The one thing I disagree with here is the idea that the rest of the world is doing just fine. Ask any Canadian right now, and they'll tell you how bad their housing crisis is. Pretty much every country is struggling right now in some way.
Our northern neighbors need some creative solutions to that particular problem, none of which Castrudeau or the "Conservatives" are willing to countenance...
@@harrisondansie9542 Agreed. I am the child of an immigrant so I am certainly not against immigration itself but the problem with allowing anyone to come here and buy property is that it means the demand for housing is going to far outweigh the supply. The Canadian real estate market is a global market now. This means that there are enough rich people to come and buy up every property at inflated prices which completely pushes us normal people out of the market.
@@harrisondansie9542 No one want to touch this issue because doing so inconveniences a HUGE part of the voting block, homeowners who benefit from the inflating housing prices.
Yeah and if you're in BC then good luck getting good medical treatment. Cancer patients are literally accessing MAID before they get to see an oncologist.
The old, boomer economy of "working a summer job to pay your way through college so you can get a position at a company that you work at for 40 years before retiring" no longer exists anymore.
I never went to College out of fear I may pick a career path I’m not actually interested or suitable for. And then being plunged into several decades worth of debt. It’s a catch 22 though as your options are fairly limited.
It's not dead, most people just don't see a feasible way to do it. I'd argue that the vast majority should be completely skipping the college step though, you incur a massive amount of unnecessary debt for a slip of paper that ultimately doesnt do anything for you. Take your time and money and instead of investing years and thousands into a piece of paper and an "education", go start making something out of yourself. Learn a trade, jump into business, acquire skills that make people WANT to hire you (because your GPA and that slip of paper means nothing beyond possibly getting you an interview, but the skills you have will get you better interviews at better companies much faster). People complain about the catch 22 where you need experience to get the job, but you need the job to get said experience. They see this yet fail to realize college has no value in the real world.
If someone told me that over 50% of Americans are depressed or suffering from mental health issues, I would believe them. The mental state of the average American has to be the worst its been in possibly decades. My heart goes out to those who are struggling.
The only reason I'm chilling is because I actually like my parents and don't mind living with them and helping pay mortgage and bills and stuff. Genuinely dunno how everyone else does it
@@BilliamTorpedoI don't understand the american obsession with moving out of your parents house. I feel the same way, I'm lucky enough to have a great mom who I can live with and I help her around the house, I don't want to leave her alone and go live in some apartment and also be alone... why would I want to do that?
@@BilliamTorpedo Hey that's great though, glad that things are working out for you! My situation is pretty terrible, but the good thing is I'm alive and got those that worry about me. I think most people just sort of help each other out, as that's really the best anyone can do when times are tough. Financials wise I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people are taking loans or are in massive debt just so they could stay alive. Monthly payment plans, etc.
@@doctoreggman21Because the US (at least the modern version) focuses around two principles, liberty and speed. Under this mwntality, people that want to be free naturally will move out of their homes, not for any reason in particular, but just because they want to do things without having to hear the opinions or stances of others, and due to the how fast-paced american culture is, particulary in the cities, they want to do that as soon as possible, because for them, the more time you live with your parents is less time that you are being free, and that's unacceptable
Yeah.. it's so annoying when I talk to relatives who purchased a home in the 90's. They say "if I could do it, so can you". Bull. Homes have gone up so high, it completely impossible for me to even think about owning one. Meanwhile their home (purchased in the 90's in California for about 98k) is going for $1million+ today. They can sell their home and easily buy 2 houses here in Arizona (where I am now) since the homes here are at least $400k. It's ridiculous. Sad that I'll never be able to own a home, but that's what these "leaders" want. "You will own nothing, and you will be happy".
The only way standard of living has increased is electronics. In 1991 my parents bought a 32" tube TV. It cost $1200 at the time. Not inflation adjusted. So today when you can buy a 32' HDTV for $100, that IS a huge improvement.
TVs are generally only cheap now because most have internet capabilities. The real money with most of these companies is in selling in house screen space for ads. It's similar to the console video game market where consoles are sold at cost or sometimes even lower. There was a program just recently in America where you could get a FREE 4k television, but you had to agree to also have a large screen below it installed that NEVER turned off and fed you ads in your house. I don't ever connect my TVs to the internet. I am completely against the idea of owning or paying for a service that feeds me ads.
