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Notes -
I think a huge part of this is the repeated lying. Just after the pandemic, when inflation started up, everyone was screaming from the housetops that this was a very temporary thing, a blip and due to pent up demand as the economy restarted. And during the pandemic as well, people were told not to notice that the economy wasn’t working right. So trust in officials and their statements of “the economy is just fine” have plummeted.
The other thing that’s happened is that our economy has bifurcated into the elite and the rest of us. The pandemic sped this up massively, but it’s been this way for some time. So there are two economies: one for the rich and elites for whom food costs and housing costs are trivial, and one for the workers struggling to make rent and buy food and after necessary expenses has nothing left. If you’re struggling, even after inflation related wages, to survive even after downgrading your lifestyle beyond the pain point, inflation is very very real to you. And given the struggles the economy for regular people is in the toilet. I’ve seen replies to stories about inflation not being real that detail the kinds of things that people have given up. Restaurants are simply no longer an option for a lot of people. They’ve canceled all their streaming services because they can’t afford them. They coupon and buy off brands or lower quality products, or simply do without. There’s a not insignificant portion of households that can no longer afford meat. But these are the peasants, and they aren’t to be listened to. If you’re rich, none of this matters to you and the economy is just fine. You might laugh about the cost of soup, but it’s not a lifestyle adjustment for you.
Real incomes for the lowest earners have risen much faster than real incomes for higher earners. Higher earners are noticing that the cheap servant they used to pay to deliver their doordash is earning more money.
It's not real income Maiq is talking about but discretionary income. If over some period of time your real income increased by 50% but your apartment rent and groceries doubled and and your student loan repayments restarted after being on 3 years of forbearance your DI is likely down significantly.
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