and so sad.
Although it may not be "never." The great wealth transfer they say is just beginning, and it may repair this feeling for the young people that stand to inherit.
If your family is poor though, you're screwed. All any of us can really do is be thankful lfor what we're given and beg for something better from the unhearing titans.
Or is it all we can do? It would be so amazing to see a country-wide labor strike to put the fear into the owner class.
💯 couldn’t have said it any better.
@fj81191 My parents are lower middle class, retired, but are sacrificing what little wealth they've managed to accrue on my dad's government salary on elder care for my last living grandparent. There will be very little left for them to care for themselves and no way for me to help them, so certainly nothing left to inherit. But hey, fuck us right? Retired people are useless eaters anyway, according to their values.
The answer is simple. We live in two separate economies. One is doing great: That's the one the corporations and billionaires and economists rave about all the numbers being high because their profits and pay have increased exponentially. The second is the economy of working class Americans who can't afford anything because prices continuously increase.
Thanks capitalism!
Late stage capitalism, hooray!
And then some argue we can't increase wages because then prices will increase, and then prices increase anyway.
The US moved to an investment economy that left the working class behind. The investment class captured the largest portions of the US GDP while the government stimulated the growth of their investments.
The working class has watched others make more for doing less for decades, widening the wealth gap to historic levels, and causing this divide between classes.
To top it off, the wealthy has so much wealth, they don't know what to do with it, so they inflate markets such as housing for the tax breaks on their revenue. The wealthy are inflating the cost of some goods because they have so much wealth.
@@WiReDApe The US didn't move to an investment economy - that's just capitalism. This is how it functions. This cycle happens literally every 40-80 years lmao
The economy is grappling with uncertainties, global fluctuations, and pandemic aftermath, causing instability. Rising inflation, sluggish growth, and trade disruptions need urgent attention from all sectors to restore stability and stimulate growth.
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Yeah, financial advisors could make a lot of difference, particularly in a market such as this. Stocks are pretty unstable at the moment, but if you do the right math, you should be just fine. Bloomberg and other finance media have been recording cases of folks gaining over 250k just in a matter of weeks/couple months, so I think there are a lot of wealth transfer in this downtime if you know where to look. I have been using an FA since 2019, and I return at least $121k ROI, and this does not include capital gain.
I'd be glad to get the help of one, but just how can one spot a reputable one? How did you spot this adviser
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Thank you for this tip. It was easy to find your coach. Did my due diligence on her before scheduling a phone call with her. She seems proficient considering her resume.
I just got laid off from a job i was amazing at and had spent 15 years working my way up to lead an entire department so that the ceo could give himself a 42% raise. Tell me again how great the economy is.
lol when thing are good they give themselves a raise. When bad they take no blame and get golden parachutes
Economists don't understand how deceiving averages are, but then again they don't understand math nor economics either.
I got myself a 42% raise. My economy is booming. Its relative to how good your job is exclusively.
I don't necessarily think that is due to the economy, but a result of corporate greed. Corporate greed just keeps getting worse.
It is great, just at your expense
I think there's really 3 major issues.
1. Wealth is being aggregated. So even though people have "more" as old people will say, it's more affordable on some level to travel, go to restaurants to some extent, and there's better TVs and better tech (as mentioned early in the show), real wealth and children stuff has gotten worse and worse. Even if you have more conveniences, you feel bad having less wealth. As a corollary, people don't have wealth to generate more moving forward. You can't use your house as leverage for instance.
2. Wages have stagnated. Full stop. This relates to point 1, which is why it's my point 1, but worker efficiency and productivity has skyrocketed in the past 40 years, but they are effectively paid less.
3. Price gouging and enshittification. Things we buy are worse, and we pay more for less, so it just feels worse.
What this all adds up to is the everything is fine but it sucks, that's the feeling of not having an immediate financial crisis but not building wealth, in a meaningful way. So you feel stuck, and it's a slow moving disaster. The middle class is a boiling frog right now. It's not bad enough to jump out, but the temperature is rising and has been for forty years. The pessimism is warranted because the trend line has been worse and worse. That's something else to understand about econ, is that all decisions are made at the margin. The margin, the change over time, is bad for the middle class. You might not be there yet, but it's getting worse.
Wages have stopped stagnating
@@complexaltruistok and? Doesn’t make up for the productivity gains and decades of stagnation
@franjkav no one said it did
@@complexaltruist in select industries, not all have finally started to break out of that.
@@complexaltruistmin wage should be $24 per hour in the US rn
When housing prices means will have to have a household income of two degree professionals with stable work, all while fighting against absurd unchecked rental prices from landlords/investors trying to claw their way up too.
Its no wonder, its becoming dystopian and many, myself included can feel like we aren't making progress but just slipping backwards into poverty
Welcome to capitalism!
How do you think people on SSDI feel? We get $15k a YEAR, or less.
@@punkagrrlzeroWithout having to do anything.
I really liked the point about how homeowners wouldn't want prices to go up if they ever want to be able to move again. The other point that struck me was that to prosper in this economy, we all need to be investing in the stock market instead of housing. I wish there was a way for the govt to step in and help first-time stock buyers like they do for first-time homebuyers.
@@NickCombsthe stock market is a shell game. The government isn’t going to help people start gambling. The stock market doesn’t generate real wealth. It’s just a trick so companies can earn more than they produce.
I’m sorry but this is one of the most frustrating and depressing discussions I’ve ever heard. And the guest said something at the end that really helped me clarify why. I’m paraphrasing a tad, but essentially it was “if you’re going to be a citizen within a system, you should be invested in that system” and I’m sorry to this woman (she’s clearly knowledgeable about her area of interest and I respect that) but fuck off with that. The idea that economic investment of any kind is a prerequisite to be a good citizen is just beyond gross to me. It is not the moral responsibility of those living within a system to invest in it. Rather, it is the responsibility of those in charge of the system to invest in individuals. What she’s basically saying is, if you’re poor it’s your fault for not investing in the stock market. I know she would say that’s not what she’s trying to say, but that is the logic behind the argument she’s making. I’m sorry, but all the economics education and careful incremental investment in the world will not save you if you’re one of the people the system excludes, either implicitly or explicitly. She claims that it just requires “sacrifice” but then goes on to say that her dad helped her set up her portfolio with her “own money.” Sacrifice my ass. What do you have to say to all the people who don’t have money to “sacrifice” in the first places
That’s not sacrifice, that’s luck. That’s luck that you had a parent who encouraged you to invest that young, and luck that you had your “own money” to put in. And I can’t put enough quotes around “own money” because at 14 or 15 the only money you get is from adults in your life. Unless you’re stealing it, and somehow I doubt this woman has ever been in a situation where stealing was a necessity. So, in short, fuck this rhetoric and this line of thinking.
Thank you, I will not watch this 🙏
While being aware of the issues surrounding economic and social policies is great and we should absolutely keep demanding more out of our governments, I think it's only half the picture. The odds are we are not going to change the system in our lifetime, even as we continue to push towards a more just one. So while we are living within the system we should strive to do what we can within it to ensure our (and our families') wellbeing.
So it's not that investing in the stock market means you get to ignore the system's problems, it's that in this system investing in the stock market, even if it's just a few dollars at a time (or pesos, in my case) is a proven way that helps people deal with the problems and unexpected circumstances life throws at them. It's solid financial advice.
Otherwise what's the other choice? Lay down and take it? Focusing on what we can do is the only way to actually solve problems, even economic ones.
She made a video about the longshoreman strike where she blamed the union workers for threatening to destroy the economy when only 5-10% of them would be losing their jobs due to automation in the immediate future, which they should be fine with since that automation help the broader economy. She claimed it would be the worst man made disaster in modern history and that the union workers and organizers were entirely to blame.
Not only was she completely wrong about the outcome (the strike was over almost instantly with the company conceding to certain demands) but she was also wrong that the whole thing was the worker's fault and that they should be fine with being cut out of the economy just so that others can enjoy it. Her claims were way off base and her slant was strictly economic. absolutely no room for the suffering of real people who were being exploited. Frankly, I'm mad Adam thought she was worth talking to.
@ I’m so glad you said this. I haven’t had a chance to check out the rest of her online presence, but based on what she said in this interview I felt like I pretty much understood her deal already, and based on what you’re saying it sounds like I was right. It’s such a shame to see Adam talk to her. He can be a little bit centrist/liberal in his takes sometimes, but I’ve never seen it be this bad. The very fact that they spend the whole thing acting as though the disconnect is a mystery is appalling.
@@astroemi I understand what you’re saying here, and perhaps if the discussion had been framed as being about what we can do to help insure our survival I guess I wouldn’t have as much of an issue, but this discussion was framed (at least initially) as being about the disconnect between how the economy is doing on paper and how well it actually seems to be serving average citizens. And if we take that framing at face value, then the answer she arrives at seems to be that it’s because poor people don’t invest enough. And I think that’s a really gross reading of the situation.