@@cannedhamsters that may be why they are SO cheap now, but in 2010 I bought a 42" TV for $500 that was not "smart". Still substantially cheaper than previous decades.
Agreed. And the standard is declining not only from the purely economic aspect, but with the loss of freedoms also. Being hedged in affects our mental health and the wealth of our spirit.
bro my dad said this word for word as a JOKE when we were watching Mummy Returns on the couch back in 2008, and saw the scene where the rock eats a scorpion off the ground in a desert. when the rock said some egyptian warcry gibberish at soldiers, and I asked "what did he say" dad jokingly went "You will have nothing and like it" and when rock johnson ate the scorpion to spawn an oasis, "you will eat bugs and be happy doing it"
Luxury is cheap, most essentials are about the same but it's just housing that's gone crazy. The problem is that housing has been treated as an Investment first and a home second. If housing was cheaper, we would be the most well off generation that had ever lived.
Yeah I feel this. I feel rich and dirt poor at the same time. I feel like I can afford so many things... but not a roof over my head. Even renting gone ridiculous here.
The problem was the amount of houses being produced failed to keep up with population growth and the rise of single ownership, created by financial crisises grinding starter home to a halt making over built mcmansions the only thing profitable without building at scale. Longest amount of time spent not building lots of new small homes makes the new builds retain value better than 80 year old houses. Also doesn't help that the backyardigans (nimby's) prevented development in the most populace cities from meeting demand within a reasonable timeframe
@@syloui The problem is that billionaires buy up hundreds of homes. There are literally empty apartment blocks with huge rent prices owned by a single LLC. How many homeless people could they accommodate? And yet they have to lie in the street because rent prices aren't governed and since there are no alternatives the rent can be as high as possible. Same thing applies to ownership too. The homes are all there, but they're owned by billionaires, not the public.
Ive just come to terms with the fact that ill never be able to own a home, or have kids that wont see poverty. Covid killed my chances of moving out into my own apartment.
I’m not having kids period, not only is my genetics kinda trash, but money is too much of an issue to reasonably think i can raise children comfortably.
Advancing technology doesn't increase our quality of life. It is used by employers to squeeze more work out of you. If self-driving cars actually worked and were used by the majority of people, you already know your employer would make get starting on work while commuting to work.
I think what makes the illusion work and what makes it more bitter of a reality is that we are starving in the midst of plenty. Your neighbor, your parent, your boss are out there living like kings, like things are still getting better. They have 3 cars, and a large house and luxury that you can never afford. We see around us the middle class life that was promised to us and we believe that the fact we don’t have that is a personal failure and not a systemic issue.
Except him pretending that everyone "thinks this way" is patently wrong The Occupy wall street movement was bourne out of "Wall street vs Main street" where people were angry that their quality of life wasnt growing alongside Wall street and occupy wall street was back in 2010 so no, this idea is common wisdom.
For anyone who disagrees with his point about the stock market I suggest you go look up the charts for the Venezuelan stock market. They saw massive growth while the country was declining in every possible aspect. Yes, some people who invested in the market will see some benefit from it but it's a negative signal that far outweighs the benefit of those returns. It shows that the currency is being inflated and it shows a transfer of wealth from the middle/lower class to the corporations and the rich people who own those corps. The stock market is just one data point, you cannot just say stocks going up is a good thing in a vacuum.
100% correct my friend. I have been watching you from the beginning and I went from excited to go to college in STEM with a good job waiting... to instead... saving money by literally living out of my car for the last 3 years. Not in the field I want, in debt, no house in sight, and I'd consider myself lucky since I have a savings account
@@asian2go96 It was more of a joke comment, but what did we expect? Normies cannot be saved and normies will collaborate with your enemies if you try to save them. But many of the good people are making the right moves. Sure, the challenges facing us in the future will be massive, but it is far from hopeless.
Was just talking today to a friend about the erosion of rights from Americans, seems to coincide pretty close with the downfall of economy. Watching the country fall apart in real time is terrifying and I don’t know that anything can be done to fix it. What scares me most is people choosing to give up their rights.
@@Viper-ft3tk disagree, i mean we've had facebook for years and they are by far more worse than tictok and data privacy isnt the biggest concern. America has been declining since the 1990s i would argue.
@@powerfuljmonk1938 I, from what I can see, can trace the downfall back to at least the 50-60s, but probably even further back. I think tiktok is pretty bad, but all social media are pretty horrible for collecting so much data.
@@powerfuljmonk1938 Facebook is the exact same shit. Don't misunderstand me. Facebook, Twitter, Google and whatever else are all disgusting in their attempts to harvest information from the public. It's disgusting how much we sacrificed for the little conveniences.
Well, it certainly seems like owning your home isn't gonna be an option for much longer. And as someone who's father worked in construction for a real estate agency, I apologize for being part of the problem. We too had dreams of owning a house, but it seems like we too will be under a landlord within the foreseeable future.
I am humble and grateful that my wife and I have a home and two cars, alongside enough money to have a date or new game. But despite all the work we do for it, we are just one bad injury or job change from it all getting screwed. I know how lucky we are and understand anyone who is struggling. The top percentage of wealthy should never have as much money as they do.
You don't need to be grateful, you went to school got a job or learned a skill and got a job. Or I guess you can say you're grateful/lucky if you were born into money
i’ve accepted that we are living during a time of struggle. i try to focus on the things i do have vs the things i don’t. maslow’s hierarchy. i’m grateful that i have a roof over my head, food on the table, and a job that, even though it doesn’t pay the most, can cover my bills and leave a bit extra money and time for leisure. i’m not necessarily giving up and settling for less, i’m just moving forward with the mindset that we’re in a rough period right now and the best thing to do is focus on stability. things will probably get much worse before it gets better but it will eventually. i imagine this is similar to how americans 100 years ago felt during the great depression.
Your thoughts on this are very valid. The problem lies in the greed that is standing in the way of letting people (and their wealth grow), we're too eager to profit off each other, when if we let peoples wealth grow, there's more wealth to share as a whole. _"The forest is cut faster that its being regenerated, purposefully to make the price of wood higher, to exceed next years profits."_
After WWII, Europe, Asia and the Soviets were in ruins, but America was comparatively unscathed. America was untouched by strategic bombings of production infrastructure, and the mass loss of working-age men that every other industrialized country experienced. This gave America a huge advantage as the world’s only factory, with no competition and the whole world needing their services to rebuild. Since America had such an overwhelming industrial advantage it was easy to fund infrastructure and high paid jobs were in abundant supply. But this advantage waned as Europe and Japan were restored and it nosedived with the industrialization of the rest of Asia. American industry now has to compete with a global industrial market which led to job loss and an increasing focus on a service economy. Old people deciding to “pull the ladder up” is a much smaller factor.
the u.s. used its navy to protect the seas so all countries could enjoy safe shipping routes (still does) and allowed all into its markets so the other nations could rebuild as fast as possible
I’m so sick of people writing this all off as “inflation” because it’s really not, companies have figured out they can crank up prices as high as they want and people will still pay for it due to them being necessities.
@@shadowcween7890 conspiracy. There's a famous and well-documented example of something similar happening. Back in the day, the lightbulbs used to last for a very long time, and after a considerable chunk of the population got them, the profits went down. So, the manufactures agreed to not produce lightbulbs that would serve over a certain amount of hours to always have profits. I think, it was around a century ago. I suspect, now they cover their tracks better.
I completely agree, standard of living has gone down substantially. Even if you're a little wealthy (like me), purchasing power has done WAY down. My dad made right at $100k for most of the 90s. He was able to buy a waterfront house, a jaguar (car), and a speedboat. My parents took 2 vacations a year just them, and 2 with me as family vacations. As a single income family (my mom was stay at home). I'm a multi millionaire and couldn't afford half of that lifestyle. So my standard of living is good, but it's still gone down a LOT compared to previous generations. The question is why. I think it's due to low skill immigration + offshoring medium skill jobs. Automation is pouring fuel on the fire but didn't start the process. It's not something we can tax our way out of. As for life expectancy, Eh. My parents were upper middle class and both of them died from cancer in their late 50s / early 60s. Access to some of the best doctors in the world didn't save them. Yesterday was actually the 5 year anniversary of my mom's death. Both of her parents (IE my grandparents) are still alive and doing well. My grandmother drove as recently as a few weeks ago when she fell and hurt her back.
The immigration, outsourcing, and automation should be reducing the prices and wages. I think it's more accurate to blame government subsidies raising the price floor (especially with tuition) and monopolies/protections for irresponsible and predatory fiscal decisions because theyre "too big to fail" (major companies being OWED taxes, bailing out the banks). I also think the MEDIA around the pandemic and wars have served as cover to raise prices since there are just so many "shortages" and "incompetent workers", when there are so many tools and knowledge to increase productivity, yield, and start new operations. Sorry for your loss by the way. Cancer has taken out 80% of the people I've seen go. Long, drawn out deaths with very expensive treatments. Horrible that it's become so common, but it seems preferrable to some industries.