People on SSDI and SS retirement are NOT OK!!! SSDI gets $15k or less per year. There's no housing for us and the food bank is mandatory just to make it thru the month.
Plus, there are no adjustments for the cost of living, which is *insane*
I’m 28 and still at home due to the limits of SSDI.
@@Heritage367Ppl on SSDI get a cost of living increase every January. The amount is based on a percentage of your current amount and the past year's inflation rate.
@@Heritage367 there is literally adjustment every year. It’s called the cost-of-living adjustment, and it matches the rate of inflation. They gave Social Security recipients, a 9% cost of living adjustment in 2022.
Yeah, I'm on SSDI. I'll never be able to afford a house or apartment. I tried getting a work from home job for like two years. But I'm not included in homelessness or poverty rates because I have to live with family.
Depends, do you mean _the economy_ or "the economy"? One is people buying and selling things they want or need, the other is rich people using computers to gamble on the former.
All economists always mean the latter. The computer gambling one.
They are the same
@@complexaltruist , unfortunately for all of us, they definitely are one and the same.
You need to have an economist on who rejects trickle down economics and ask them the same questions.
Ahhhhh that’s why she feels so much like an economistbro. Makes sense
hey, she's popular on tik-tok
An economic historian that remembers a time before Reaganomics would be amazing.
Why? What do you mean?
I'm just saying, a 27 year old is not going to be the authority on anything. This is just comical, Adam, come on.
She literally works for the Capital Group (see her wiki):
Capital Group is an American financial services company. It ranks among the world's oldest and largest investment management organizations, with over $2.6 trillion in assets under management.
How can she even been unbiased and in touch with real people ?
She doesn’t need to be unbiased…? And people can do two things at once? Plus sometimes it’s easier to change things while participating inside the system you want to change. Or even as someone who appears to want to help people learn about a general topic, having credibility probably helps a lot. I’m not making any claims about her specifically, just speaking generally
What do you mean?! Did you see how she was dressed? Very casual, very working class. Don't mind the elitist rhetoric coming from her mouth. Look she said "Vibeconomy," haha...
So what Sherlock?
@@franjkav do you really think they would still let her work there?
I am suspicious of anyone who says the economy is doing good. They are not living in reality or they have an agenda.
Title correction: If the [Capitalist] economy is so good, why do I feel so bad?
Sincerely a finance specialist.
yeah whenever I hear the economy is good, I have to ask "good for whom?"
@@chrispederson6956shareholders
@@chrispederson6956 Capital owners of course. The working class is exploited so the capital owners can thrive. Pretty well documented stuff at this point.
(not financial advice)
Yes, America has a capitalist economy so when we talk about it, that's what we're talking about. It's not a secret.
I’m pretty sure the reason that most people don’t invest isn’t because it’s “too complicated.” It’s because they’re stuck with debts that have higher interest rates than anything they’d get from reliable stocks. Compounding interest goes both ways.
Also it’s bullshit. Investing in already successful going concerns is a pointless gambling game. It doesn’t produce wealth. If anything it encourages worse behavior by corporations by giving them even more leverage to buy out, close down, and strip for parts.
i agree. no money to invest, not just too uninformed to invest. I didn't get to invest until i was in my 30s, and i am a master budgeter. my knowledge of what to invest in has been there since i was like 16.
I thought I was done after my first comment but the idea that the stock market is simply too confusing for the majority of us to use is absolutely insulting. We dont have excess money to put in to the stock market when we can't afford food, housing, healthcare and an education in the first place.
I usually love this podcast, but holy sh!t was this one out of touch.
I'm underemployed and have been since 2021 (editing to add) AFTER WORKING IN MY FIELD FOR 15 YEARS. As conceited as it's going to sound, I am excessively qualified in my field, meaning 4 inter-related degrees, and I have 3 award-winning projects in my portfolio. The job market is full of fake job posts and scams. The unemployment number isn't even completely accurate to begin with.
The job I had before paid well, especially compared to the average, and I was still unable to afford a house.
My groceries and utilities have exploded in price. I'm on state healthcare and even using THAT is prohibitively expensive. It's not fuckin vibes, it's my material conditions.
Even the glib mention of climate change is enraging.
I'm going to go ahead and posit that the way we measure the economy only measures things that benefit a certain class of people.
Edit: Dear God, the predictability of some the Idiotic replies to my comment. It's easier to add it here, than to reply to the a$$ clowns.
Yes, my comment is an anecdote, just like the anecdotes this TikToker referred to where people they interviewed said their financial situation was "fine" but "felt bad" about the economy. And I'm clearly commenting on the 'vibecession' bullshit. Well spotted, skeezix.
I knew listing my specific degrees was a waste of time, which is why I didn't. Even without listing them, there's some chucklefuk whipping out the tired blaming bullsh!t of "yOu DoN’t HaVe A mAjOr In EnGiNeErInG." as if that's the only fcking thing anyone can be paid to do. Newsflash, you dumb sh!ts, it's not. Besides, I bet you bots will be bleating the same thing when all the people pushed into engineering oversaturate THAT job market. It's almost as if a functioning society requires people to do different kinds of things! The absolute insanity!! /s
Also, the claims that "yOu DoN't KnOw HoW tO sPeNd YoUr MoNeY" are hilarious considering that they mention the exact grocery stores I shop at, and I grew up poor. I know how to spend my gotdamn money, probably much better than this dipsh!t in their mother's basement.
@@Ambariffic economists are considered very thoroughly to ignore the material conditions of the working class
You don’t make money selling pop-econ books to the poors, you make it telling the rich what they like to hear.
Normally Adam seems pretty in touch with the stuggles of oppressed groups, often including the working class, but when he said food was affordable as he explained how he couldn't understand why the working class "feels bad" about the economy, I breifly considered unsubscribing during a flare of emotion.
Your personal circumstances are not an indicator of the economy. This is anecdotal.
Thoughtful and concise. I wrote a whole essay of a comment trying get at what you've summed up perfectly with a few sentences.
Any working-class citizen with working eyes and ears can understand why we feel the way we do. It's not some looming mystery that people are baffled by, it's plain as day for anyone actually living in this hellscape. We've been saying it for YEARS now.
The economy she's talking about is the corporate, capitalistic one that focuses only on how business profits are going up, not on how the majority of us are suffering and unable to afford anything because our wages refuse to go up while our groceries skyrocket. I'm disgusted by how out of touch this entire interview sounds.
It’s the election season. Money printer for brrrrr stuff and blame money printing alone. Not how corporations have consolidated sine the pandemic
Also, the growing and tangible lack of control we have over our political process, as Democrats keep saying 'You NEED to vote for us, abortion rights are on the line," while the roll over and let GOP stooges plant judges everywhere they want just because old Dems want to go home for the holidays, and we recall that Obama and a huge D supermajority conveniently forgot about codifying RvW into law years ago... and the constant "You progressives are simultaneously a loud minority that we're gonna completely ignore in terms of policy demands, but also you're also completely at fault if we lose this election"
Democrats would rather become more fascistic and become best friends with Liz Cheney than court the entire Muslim subpopulation of the Midwest to help secure that vote in battleground states, because the former doesn't entail giving up the love of genocide
ikr
"B-b-but why didn't you invest in stocks?! I invested in stocks while I was still in high school!"
Its roughhh rough…damn I liked this channel
"Am I better off now, or was I better off 4 years ago?" is a loaded question. I mean 4 years ago we were fighting over toilet paper, now, I'm fighting to pay the rent, keep the lights on, and eat. Wait, I forgot the toilet paper scare of 2024... Here is what I know and understand... I am making more now than I ever have, I am working more than I ever have, and I can barely, just barely keep up with the bills while working a full time job. My rent eats a full paycheck, the power bill eats almost half of one, and I am scraping the bottom of the barrel for housing. My car insurance is in constant rotation as I switch for the cheaper insurance companies... Food prices are still high, even with inflation remaining fairly low. And forget about getting a (used) car right now, and boy oh boy, I'd love to have something that gets 30-40 mpgs. You know, I'd also love health insurance... As it is, "reality" or not, I see corporate profits being called record breaking, I see the stock market at record highs, while my washing machine came from a pawn shop, I don't see things as going well. Maybe it would be different if I owned stocks, or had a 401K (or some other retirement plan), or if I didn't have to take on a roommate for a singlewide trailer... Speaking about junk fees for things like concert tickets or flights... Well, I'm not going to be flying anywhere anytime soon, you know pesky little problem like, not being able to afford to take a vacation... But have you seen the prices for some concert tickets? That pesky little fee is a drop in the bucket when a concert ticket is $300-500 for a show, removing that fee isn't going to help me afford the ticket. Well, as long as I smuggle in snacks and drinks, I can still go to the movies...
4 years ago I was being paid to sit at home and play video games. I was WAAAAAY better off!