It feels like a repeat of the early 70s. Political strife, economic downturn, increasingly disenfranchised citizens, and widespread rampant corruption are present globally. I watched "V for Vendetta" the other night and was appalled at how close it felt to our current society
V for Vendetta, Nineteen Eighty-four and Brazil are all films worth watching. If you enjoy reading, Brave New World is worth reading. I've heard good things about Fahrenheit 451, but I haven't read it yet.
It's pretty bad when Business Empire Game with taxs newly implemented, barely functioning tax system, being taxed every 3 days, somehow looks slightly better, and has more financial rights and protections than U.S. America economy and twx system.
"$700 insulin" is cherry picking facts. It's not incorrect, and we can do better - but it's not the whole story. Short-acting insulin is all that was available for decades. It was a pain in the ass at times - you had to be very diligent with taking your blood sugar, and injecting the right amount of insulin. But it kept you alive just fine. Right now, a 30 day supply of short-acting insulin is $20 at Wal-Mart, without a prescription (or health insurance). In the least few decades, long-acting insulin has been developed. You take one injection a day, and live your life as normal. THIS is the stuff that's $700 a month *IF* you find yourself having to pay cash for it. It's covered by Medicaid (the government insurance we give to low income people), so the poor have access to it. Typically, the problem is the lower middle class - they're too "rich" to qualify for Medicaid, but cannot afford health insurance (like if they lost their job). I agree we need a better solution. Switching from long acting insulin to short acting insulin requires a lot of reading online, or asking for help from a pharmacist (usually free). And while people have died from switching insulin types, that was not knowing the correct procedures. Switching is completely safe as long as you have just a little bit of knowledge. Source: my dad was a pharmacist who specialized in diabetes care for the last few years of his career.
Either the price of insulin needs to go down through regulations, or there needs to be some sort of exceptions to medicare accessible to the middle class so that this medicine can be more obtainable. Preferably i'd prefer the former so that i'm not getting fucked in the ass through tax dollars, but that's not how capitalism works (and this is coming from a fiscal conservative). Social programs like Medicare only exist to overreach scummy practices such as this.
The idea of a "sit and forget" long acting insulin doesn't apply to type one diabetics, in fact the long form insulin required to be able to process glucose in order to live day to day needs to be taken every day, varying doses according to condition. This is why I argue the "types" of diabetes should just be renamed into totally different conditions. Type 1 and 2 diabetics have totally different hardships.
Whatever you do, don't look up trends of unionization & minimum wage increasing consistently over time until the 80s. Also don't look into what presidential election correlates with that & the economic policies of said president. If you blamed all of your current financial problems on Reagan, you unironically would be right more often than you're wrong. That was objectively the turning point and we're decades removed from being able to do anything about it.
@@KookoCraft Because the idea we can escape politics is a fantasy sold to us by those who want to rig the game in their favor. Fewer active players = less resistance and balance. Politics in The Metagame of Human Life on Earth, and the sooner we accept that it is all-encompassing, the sooner we can actually do something about the perpetuation of corruption and inequality.
the whole world is in decline. america is not alone. hopefully it doesnt result in a nosedive which it very well might be with our multiple potenitally world ending catastrophies
I will preface what I will say by mentioning that to an unfortunate degree, declining standards are kind of everywhere. There is a global housing crisis which is affecting everybody. Economically speaking, many nations are now feeling the squeeze. The youth of today and tomorrow, objectively, largely will not be able to have or even own what their parents did unless they are behaving intelligently and preciently now or deliberately making moves to get jobs that stand a low chance of being automated into oblivion or erased or permanently barred off forever. Broadly, you are very right about the United States in particular. Of all developed, wealthy nations the US does a uniquely poor job of serving its people in some areas. It's getting worse, it's gonna be worse, and in the meantime the very wealthiest class are doing very well for themselves. The middle class shrinks, the poor languish. American healthcare and education are jokes and have been for my entire life and beforehand. The ladders to higher standards of living become fewer or are in the process of being pulled up. Stocks and companies do well, but people don't. You say that some people defend this state of affairs because it is patriotic. I hold something of a different tack. I think the most patriotic thing to do in a situation like this is to ask "what is to be done"? As JFK once said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." This is not to absolve America of her sins, but the opposite- to acknowledge them. They must be remembered and ferociously examined, and in turn there must also be love. To be patriotic is to think of America, warts and all, and to say, "so, how can we make this a nation in which life, liberty, and happiness are granted gifts and not items of pursuit?" This is a very foolish line of thinking of mine. I am a little older than you. I don't even live in the United States now. But I would be doing my second home country an enormous disservice if I dismissed it for its sins, rather than hoping for a reckoning with them. I think a reckoning with her sins would do America much good, not in the self-hating manner of liberals nor in the censurious ignorance of conservatives, but in an open, thoughtful, and rational manner- one aimed at addressing and redressing them, for the sake of a better United States. But it would take a whole lot to get such a reckoning.