Things have been going down for over a decade and multiple presidents had their hands in it
Does anyone else really, really, really not trust Kyla?
Like, I'm no economist, but it seems to me that this nonsense really isn't all that complicated. The wealthy have become wealthier and a lot of our industries and companies have consolidated under monopolies over the past two decades. So overall, the economy is doing great...if your definition of "the economy" is limited to how well the wealthy are doing and you're only measuring the quantity of money being moved around from one mega entity to another. Because it all gets averaged out across the country and all of the entities in it. But seeing as how economics don't take into considering the increase of food or housing costs, the primary things that actually effects the majority of American workers, there's a huge disconnect between how well we are told the economy is doing vs how well we ourselves are doing. The ways in which we are measuring "the economy" is broken and irrelevant to the American worker.
To hear this dynamic reduced to the phrase "vibecession", as if the only reason we feel awful about things is because we're all easily influenced fools being emotionally misled by the media rather than the fact that many people literally CANNOT AFFORD to buy their own homes or feed their children, feels like gaslighting. And I know that's an overused phrase, but damnit, that's exactly what it looks like to me and I'm calling it.
And in all the time I've been watching Kyla on TikTok and on other platforms, it seems like she keeps waffling back and forth between whether the economy actually is good, is actually garbage. And on top of all that, she went from being on TikTok to being platformed on everything, everywhere, in rapid succession, despite never arriving to any sort of conclusion about anything and never actually being concise about what she's trying to communicate.
And what even is she trying to communicate? Like, I keep listening to her and she never actually seems to arrive at any point that isn't negated by the next thing she says or the next video she puts out.
I honestly get the sense that she comes from an extremely wealthy family and is out of touch. Like, she studies and talks about the economy but it all just seems so trivial and dethatched to her, like some abstract puzzle that doesn't effect her own life in any way. Like, she might as well be studying some magical world out of a fantasy novel for as personal as any of this sounds to her.
YES exactly! She is pretty clearly neoliberal, trickle down stuff
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It's boring to say facts but these are just facts. It's kinda simple why economy looks great right now but people feel bad about their situation. Wealthy people get all the money and are feeling good and they can put their propaganda to media how economy is so great and other nonsense
I completely agree and I'm glad I'm not the only one who had these thoughts. To me, she comes across as a very unserious person. She was serving up a lot of economy buzzword salad and name dropping other economists. I get the impression she took some economics courses in college, but lacks any real world experience in economics. Seems like Dunning-Kruger strikes again!
Hi there - I am Kyla in the video. I come from Kentucky, and am absolutely not rich. I grew up very solidly middle class and really struggled in college and in my first few years out of college. I talk a lot about structural affordability, and really try to get to the points in my other videos. I apologize if I wasn't clear in this video, and I hope my other work speaks for itself. I apologize if you think the work is not concise - it's something I am working on, but the economy changes so rapidly. But you're right, a clear thesis is important.
Rent, car (including car maintenance) and grocery prices are all ASTRONOMICALLY higher than they were just 5 years ago, and nobody on an hourly wage has seen pay-raises to match. I see so many pundits/news shows/articles asking about the "disconnect" between our "great economy" and how the public views it and I'm left wondering how thick they have to be! The real disconnect is between the well-paid people looking at charts and "indicators", and the people who have to live in the world they fly over.
Analogy: Economic Indicators are to the lived experience of "The 98%" what Climate is to Weather.
Edit to add:
The surveys saying "I'm doing okay" are wrong. That's the answer!
What do indicators say about personal savings? About housing security (not just housing)? About health-care (REAL health care, not "access to health-care" or "affordable...". If you make 16bucks an hour, and your deductible is $2000, you DO NOT in fact, have health care.
We do not "feel bad about a good economy". We are all 2 paychecks away from homelessness, and economists are gaslighting us when they say it's just the media is scaring us into pessimism.
THIS ECONOMY DOES NOTHING FOR THE WORKING POOR, and telling us "everything's going gangbusters, you're just looking at it wrong" is f***ing infuriating.
Tldr: Just watch the movie Demolition Man. That's the world right now.
I'd buy that for a dollar
Sewer and Electric! Both are going fucking NUTS!
@@PraisethesunsonWrong dystopia documentary.
"Food is cheap" - my grocery bill today was $167. I'm lucky to be able to afford it but a lot of people can't
I came to the comments as SOON as he said this. We don’t even buy much and we still can’t leave the store without spending a hundred bucks, and since that’s not getting us much we are having to go more often 🥲
Every tomato contains hundreds of seeds. Try planting a few?
@@PureKNFDrake Would love to have a garden, but we’re not allowed to have gardens where we rent and also have super long winters with tons of snow. We make our own bread, and slow cooked meals that last as long as we can make them. This is just an unnecessary, unhelpful response considering it has nothing to do with the actual problem.
Compared to everywhere else in the world, your food is cheaper, the US is the second-biggest food producer in the entire planet, it also has the lowest food expenditure compare to income, so if you're bad, all of us in the rest of the world are fckd, which is actually the reality, most people in the world are poor, the US government just chose to inflict what they do here in the global south, domestically.
@@PureKNFDrake The amount of work and actual money that needs to go into growing those seeds at a small scale is not even in the ballpark of breaking even. I have a balcony garden because I like gardening; I am sure it has not saved me any money.
I think the main message here is that there is a disconnect between "the economy" and "the individual." Individuals don't actually *make* the economy. The economy is driven by several different factors. We know, in general, numbers can be used to tell lies. Numbers are not a determination of the overall experience of the individual. For example, unemployment is calculated through the use of individuals that *want* jobs and are still *searching* for jobs. But if those individuals simply stop searching for jobs, they no longer are counted as part of the equation for unemployment rate. It also is not taking into account people that are taking lower paying jobs out of desperation, lower quality jobs, or multiple jobs to fill the gap. That's one simple way to explain why someone may be feeling awful about their situation, but it doesn't reflect in the numbers. Consumer spending can be driven by the top 1% as well, and therefore, once again not reflecting the average individual. All this to say that people *should* be upset with the current state of things. We need to continue to push for change and bring the middle class back.
There are multiple statistics reported for employment/unemployment, which include the things you mentioned. The jobs report supposedly has data on if people have multiple jobs and stuff too (never personally looked but seen it mentioned a bunch)
@@franjkav It is true that those stats exist. From 2020 onward, the number of jobs held by an individual has been on the rise, surpassing the numbers before the shutdowns hit. But that number is not used to indicate the "health" of the economy. We're often shown the unemployment rate as the ultimate determinant. Which has also been rising since it bottomed out in April of 2023. From 3.4% to the current 4.1% reported in September. I suspect unemployment will keep rising as companies are still laying people off.
Also telling people that investing is the solution and "it requires sacrifice" then saying well I started with 50$. That is not the solution to wealth inequality and it really is more of the avocado toast BS. Leaving 50$ in an account will not fill a retirement account, even 50$ a month will not.
Yep. I tapped out of the conversation after this.
Then the solution is to organise, to protest, to try to change the system in some way, otherwise, you should try to invest or just unilive yourself, that's the reality of the system.
@@bluester7177 It's shocking to hear Adam say all this because he's a union organizer. He should know the kind of resources, effort, and luck that it takes to speak to power and make gains.
@@chasethechase2298 I give him some benefit of the doubt that he's just trying to discuss this with an "expert". He did ask some good questions but for how frank his interviews are I think there's some critique missing.
In fairness, $50 a month for 40 years with historic real returns ends up being about $100,000 at the end. Not a ton of money to retire on, but it’s way more than most people have when they retire.
Perhaps because GDP is not an accurate or even particularly good measure for human well-being
As automation continues, GDP won’t even have ANYTHING to do with people.
this, idk how ppl just accept that they're inherently the same thing, pervasive econ mythology has ruint folks' ability to think critically
It def isn’t, it’s driven by the welfare of corporations
Was that even discussed. Were you listening?
Good point! GDP is garbage left alone as a 'measure of progress', even the man who invented it said it should not be used like it is today.
Genuine Progress Indicator would be better and regions calculating their progress towards Doughnut Economics, as Kate Raworth has described, would be even better.
Ideally, we accept capitalism is unsustainable and we boldly move to build a better system. End capitalism before it ends us. That's what the Party for Socialism and Liberation openly states. They got on the ballot in over 15 states and are going to keep building the grassroots movement. Green Party with Stein and Ware got on for 95% of Americans and will also keep the movement going past November.
Adam has had some good videos and interviews, but this is one of his worst, most pointless ones.
Hope he gets back on track with someone like Lee Camp, Prof Wolff, Abby Martin, JT from Second Thought, Jason Hickel, Kate Raworth (they are European, but that doesn't matter if he does it over the Internet!).
@4:58 FOOD IS CHEAP?! Last I checked grocery prices were through the roof.