The reason we git here is because nobody wanted to scrutinize the government. Most people just wanted to sit back and let other people make their decisions for them. But that's not how republics work.
The problem is that French really helped us get this country and they’re REALLY GOOD at keeping the government on their toes. The US however, we are too afraid of how powerful the gov has became, and there’s so many different kinds of people here that it’s nearly impossible to get everyone together on anything.
It's hard to grasp why anyone would want to come to America anymore? It's become so unaffordable, dysfunctional & unstable. Our country seems to have zero interest in improving these issues or the lives of its own citizens. Our cities feel disconnected, soulless, bland, unaffordable, etc. I really don't like the direction modern America has gone. We could do so much better. I love this country. I just want to see things improve. The 90's at least had a range of prices & places where people could live, unique things to do & places to go for poor people, middle class, and upper class people. There was places for people of all economic ranges ~Nowadays we have universally unaffordable cost of living, rent prices, shop rent prices.. (unless you are wealthy) I don't understand how long we can continue to function in this extremely dysfunctional manner?? I hope things change. People stuck in poverty need places to live too.. it's ridiculous how our current system pretty much requires everyone to be financially well off or you are screwed 👍🏻 It's so realistic 👍🏻 it's completely impossible for everyone to be financially well off. We need living options. We need places that average people can live, poor people can live.. Raising wages just continually makes things worse because our country says "it Has to increase things" So it does nothing but make things worse. We need places people can live even if they make below average $ (look at all the rent prices right now? The same goes for the rent of local small businesses too. It's absurd. I know cause we have to pay 2 insane rents to per month! It's the biggest challenge to afford rent. Profit isn't even a thing. It's can we make it to next month? How stupid is that? What kind of quality of life is that?) This is Modern Day America 👍🏻 and when you look at our government, it doesn't seem like anything is going to be addressed or improved anytime soon.. Maybe multiple generations from now, idk? All i know is vast change needs to be done. I'm tired of either side of our government. None of it is working. Hopefully motivated people will come in & help adapt this amazing country so it doesn't collapse in on itself. I don't get how our current situation can be acceptable? Seeing how things are now, I'm very grateful I was born in '89. It was a great time to grow up & get to be a kid. The world seemed to have so many creative outlets & forms of expression. Ways for kids, teens and adults could interact with our surroundings. We had an environment that had places to go, things to do, places with unique style & very creative design. I really miss the Vibe of that Era. Looking back with hindsight it really did feel like things treated us like it respected our intelligence, our time & what kind of experience we would have. While providing outlets in society that helped keep our inner kid in us alive no matter what age we were. It felt like things acknowledged us as a customer, a fan, a person. In a hyper capitalistic society, the least they can do is use basic decency to make us feel like they care if we have a good time because without us they cannot succeed. The creativity from that era put lots of effort into ingenuity. It genuinely felt like everything took pride in who could find the most creative and unique ways to do things, design things. For things to go from this 90's-Y2K era, then shift to this bland, soulless, minimalistic approach feels very Dystopian. I really hope we find a way to reconnect with these core things that we clearly saw positive benefits from. The world really needs this right now. Look how soulless so much has become nowadays? Look at the horrible aesthetics, poor quality & poor creative design in our modern cities. Even our shows, movies, & video games need a revolution. Things have become so bland, bleek, and minimalistic to the point that it doesn't even make since. Most Old house's/building's/únique shop's are gone. Interesting oddities like drive in movie theaters, indoor fun zones, arcade's, magazines that included a demo disc so you can try out game's. You could go to blockbuster/Hollywood video, McDonald's had N64's & crazy fun zones & covered in wacky art all over. We could preview music before buying it, they had an amazing selection of well made kid's toy's, Roller Rink's, Garbage pale kid's card's. You get the point. Bring back Retro-Futurism. Bring back Y2K Vibes. ANYTHING compared to this current Dystopian toxic positivity. Our society feels more lost now then it ever has. Basic living has never been so unaffordable. Society is solely focused on unhealthy capitalistic agendas. Where anything that isn't constantly increasing profits or gaining investors, is a failure and has no value to society.. Our Quality of Life should be better than this. Basic living shouldn't be this unaffordable. People should be able to have fun, dork around, have things that engage them. The list goes on. Bring me back to the 90's.