Tech isn’t cheap either. Spent a good thousand dollars on a supposedly high end laptop and I’ve had to have it repaired twice and it’s *still* broken
he follows with "compared to income, in america". proportion of food to income in USA is low compared to other countries, i believe shelter to income is pretty high comparatively
Yeah, that raised my eyebrows. Made it's *supposed* to be cheap, but retailers are doing so much price gouging that it's hitting the consumers hard. Regardless of the why, I have never paid as much for food as I am now, either at the grocery or at a restaurant. I think high food prices are one part of the economy that the traditional economic indicators don't factor in.
Foods cheap but pays low if that makes sense
As a proportion of income, grocery prices are at around the same level as 2015-2019. Spending on eating at home actually hasn’t increased by much post-pandemic, but spending on eating out/restaurants has spiked massively. This matches with very strong consumer spending. People like eating doordash and stuff
A pound of discounted ground beef at the supermarket cost me 11$ recently. Too bad I can't use vibes to pay for the next one.
Time to move to Pork. That’s been crazy cheap the past few weeks.
@@mzaite we swap to whatever is on sale lol. Sometimes pork tenderloin is $2/lb and it’s delicious in the slow cooker.
Where are you shopping where 1lb is $11? That seems well beyond the norm
@@franjkav I’m also curious, I would be outraged at these prices. I’m already shocked seeing ground beef upwards of $7 to $8 a pound at Meijer.
Consider going hungry next time and invest your 11$ in stocks!
37:38 No, this isn't the rate *you* can borrow money. You're a peon, you don't borrow directly from the Fed. This is the rate *banks* can borrow money, which they can then loan to you at a higher rate.
I love so much that banks just get to make free money this way. It’s just the best
@@ZeketheZealotIt’s as if they designed the system.
@@mzaite yea the FED is kind of just a lot of banks in a gov suit.
@ it is a fundamentally weird way of doing things.
@@mzaite It's not weird when you understand who made the system (rich men) and that it is designed for *their* benefit, not anybody else's.
8:51 .. The actual report from the federal reserve is more nuanced than what is being said. Actual quote is that 72% of Americans believe they are doing "at least ok" with one in six Americans with bills they can't pay and one in three Americans admitting they couldn't cover a $400 surprise expense (NPR article May 22, 2024)
As someone who considers herself liberal it drives me nuts when people talk about a disconnect between the "actual" economy and people's perceived economic reality. Everyone talk to experts or people who write books and neglects to actually looks at people's income and expenses. All you have to do is talk to the people around you who check you out at the grocery store, deliver your food, change your oil. People work harder and take home less. And then you add the rising cost of everything (we can't even go to the vet without having to pay a grand) and people are feeling like they are disposable and that no matter how hard they work, they can't get ahead. Data is important but if unemployment is down because people are working two to three jobs then that is still going to affect people's perceived idea of their economic situation. Calling all of this a "vibecession" in my opinion is a tad tone deaf. Personal opinion
Sounds like she misused a survey designed to show that most people have little idea what “OK” actually means if they can’t even float $400 but feel “OK” about it financially.
@nicolasgirard2808Hence the strong economy. Can’t make a Trillionaire if people don’t overpay for ugly fucking electric trucks that work like shit.
Really not hard to understand. Excellent for the upper half at the expense and harvesting of the rest of us now but especially our future hope in the context of anticipated career trajectory and home ownership.
These two are blind to power and it shows.
The majority feel bad because the basic necessities of life are artificially and perniciously paywalled by private actors whose only goal is personal profit maximizing.
We are in late-stage Capitalism and well on our way in retrograde to Neo-Feudalism
It’s was good for those with retirement plans as well but overall it’s good for corporations and the top 1% as well
Upper half? Upper 3%
It's so wild that the Democrats gave free rein to Citizens United and were more than happy to use it to outspend Bernie, but now that Orange Cream Hitler is threatening to win again, they're begging us to outspend Musk and Bezos, just for an underdog's chance of hitting Snooze in November and being in the same place again 4 years from now. We really need to win this election, but this feels like grinding a floor or two in a roguelike game you know you've already lost.
0:53 The disconnect is that when economists and their publishers talk about "the economy", they really mean how well the capitalists are doing. How well the peons are doing isn't the point.
This is exactly what I was about the say. If the only ones really thriving in this economy are shareholders and millionaires, then "well it could be worse, just look at other countries" doesn't really take the sting out. People are feeling like everything is a grift these days. Every consumer product is made as cheaply as possible and still expensive, your groceries are all owned by 5 global conglomerates, every online store is selling knockoffs and has no customer service to speak to, companies are posting ghost jobs that they never actually fill, AI is getting shoved into everything, and at every stage of the economy someone is making record profits because who's gonna stop em? It's like after Covid, the capitalists' gloves came off and everything turned into a zero sum race to the end game.
But what if we gave them even more money surely it would fix everything
@@BrentARJHalf of Americans are “shareholders”
@@kyleinpa5285 that's a very misleading statement. Half of America holds stocks, sure. But the wealthiest 1% own 50% of stocks, and the wealthiest 10% own 87% of stocks. So when I say "shareholder" I'm talking about those people, not single moms working 2 jobs to put money in their 401k.
@@BrentARJ because of how compound interest works, older people who have been investing for decades are going to have a exponentially larger amount than someone who is just starting to invest. So a 60-year-old with $2 million has a much larger share than a 30 year old with only $80,000 in retirement. But that 30-year-old is on their way to getting to the $2 million, as long as they just keep putting a small percentage of their income into the stock market. I know people don’t like it, but if you don’t make yourself a shareholder by investing in the stock market, then you will be one of the people that are stuck, living on only Social Security and constantly begging the government for more money. Do whatever you want.
I feel like I'm being gaslit.
You are. Waste of time to watch that whole interview. It got in 12 minutes and she didn't mention capitalism as the root problem and I left! BS detector went off!
Know this: NOBODY today should be respected talking about the problems of the economy if they don't lead with: "Capitalism is structurally unsustainable, unjust and unhealthy" or something to that effect.
Adam, what happened man? I thought you knew better. Please make some better choices for guests who admit capitalism is the root problem, because it is. Can't you get Prof Richard Wolff on? Or Lee Camp? Or Arjang Jameh from World Beyond Capitalism? Or JT from Second Thought? Or Zachary Marlow from Moneyless Society? Your audience would love it, because they know what is up, they want honest talk and solutions, not beating around the bush.
4 years ago is wild for that question, that's the top of the pandemic, unless this survey was taken 8+ months ago...
They probably miss work from home
I hate the 4 years ago comparison. It’s such a trash marker cause prices were low for half of 2020
It sounds like people are "doing fine" because we have a culture where people are unwilling to admit to struggling, not because they are not in fact struggling.
Also people who don’t even comprehend that they AREN’T doing fine, because all they’ve known is living paycheck to paycheck.
People say they are fine because they see a lot people doing worse than them. They don't see the economy going well because they feel (and subconsciously know) that they are one extra unexpected expense or a round of lay off at their industry to be really bad. There is not safety net and they see that any growth in the economy is going to increse the wealth of the 1% instead of helping does who need it and build a support system for any one the bad things that could happen to normal people that they can't control or prepare for.
@ and you hit on the exact reason we don’t fix the homeless problem. People have to be scared into believing they’re fine, because they aren’t doing “That Bad”.
Or like in my case, I'm doing fine because I made some huge sacrifices to make that happen. Primarily moving to the boondocks to cut housing cost. But I don't think the economy is great: because I can't live any place remotely comparable to where I grew up, despite having the exact same career my dad had. I'm objectively worse off than the previous generation, despite working harder to get here, and getting more help. Like, my dad got training on the job, I had to pay for my own training to get that same job.
My salary is up 35K in 4 years. My economy is booming.
I feel like these two are way off. Its the majority who are not doing well, not some small subset. The economy is doing well because they are price gouging. If they want to argue supply chain, why have prices not dropped significantly back to the normal rate of inflation? Its because they dont have to. There are not enough controls in place for the cost of prepared food and goods. If they want to overcharge they just can and they are. Only reason gas is coming down is because thats one of the few things the government can actually influence.
Housing issues are real in spite of th "good" economy. Personally i cant even afford to live without a roommate and i have a decent job and i know im not an outlier. The economy clearly doesnt take housing into consideration so its clearly not taking into consideration peoples quality of life.
Unemployment is down but everyone knows pay is not matching inflation which is why we are seeing so many unions boycotting work. People are barely scraping by and thats apparent. If you asked me if im doing ok financially, i would probably say i am but only because i havent gotten sick or been in even a minor incident. Anything that happens would be a major setback now and people are aware of that.
I dont think people are dumb and i think they understand why the economy is doing good. Its doing good for the top and clearly at the expense of everyone else. Its not complicated.
I stopped at 12 minutes. This chick is missing the point by a mile. Adam is just feeding into it, I guess to be nice, but he should know better.
The sickness is the system, to reference Professor Richard Wolff! It's capitalism! Capitalism is unsustainable. It will never NOT be unsustainable. That's what we need to change.
Collective efforts to end capitalism before it ends us. See Party for Socialism and Liberation, see US Green Party with Stein and Ware, see Kshama Sawant with Workers Strike Back, see Dangerous Ideas with Lee Camp, see World Beyond Capitalism and Second Thought. So many good sources if you really want to know.
I'm disappointed with Adam on this one. If I don't see a much better episode coming up, I see no reason to stay subscribed.
Her take on things uses a lot of academic language, which is alienating to most people rather than illuminating. Let's talk about companies, which companies? Where? Let's talk about real people and real experiences instead of more Economics 101. Markets, what does that really mean? Markets don't do anything by themselves. Markets are not living entities. The economic system is not logical, so how can people's response to it be otherwise? It's hard to listen to someone wax philosophical about a subject that affects so many people so profoundly, without ever getting into the weeds. Life is not a game.
Income inequality in the US is very high
Is this interview meant to be satire or parody? Seriously. "Vibecession?" so she coined a term to describe her own disconnected understanding of the economy? The irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife.
It isn't about her specifically though, it's about how we aren't technically in a recession but everyone feels as though we are in one, specifically because we're all doing poorly. DId you watch past the first ten minutes?
@@demetergrasseater Yes, I did; did you? She threw out a bunch of buzzwords that lay people aren't going to understand, and name dropped some economists to obfuscate that she doesn't really have a grasp on this topic. Her advice to the 78% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck was to invest in the stock market. With what fucking money!? She literally admitted that her dad gave her money to start her investment portfolio when she was a kid, and then, in the same sentence, has the gall to say that it was "her own money," my god, the privilege and entitlement. The biggest factor in people not investing in the stock market is not that it's "just too complicated," though that is certain _a_ factor. It's that people don't have the capital to invest. It's really easy to say "just invest" when your daddy gave you a head start, and you benefited immensely from his income and credit score. Most people don't have that luxury. Most people aren't just "vibing."
Are you the type of person who is impressed by people using big words and insider jargon, or by the fact that they wrote a book?
Adam is falling into the Rogan hole of just letting guests soapbox with no pushback.
Did you stop listening when they said “vibecession”? Because she explains how it’s the disconnect between people having negative feelings about the economy despite economic indicators showing it’s doing well and that they view their personal economic situation as comfortable.
Lol, she did not coin the term "vibecession". Economists have been bringing that up for years now
I am really disappointed to find out after watching the interview all the way through, writing out my considered thoughts of the topic to participate in the discourse, only to find out that the comment was unceremoniously auto-purged when going back to edit a typo I noticed after the fact when getting an error.
It's really disheartening to say the least.
Addressing the realities of economic class violates TH-cam TOS
RIGHT?! I hate it that the comments I put the most effort into get autodeleted by TH-cam.
I bought my current house well before the pandemic, back in 2017. Interest rates are now only getting back up to where they were then, so that isn't it. It's that the value of my house apparently has gone up by 50% in those 7 years, but my salary has only gone up about 25%. Combine that with homeowners insurance costs going up by 300% in that time, and I could not afford to buy my house now.
No one mentions the fact that inflation is cumulative. Everyone is "happy" the inflation is closer to desired 2% now, but everything raised quite a lot in price and peoples wages did not keep up. Inflation is down but prices are still sky high. Also the mentioned statistics do not take into account the credit card debt is at a all time high, peoples savings are at an all time low, people are working multiple jobs earning shittier wages just to try to make ends meet. An economist will look at this and say number of employed people seems fine, but those working people are NOT fine!
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After she said there isn't enough homes being built, i couldn't do it anymore; there are plenty of empty houses that no one can afford.
To be fair, that's mostly due to corporations stockpiling available inventory to actively keep rents high. Increasing the available stock by adding more homes would help promote competitive rates that consumers could compare with easier access.
the issue is different by region. yes, some areas in the US have an abundance of vacant houses that corporate landlords refuse to sell or rent out. other areas have a severe lack of housing options.
The issue is populations are moving into congested areas, everyone trying to live in LA, Seattle and NY. The Midwest is empty, the jobs there are gone and now everyone is shoved into coastal areas and fighting for housing and jobs. There is more than enough housing available, we don't need more. If you are living on $800/mo, you sadly have to live somewhere more affordable. we can't build a low income apartment for half the country.
She is not completely wrong, there are not enough affordable housing being built, because investors get more money by building luxury housing.
Low income apartments can absolutely be build for 400 million people. That will never happen because if you had access to an apartment like that your landlord couldn't charge as much for you to live under their housing.@@madamebutterfly851
food is NOT "cheap"
It is for Adam and his guest, so you're wrong.
Maybe not the food you buy
@@gpsfinancial6988 $100 worth of food before the pandemic now cost $300 today. It’s not just the food I buy, it’s the entire supermarket. Everything is more expensive now. Try shopping sometime and you’ll know that.
It is compared to the rest of the world, food is cheaper in the US than any other country.
, i think that foods dont account a large proportion of income in US
99% of economic growth is being sucked up by the top 10% of incomes(the top 1% takes over half of what goes to the top 10%).
Over half the country has gotten poorer over the last decade.
These two are blind to power and it shows.
The majority feel bad because the basic necessities of life are artificially and perniciously paywalled by private actors whose only goal is personal profit maximizing.
I'm in the top 5%. It's not me, your local doctor screwing you over, it's the capitalists who own shit.
Taylor Swift is the 1%, but even she has to fight capitalists to make money. The landlord corporations capitalists control your rent.
I think Adam has been trying to get the democrats elected, and that a "the economy is doing fine" message coming at the end of October is an effort to help that.
What a shill
That also doesn’t account for the massive amount of money that never even touches a human hand. Corporations spending income on other corporations each taking a bite of profit out of it before it ever gets paid to any employee.
The money just floats up to the ceiling as intangible “valuation” spinning around and around growing as unrealized “profit” for use as leveraging.
Do you have stats for that compared to the rest of the world most of the US has gotten a lot richer, there are a lot more millionaires than ever before, it’s not just that the top one percent is getting more and more wealth it is that so much new wealth is being created, and more and more people are joining the upper class.
The average worker is just fuel for economy, and fuel gets used up in the process.
Exactly right
We, our labor, our views, our clicks are the product. We are just the crop for that product.
In capitalism, people aren't human beings they are 'human resources', and nature isn't something beautiful, interconnected and important to be protected, it is "natural resources" that private corporations can own and extract and sell to the people for maximizing profits. It's a game of bloody Monopoly and it is sick, unsustainable and needs to end.
The era we are in, I will take a page out of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and call it the time for "Ending capitalism before it ends us."
Want to join the movements? Check out PSL, US Green Party, Workers Strike Back, Lee Camp, World Beyond Capitalism, Moneyless Society, TZM official channel, Second Thought, 1Dime, Michael Tellinger and One Small Town and trusted independent journalists like Abby Martin, Caitlin Johnstone and BreakThrough News.
Oh, and another thing...
They reference these surveys where "70%(+/-) people say they're doing fine...) and I'm wondering who was actually surveyed?
Adam points out he's seeing a lot more homeless people on the subway. (Ignoring the irony of that in a video extolling the great economy) were any of them included in the survey?
Any fast food workers? Unemployed college grads?
Didn't think so.
The economy may be doing great for people who have money, but for the millions just scraping by, it's not. Being constantly told we should feel better about the economy, while it actively works to exclude our voices and systemically refuses to address our concerns, is jusr rank elitism.
This economy sucks because it's leaving more and more people behind, but it can solipsistically boast about its greatness simply by not counting its growing number of victims.
Adam, there's a reason there are more homeless people on your train. It's called income inequality (but, oh, that's not considered an "economic indicator" by economists so yeah, everything's great!!)
I mentioned the Sydney Sweeney thing to my partner who laughed immediately and pointed out that she bought a 6 million dollar house in 2022, and a 13 million dollar beach front house in 2023.
Cry me a fucking river "she can't take 6 months off or afford a baby".
If you can spend 20mil on 2 houses (not including the one she bought in Idaho I assume for her family) then you can certainly stow enough away to have a baby and take some time off.
This is the last time I believe anybody famous is "struggling".
This is only my opinion but I seriously question a poll that says 70% of Americans are doing just fine financially. To what extent are marginalized groups being polled accurately? To what extent are people willing to be completely honest in a poll about what "fine" actually means for them?
More broadly, I think the general statistics people use to quantify the health of the economy are becoming increasingly disjointed from real world experiences. Employment rates are specifically tailored to not include certain populations and while there may be an association with low unemployment and rising wages, it is so clearly not the only factor there when wage suppression is happening in various sectors. I believe you've already done an episode about the gig economy and how nefarious it is.
All the while, as you began with, the economy is personal and with widening class differences in the country, the variance in that personal experience is likely to be widening as well.
All while housing, healthcare and education are becoming less affordable and accessible.