The growth in wages and GDP started diverge in the mid 70s. In 1972 a certain meeting between a certain Redskins Fan and a certain disrespector of sparrows met and effectively changed the world.
Biggest issue is the breakdown of trust in society between individuals and for established institutions. The economic concerns are secondary issues because they can be addressed through policy change. You cannot just rebuild trust overnight. In fact, once trust is gone, it usually does not return.
I think one issue with this is the idea that the majority of people think quality of life is increasing... I'd say pretty much nobody but boomers who already got theirs think this. The issue is that each arbitrarily political side is going to say every single issue down to the smallest complaint is the other side's fault and everything will be better once that side is destroyed and anyone who believes in it is personally ruined. I'll admit my bias and say that I think one side is responsible for the lion's share of the issues, but ultimately they are both just ruling classes who do hate each other but hate the average citizen more and will cooperate to keep the system that benefits them both at our expense. I don't have any idea what the solution here is though because anyone who points this out too loudly is going to get a knock on the door from a glowing individual. The other thing I'd maybe say I don't agree with is the comparison of America to these other countries like they are better - they are just as bad, if not worse but in different areas. Germany is a straight up oppressive dictatorship in everything but name in a system that the Austrian painter wished he had thought of and Japan has a work culture so harsh that it makes America look like we have 20 hour work weeks.
One thing that could help the situation would be if more political parties than just the Republicans and Democrats got traction. Say what you want about factions within parties, but if there were more parties than that could potentially bring people with different perspectives to the table.
Hey Emp, thanks for talking about this. I feel like us frogs are being kept in the dark just long enough to get the water boiling, and no one is even talking about jumping out of the pot.
As it stands in my life right now, I consider my day to day life to be pretty good. I am not wealthy and have A LOT of anxiety directly related to the economy and my finances, because as an American, I innately have the concern of losing everything at the drop of a hat if I have a medical emergency, or some bullsh*t happens that I couldn't see coming. I am lucky to have close relationships with a handful of family members, and have a couple really close friends. I am blessed in many ways...with that said, I absolutely 100% agree that the standard of living is in decline. I ask people sometimes - have you noticed it's so common now, to hear things like "I hate being around people" and "I don't want to go when there's a lot of people there." ? Not that we don't all feel this way at times. But nowadays, it seems to be the norm with people 35 and younger. I think this is indicative of the standard of living going in decline. "Public life" is slowly moving into not even existing anymore, with the deterioration of public school, mistrust and resentment of government institutions, public spaces like malls and gathering areas getting left behind or replaced, and everyone idolizing the idea being "different" from collective humanity. I think making hyper-individuality the core value of American society will ultimately lead it into a massive downfall. The standard of living will take a hard crash, or slowly and painfully dry up. Not to sound so gloomy...I also have hope there is a way to progress after this happens. But catastrophe seems to be what it takes for people to get serious about systemic change. The difference between this and other catastrophes throughout American history is that there really was no excuse for it to happen this time. We could have done better. But most of us don't learn until we've lived it. Never think it can't happen to you, but don't assume you can't survive. If the standard of living really does take a huge dip, and shit hits the fan...it will be a very hard hit. But hopefully it is truly the last time it needs to happen.
There is one thing I genuinely hope. Will things get better in the future for America? I sincerely hope things do get better because I don't want to witness and be a part of my home and society economically and socially speaking.
I think the greatest illusion of our time is that the stock market makes money as a whole. The "It goes up 7-10% every year" meme is just a measurement of inflation. The stock market grand total isn't growing. It's inflating. More money in the pool, higher stock for the same companies.