I think we need to put real thought in to which economic indicators are the most relevant and realest truth, as well as where and how we're sourcing this data.
What does it mean that the stock market is doing well when so many of us can't even afford to be meaningfully invested in it?
What does it mean for unemployment is low when employed people can't afford food, housing, healthcare and education?
Ultimately how are we not taking any kind of personal responsibility for telling people who are struggling that nothing is actually wrong and everything is fine?
I seriously question that poll as well!
I've heard numerous times that about 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, so how do 70% feel they are fine, financially?
I think what that might be is that people, obviously, WANT TO be fine, want to have basic needs met and don't want to admit they are in crisis so they say on a poll "I'm doing fine" but they really aren't. They can't afford a $500 emergency so, no, they aren't 'fine'.
Billionaires in a capitalist society are hoarding wealth and power and it is unhealthy. That's the structural flaw of capitalism.
Let's take a page out of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and say it clear: "End capitalism before it ends us."
How? Get educated and activated. From Lee Camp to Peter Joseph to Abby Martin to Caitlin Johnstone to Michael Tellinger to many more like that, we can find good sources for change, but only if we are open to it.
Y'know, usually, I enjoy hearing Adam having discussions with people, but I've noticed a distinct detachment from all the subjects recently
It's starting to sound like wealthy people complaining that the poors just don't get it
The statistics are manipulated. Things are definitely more expensive, in general
No they aren't.
@@promytheuz5065 then it sounds like you don't pay bills and buy groceries
@carlawhite6394 wrong. Sounds like you're lying to push your agenda.
@@promytheuz5065yes they are. Your employment numbers are deliberately skewed
@@promytheuz5065Somebody hasn’t gotten laid off yet.
The same tech gets cheaper, but the average tech people actually use gets more expensive. Like cell phones. Not that long ago 500 bucks would have been a lot for a phone, now that’s a budget smartphone.
@nicolasgirard2808 yeah, but that's not how consumerism works.
@nicolasgirard2808yes there is. Smart phones have deliberately gotten worse to try and force the owner into paying monthly subscriptions for basic features.
@nicolasgirard2808Aside from durability, manufacturer support for security updates etc….
Ssneeze at a cheap “freebie” off brand Android phone and the screens still crack.
We dont use all their apps and feature by the way
@nicolasgirard2808 yes there is. Modern phones today have deliberately restricted physical storage space. To try and force you to pay a monthly subscription to have your data held hostage in cloud storage.
It only good for the upper 1%, for the rest stagnant wages, skull high food prices, insane utilities, unaffordable housing and health care. Those are all the basic and that is the only economy that really matter and most economist seem to totally ignore it.
When economists talk about the economy, what they really mean the stock market, which preys on and weakens the real economy.
I always use the idea of "hands in the pot" If a worker makes a thing how many people have to be paid off the thing before it get into consumer hands. So If worker makes a thing, another worker puts it on a truck, the ceo of the factory also takes a cut, it gets moved to a warehouse where it is unloaded and reloaded so that's another person, the owner of the warehouse wants a cut, then it goes to a store where it is stocked and sold, but the store CEO also wants a cut. They talk about the price of the labor, but seem to ignore that in a pretty basic supply chain 3 CEO's are trying to get rich off the items that pass through. Then each of those steps can also have investors as well. With the rise of franchises and that alot more companies are public there are even more hands in the pot. The amount of our goods cost that goes to "admin" is ridiculous.
The fed cutting rates will NOT benefit home owners. I'll benefit those with capital, who will dump their liquidity into capital investments like property and bid up the price of things like homes, as has been happening since the 2007-2008 crash.
Home owners only benefit from an increase in value in their homes if they sell their home... and if they do that they'll either buy another home withan inflated price of they join the rest or the serfdom in a rental.
Edit: I feel like this interview is brimming with misconceptions about the cause of our economic problems... very little structural critique, as Adam is trying to do, and way more justifying excuses for its failures.
@@ShaedeReshka thank for you a piece of sanity from this video.
I feel like a great piece of legislation would be corporate interest rates and personal interest rates. But since corporations are people in the eyes of the powers that be, I really doubt we’ll be getting any of that anytime soon
This episode demonstrates that as long as there is a single media professional who is more or less comfortable, there will be someone to tell us that things aren't really that bad. The Black Plague wasn't apocalyptic. Permit me to dispute the originality of the observation.
Wealthy inequality…. Done. Economy is shifting to an asset based economy and less and less of a goods and services economy due to the money concentration at the top of the income brackets. So the economy stays “strong” because the wealthy keep the stock market up and revenue is being generated but the workers are stretched extremely thin. Done
"The economy is personal" - a.k.a, rich people say it's fine, politicians say it's fine, meanwhile lower income families can't afford basic necessities and middle class are living paycheck to paycheck or putting everything on credit. Current inflation may be down, but prices are still at post-pandemic levels and wages haven't caught up with that. Politicians use semantics just like everything else to cover up the disaster they created.
Capitalism is a structurally unsustainable system. There: Said it faster than this long, winding, unproductive video.
I'd rather listen to hours of Revolution Now podcast with Peter Joseph or Dangerous Ideas with Lee Camp than one more second of this interview. Note: I only made it 12 minutes in.
The world may go on for you Adam, but some of us rely on SSI.... and I'd prefer not to lose my lifeline, with the potential of a Trump victory, the Reps projected to take the House and Senate, & the Supreme Court stacked with Trumpers x.x
Millennials literally spent the first 30-40 years of our lives working on these causes trying to make a better world, and all have gotten for it is screwed. Tell somebody else to pull their weight for a change. We have done more than our share
My main issue with the stock market is how unethical I feel it is. If companies have a priority to their grow their shareholders investment, they aren’t going to pay their employees the true value of their work.
Also, if it’s a successful and going concern, why the fuck does it need to beg for money to keep running?
I get your sentiment and generally agree but since it’s not something that’s likely to significantly change anytime soon, it’s probably not wise to not participate ya know? It doesn’t make you unethical or whatever.
bingo. there are zero ethics in stocks. AND our US president signed into LAW the fact that corporations must put shareholders above all else. its all by design. we could have put the employees and customers first, people, but instead we put money first. we put the already powerful first.
The stock market is a Ponzi Scheme, literally. 80% of stocks are owned by 10% of the population, so it isn't necessary for most people. Stock market should be abolished. Our retirement or savings shouldn't have anything to do with the stock market.
Look at the One Small Town model, not well known at this point, but based on cooperation, collaboration and co-ownership to meet people's community needs for prosperity, peace and abundance. No investor can own more than 30% of any business, the community retains at least 60%. That's a way of the future. If we are going to have a future worth living in, we need system change and transition towards that system.
I think that a lot of the way people feel is because of corporate greed. People that should be doing just OK aren’t doing as good as they should because everything is so expensive. Almost everything is still made cheap, poor quality, doesn’t last long or a fraction of nutrients so more has to be purchased used or eaten more often, but is twice if not more expensive. All the important things, as mentioned is almost unaffordable, like health care, daycare and housing. There are people in their 30’s who got an education and good paying job with a couple kids living in 800sqf 2 bedroom sleeping in the living room because the homes and apartments are so much, never affording the down payment, plus the other costs because almost 3/4 income going to present rent. People that should be able to afford a vacation or things to do in free time can’t and or have no free time. Never mind the millions that work in the service industry ( our largest industry) that works in all the services people that have money to spend use, can nearly survive and not many people of the majority are thriving.
Because I’m making more money than I’ve ever made but I can’t afford to take a vacation even at the same cost as the vacations which I previously took. I’m not even sure I’ll be able to keep making my house payment thru the winter. His guest is clueless.
How are there 16 million vacant homes and yet we’re not building enough homes?
The new homes we’re building are 2500 MINIMUM square foot mini mansions for $1.8 Million. Eff that. Build more 780 square foot starter homes so they dont cost $400k.
Where is no profit for builders. They literally lose money on starter homes, what's why they stopped building them.
@@simplenews325 I got a lot of insight into that world selling my mom's house after she passed. Everyone has this feeling that home builders selling a $800k house are making $300k profit and they just aren't. The costs of those projects are much higher than people know and that final selling price has to generate more profit than taking that invested money elsewhere, even on the stock market, and letting it grow there. I mean, why would you make less profit building a house than putting it in a mutual fund or something for that same year?
@
This is why single-family starter home construction needs subsidized.
I mean in a perfect world we wouldn’t be working for “profit” in the first place but rather the utopian ideal of labor for the betterment of society. But barring that, tax money funding sustainable housing initiatives rather than the abject wastefulness of 3400 sqft homes sold at absurd markups is fine.
@@ZeketheZealot Agreed, although that subsidization could take many forms: tax breaks on profits within limits, simpler permitting for like projects on similar land, much higher taxes on corps owning more than three homes (prevent hoarding by corps to charge high rents instead). There also might be some areas like reducing risk for investments in there, etc.
I'd avoid the blunt hammer of tax funding (as much as possible) because that can lead to other problems/exploitation. I think we can get to the goal of making that market profitable via addressing the costs/risk. It's all complex policy wonk stuff but carefully targeted, it can do a lot.
It’s pretty weird for a lady talking economics to say that homelessness and crime are very very different issues….. that’s like a Dr telling a flu patient that your headache and your nausea are very very different issues…. It’s like…. No…. It’s the flu…. It’s the same issue… just different symptoms…. Same with crime and homelessness…. It’s a wealth disparity issue
The problem is that you misunderstand what the economy is. Your understanding is that it is capitalism at work, whether positive or negative, when in reality it's the structure by which a government is funded and attempts to check inflation in a capitalist system. It's not windows, it's your anti-virus.
Homelessness isn't a crime. How it's been made into one makes no sense. So your saying the hundreds of thousands of homeless people just woke up and chose to be a criminal by losing their home? By not being able to afford anything? Like "hmm, I think I'm going to commit the crime of being broke today and leave my house for the streets."
@ reading comprehension: 0
The economy doesn't say anything about how the money is distrubuted. It's like being a child of a wealthy family. The amount of money you have is proportional to the family wealth but it's not your money, it's your parents money. If you get lucky you might have some of the wealth.
Capitalism is the same. It's hopes and dreams you'll have a benevolent rich people who will give you some wealth.
@@blasphimus exactly…. Wealth disparity it the biggest social issue we face… a majority of our problems are directly or indirectly caused by money pooling at the top and the rest of us being unable to afford the oxygen we breathe
Where exactly is the food cheap. I wanna go there
The continuously changing economic conditions in our society have made it necessary for thousands of people to find additional sources of income. Personally, I am looking at the stock market to fuel my retirement goal of $2m, my concern is the recent market crash.
buying the dip has proven to be profitable although for majority, the solution to their problem can be found only in specialized knowledge hence they seek guidance from well experienced advisors
Agreed, despite my rookie knowledge of investing, I have a financial advisor who did the trick in a bit more than 6 months after a lump sum capital of $500k, and I've so far made a fortune. I'm now buying real estates, gold and silver as advised by my FA.
@@M.Herlihy truly appreciate the implementation of ideas and strategies that result to unmeasurable progress, thus the search for a reputable advisor, mind sharing info of this person guiding you please?
SOPHIA VERDEKAL O'NEAL handles my day-today investing. I'd gladly commend her on a public post.
excellent share, curiously copied and pasted Sophia Verdekal O'neal on the web, spotted her consulting page ranked top and was able to schedule a call session. Ive seen commentaries about advisors but not one looks this phenomenal
Musical chairs was an apt metaphor. Musical chairs but the music never starts playing again
The math of modern economics doesn't add up. What are savings rates? What about credit card debt? People don't have any money left over. So you can say it over and over that wages are beating inflation, the reality of the financial situation doesn't add up though. I suggest that even within income brackets, wage gains are extremely unequal. Most people are not keeping up with inflation. But a few people are and making the overall wage gains look better than they actually are.
The metrics we use to judge a strong economy don't translate to comfort to the citizens the economy serves. An economy in service to only the top 10% of the nation isn't of any benefit to the majority. We need a fundamental shift in the metrics in which we judge a strong economy.
In a competitive marketplace, the price of something should reflect the cost of production… the knowledge that the customer has more money in their pocket SHOULD be irrelevant.
Bingo
Well it would be, if we actually enforced collusion, price fixing, and Anti-Trust laws.
Exactly!!!!
Because "the economy" doesn't really look at the working class household budget. It looks at what shareholders are making. Except most of us don't buy our toilet paper and eggs or pay rent with shares
1:12:54 I am certainly glad Adam raised this point.
While I pursued a career in education that has ended up being far more volatile than I ever imagined it would be thanks to school budget shortfalls resulting in layoff after layoff which has hampered my ability to make a steady living, my younger brother decided to pursue a career in mechanical engineering - and while I do not envy his choice of work for a second as his job chronically overworks him, the outcome of that choice has been that my brother has had more stable income that he has then been able to turn around and invest in index funds and whatever else. As such, just as Adam gave voice to here, I feel incredibly frustrated whenever my brother brings up how he has made significant money through his investments in conversation with mutual friends or whatnot because whether intentional or not, he makes it sound like of course it was the logical thing to do and that I should totally have done the same, to which I can only respond "well, yeah, of course I would have loved to invest in index funds or whatever...but with what money, on a teacher's salary?"
1:21:56 ...and thank you, Kyla, for saying that!
Your brother invests in ETFs while teachers invest in children. It’s easy for me to see what matters more
@@lazersword66 I mean…unfortunately, investing in the next generation of kids/teens from other families unfortunately does not do much for one’s own financial security, which is stupid. As they say in this episode, America has not done much in terms of social investments since…what…pre-Reagan? And as such, every generation from Gen X onwards has paid the price.
This aged well :/
Economy is not good, it's just common sense. Pharmacies and restaurants are closing by the hundreds.
Depends on which one you're talking about - rich people gambling on BS using computer algorithms or people buying and selling things. Because they've sucked up the majority of the wealth in this country and left the rest of us with scraps, of course places that actually serve normal people are going out of business. Unless you're providing premium services to exclusive clientele, you mean nothing to the excessively wealthy.
But like go up and that's what really matters.
- Economists
the answer is that when metrics become the goal, they cease being good metrics. so the metrics of a “good economy” have become a goal to look good on paper.
When you say "if you invested in Monster Energy...." my question is, how did you pick that company? What if instead you picked one of Monster Energy's competitors who got crushed? Or you picked electric cars but two decades too early?
"Diversify!"
OK, but then you're not going to get that Monster Energy return, are you? You're going to get the average of all the beverage companies. Or better yet, the average of every company. At which point, what are you even talking about? If this is something everyone should do, why is it optional?
And what if everyone did take this advice? Consumer spending would decline because more people are buying S&P 500 index funds. Monster Energy would do worse because that consumer spending decline would hit them hardest. And the price of stocks would rise not because of growth, but because of demand. It would be harder and harder to get a return because everyone is putting their money in and driving up the price. The ones who would see the greatest immediate benefits of all this stock investing would be those who are already wealthy.
You're back to the same complaint you have about housing: when it becomes an investment vehicle, then it gets pushed out of reach of normal people. It's a lie to pretend that normal people, and especially poor people, just need to make better choices. The reality is we have massive inequality. It's like telling workers in a sweatshop to pool their pennies and take over the company by buying up the stock. In what universe could such a thing even remotely occur?
It's incredibly difficult to pick stocks 94% of them don't beat obligations in 10 year period most of the time. If you're right 50% like Buffet or Lynch you're terrific in this business. Even then you need to wait few decades to get some decent returns and then it's already too late to have a family and kids.
I think a big reason some people think the economy is doing bad is the massive difference wealth. And how much we see that wealth gap. If you’re doing “okay” but don’t have extra spending money, seeing all these people on social and mainstream media have all this stuff and going on these extravagant vacations would make you feel like you are really behind. And no matter how much you work, you cant catch up. So it would make sense to rationalize it by viewing the economy as being bad instead of it working as designed.
Jeff Bezos hasn't worked for 2 years and just the money he "made" during that time is more than my city (Ho Chi Minh) has.
10:57 I haven’t been able to afford beef as a part of my groceries in a year.
You’re better off honestly. Beef should have never been affordable.
“The Economy” looks at macro numbers and assumes the growth and wealth is evenly shared by all Americans. It’s not. It’s skewed towards wealthy Americans making even more money. Less wealthy people are receiving little to none of the wealth created.
What good does that wealth do when it is squirreled away into an already rich person’s portfolio that does not improve or change their life in any way. It improves no one’s life. It’s only a number change on a spreadsheet somewhere. It needs to be put back into the economy to make it true growth.
Also, as Americans, we are told/sold on the American Dream. Younger people in the prime of life cannot afford any of the markers of the American Dream. It’s a cognitive dissonance among anyone younger than a Baby Boomer. We’re surviving, but not achieving the markers of adulthood we’ve been told to expect.
housing- corporate f,ing landlords and price fixing ffs
The whole idea of vibecession is so deeply elitist and condescending(to me). The reason we don’t feel good about the “economy” is because the one that matters to us mortals is not the one that’s doing well. We don’t have investments, houses, etc… so the economy just doesn’t affect us beyond sometimes meaning we can lose our jobs. Beyond that, what they call the economy is a misleading term to distract from our realities. Buying power, personal debt, spending analysis etc are all way better at explaining why were not happy with the “economy” and why the rich will look surprised when they start getting guillotined again
Covid allowed me to get a professional license and get a 30k raise. The economy is A+.
This was not a good interviewee, Annie Lowery did a way better job of covering the issue. This is a cost of living issue that has existed for at least a decade, neither party has addressed it and the pandemic exacerbated the problem.
It’s been since the mid 80’s. The “economy” did well in the 90’s but same way it’s doing “well” now.
One thing people always say when talking about housing is "There is a shortage" yet NOBODY ever talks about how we are building but private equity is buying out a significant portion of new builds!
The boomers are the biggest generation of homeowners... they are also dying. Who gets the houses? Certainly their children are getting some, but those who would rather sell, or if there are multiple kids and they want to sell so they all get a cut... who buys it?? Private equity!!
The ONLY WAY out of our housing crisis is to ban private equity from buying houses and force them to sell the houses they do have! If they were forced to sell then there would be a crash. Bar them from being able to repurchase then they cannot reinflate the market artificially.
From what I know, it goes like this. If you invest a RON, you no longer have a RON. You have a derivative of a RON. In the same way acceleration is the derivative of speed. It can go up, it can go down. And the RON you invested is a function of value. How much does that thing you invested is worth in other people's opinion. Now, the question is, who decides value? Imagine a race driver that never made it to the big league to get the money. He stopped at 18 because of an accident and got a job as a mechanic. He doesn't make that much money, but still can drive really well. So he buys a car. A not so expensive one. Goes to some road and passes with great speed a much more expensive car. Which car is better? Well... the most expensive car should technically be considered better. But it just got wrecked by a less expensive one. What does the driver of the expensive car feel? He might feel really unsatisfied. He spent a lot of money on a car with a lot of power and just got owned by a car with less power. Obviously, he feels dissatisfied. And might start saying that the car is bad. How does such a world feel? One in which people with expensive car keep saying that their cars are bad? And those with less expensive cars say their cars are amazing? Who's to blame? Well... The question is, how is it that the guy that never made it as a race driver got so much value and no money to show it? Also, think about it. Value can not be inherited. If you were very successful as a business man, you can live you kid your money, but not your success. Which automatically in some cases raises a lot of problems. Problems that can be seen all over history when it comes to royalty. Now a question might be what happens if a person has the value, has the correct amount of money attributed to it and loses the money. I am not really sure. But I suppose it's a sort of degenerative process. I also think it depends on how that person lost the money. Did it get stolen, did he spend it on drugs? If he spent it on drugs chances are he would no longer be a great driver anyway. Maybe he bought a house, got married and the wife doesn't let him drive recklessly anymore. Or he simply has new priorities. To some extent, I am under the impression that the more money a person has, the more he treasures stability and stuff. And by money I mean money. Not bonds or anything else. If you have 100000000000 RON in stocks, you have 0 RON.
Saying that homelessness and crime are not the same problem is both accurate and misleading. It’s obviously true that being homeless does not mean that you are committing a crime, or will commit crime. But it’s also true that homelessness is a pretty strong indicator of general economic prosperity. And you know what tends to happen a lot more when economic prosperity is low? Crime. I honestly can’t believe that this conversation is real. I’ve seen Adam talk about these issues well in other contexts. It’s like all of that understanding is absent here.
1:20:36 In many places, there *is* a fee for calling emergency services. Instead of fire departments being a publicly funded service, the individual gets a bill, and hopes their insurance covers it.
The de-governmentation of the country. Deregulating everyone to the bottom of the barrel.
That’s what Republicans mean when they say small government.
I'm not currently struggling but I still have economic anxiety because I know that at any moment my employer could decide I have no more job (and their stonks haven't been doing well so that's a very real possibility in the future) and though I've been looking at other jobs for almost as long as I've worked at this one, I haven't found one that's as good as my current job that I feel I stand a chance at actually getting. I also don't have enough in savings to feel comfortable with that happening, but I don't know that I'll ever be able to save enough to feel comfortable with my job no longer existing. So if someone asked me 'how are you doing in this moment', I'm fine. I am fine. But how do I feel about the future? Not good. Quite anxious and fearful, really.
Vibecession? You, Adam, and your guest should get a real job and return to this topic in a year. You're showing a similar detachment from regular people's lives as politicians.
They look like two people who can be unemployed searching for a job for a year and treat it like vacation while actually doing this same influencer job and writing/ghost-writing a book and doing comedy specials for Robert Reich's son on the side.
@@chasethechase2298i mean, that is what they do.
When they said food costs are normal they lost us 😅
4 years ago we were in the peak of COVID and into an economic downtrend. We are improving now but as usual the most benefits go to the top because capitalism and Republicans
Great episode of the podcast, but i would push back a little bit against what you said around 51:30 about people not using philosophy to make decisions. There are some highly educated people and policy makers who do use philosophy to influence their personal, political, and business decisions. Utilitarianism is the first one that comes to mind that a lot of philanthropy and humanitarian investments are made with a utilitarian mindset of "most good for least money."
Could not agree more. Underlying much of our daily decisions are physiological ideas that filter down subconsciously.
The stock market is not the economy. The stock market is not the economy. The stock market is not the economy!
When did that come up at all. You are broken.
The stock market is literally a Ponzi Scheme! Literally! Just gambling BS for the rich. I'd abolish the stock market if I could.
I'd abolish billionaires and end capitalism before it ends us. But that's just me. How about you?
This is why they should never have taken the "socio" out of "socioeconomics" and treated it like it was just a math problem
This conversation felt like it spent the entire time dancing around very, very obvious stuff and trying to pretend it isn't real. Inflation was massively impacted by price gouging, and it does not matter one fart if the overall numbers are going up and therefore the average is still looking good when the reality is that people can not afford their basic needs at a level they have never experienced in their lifetimes. The averages are not a good indicator because the rate at which the capitalists increase their share of the wealth so quickly outpaces the normal working class producer that the averages are skewed to show you a story that does not fit the lives of 90+% of the working class. Even those of us that are in the labor aristocracy are struggling and paddling for our lives with no savings and desperate moves to find security. Sure during the upswing in the cycles we can temporarily forget we are drowning until the waves kick up again, but most are not building wealth. I am only 25 minutes in but I can't keep listening to this "we're doing fine actually, y'all are whiners, the ruling class isn't fucking us". I was already uncomfortable when y'all were lightly dancing over the first part about averages and what not, but now saying that its supply chain and downplaying the price gouging? That's getting to be pitch fork territory.
"The Economy" should just be replaced with "rich people's money". Everything ever said about the economy makes instant sense when put in this context. The economy is doing great, but you feel like it's terrible? You're not a rich person, so you don't matter. Makes perfect sense.
Yeah, no. This interview is just so out of touch from the average working class American. Disappointing to see Adam be so oblivious to this issue. The moment i heard him say "food is cheap" i knew this video would be BS. You expect us to agree with the "vibecession" theory? The numbers are "good" to economists because of corporations maximizing profits at the expense of the rest of the working population (layoffs, negative real wage growth, etc), simple as that.
You have a solid BS meter, my friend! I noticed it too. Got only to about 12 minutes in and stopped. Too much BS and beating around the bush without saying: "Capitalism is the root problem! The system is the sickness."
I would much rather have seen this interview with Professor Richard Wolff than with this chick who seems compromised.
The economy seems great for capitalists. But I'm not a capitalist, and most people who live under capitalism aren't capitalists. We're workers who own almost nothing outside of our labor, which is exactly what we're exploited for. So yeah, the economy is booming if you're a thief/conman. That's what you get out a a thief and conman based economy. Glad to know where Kyla puts herself. Sad to see you wavering on that Adam.
She lost me at blaming supply chain for inflation...that has been debunked so she is ignorant or a hack
Super disappointed in the framing from the guest on this episode. Every time I thought she was about to go into discussing ownership of the means of production, unionizing, and taking control of our destinies AND the companies that are pulling all the strings, she instead urged people to fruitlessly attempt to play the game. Compound interest will never outpace rising costs of living and keeping ourselves alive, and it's laughable to try and suggest that this is any kind of rational long term strategy for anyone in the bottom 50%. My gf is literally dumping their shares given to them by sbux because otherwise they can't pay for rent. As soon as she said she started investing at 14 years old it was the last piece of the puzzle here. I can agree with the idea of needing to know how the system works if you are part of it whether you like it or not, but suggesting "this is just how it is" and that you need to play the game too is exactly what the predators above us want us to think. There's a reason none of them are fighting tooth and nail to keep common folk from investing, and instead doing everything they can to keep us from unionizing.
This is all neoliberal (trickle down) propaganda… if inflation is a function of the money supply then raising interest rates shouldn’t counteract it… but it does (sometimes), because inflation happens when employers either get greedier or decide to pay workers more and raising interest rates creates unemployment… it didn’t totally work THIS time because most of the inflation we’ve experience was the result of greed.
Originally Trickle down is neo conservative, started under the Reagan and now adopted by both party establishments, since now both parts are bought by corporations. The dems are probably just a little less at this point.
My friend, crime _is_ an economics issue so you'd be right and their feelings would be wrong, either way.