As someone who's trapped living with a boomer parent who constantly is on repeat that the economy is doing so *GREAT*. Meanwhile, I'm just so grateful that I have a remote job so I don't have a $40 a week gas bill on top of already having to juggle paychecks to pay the bills, including the internet bill that she zones out in front of for 18 hours a day. Only to come too when I drag out of my office/bedroom ater work to then give me grief about how I should just go over to new places and talk to their manager if I want a new position. The world ended in 2012, we've all been in Hell since then, but it wasn't any different from regular life, so we didn't notice.
I would agree broadly with the idea that the arrow of standard of living is going down, but I take issue with the doomerism, the framing it as some big injustice. Yeah, maybe the standard of living in America should go down - Americans have historically led outrageous lifestyles. Per capita, we're eating way more meat, taking up way more land, consuming way more products. We have more cars, bigger yards, bigger TVs, use more electricity. For years we had a leg up on the global stage. Now, other countries are catching up, it's only natural that we're going to pay more. When you enjoy cheap consumer goods, understand that the person who provided the raw materials for it got payed so little. As abject poverty in the world is lessened, those workers in China and Thailand are getting paid more, so you as the American consumer are going to pay more. Other things I take issue with: the data I see says American life expectancy is that a lot of European countries are around 81-83, while America is 78.5. That's 3-5 years, not 10 years, and once you account for American obesity, car crashes, and gun violence, you basically reach parity. I find it's a bad example. It doesn't invalidate the point, but it doesn't support it. I think it's a good idea to share ideas, strategies, and attitudes to adopt when facing the realities of America today. We have to understand that the value of a Bachelor's Degree has shrunk while the price to obtain it has ballooned. We have to acknowledge the drying up of "third places", and the straining of civic participation. We should examine sustainable lifestyle choices. I don't think any of those has to come with doomerism, lamenting the state of America, nor railing against an imagined enemy that put us in this position. People today almost certainly have a lower standard of living than their parents, but it is still within their power to lead happy, healthy lives and there's still time to advocate for change and correct the problems.
You can definitely complain about our awful broken system. But the best advice you can follow is to try and game the broken system to win. Invest in stocks or crypto, take care of your family, get a trade. Build your credit and purchase property (living with your relatives and paying the mortgage with rent is valid). Research all the deductions you can receive on your taxes. And for the love of god stop voting for politicians who take lobbying money from corporations
>And for the love of god stop voting for politicians who take lobbying money from corporations This right here would solve a lot of problems, but there's a reason why it keeps happening, it's basically impossible to win an election without money from corporations.
Investing in stocks isn't going to help you short term, unless you pick something which gets you lucky. Otherwise you're burning income for pennies in dividends which the average person barely afford.
This does shine a light on the issue of attempts at objective assessment of quality of life. Specifically regarding stocks (and by extension, speculation’s effect on GDP) we see the problem of an evaluation metric being valued over that which it attempts to capture. Certainly in its earlier usages, before it was cared about by anyone but stats nerds, it acted as a decent metric to analyze part of what it attempted to capture, that being prosperity. Over time, understanding of the metric and its correlation with prosperity widens, but with broadening of its perceived value comes the understanding amongst the political class that it can be inflated easier than actual flourishing, while retaining its perception as predictive of prosperity. Recent years have pushed this relationship near a breaking point, but the question remains, “what comes next?” Frankly, I don’t expect the correct decision (that being, the assessment that flourishing is not directly and objectively measurable and that any metrics used to describe it will be manipulated as described above) to be the resolution of our current woes. There’s just too much to gain from gaming perception like that. Furthermore, it still feels too early. If the Commander in Chief got up on the podium tomorrow and said “you know man, GDP ain’t that important” everyone would perceive this as a signal of accelerating decline rather than a critique of a flawed and well exploited system.
My wife and I are likely going to buy a nice RV to live out of in order to save and get ahead financially. We make a combined $70k/year and we can't get anywhere because of how insane rent and other expenses are. We live well within our means and are one bad injury or car problem away from being underwater. We've got to be able to save and start getting somewhere.
People think standards of living are increasing because they have a stable job, a car, a nice apartment, and because they can afford food. The reality is that job pay can't increase fast enough when rent is raised each year and food/gas costs more each year. If you can't keep up you own nothing so that's what you'll be left with. The single greatest issue we have is inflation from excessive printing. Modern monetary policy has failed us. The only thing that can save us is the removal of social programs, unnecessary spending in foreign countries, and ideally the return to a gold standard.
I'm from a shithole country, so I don't know the exact American experience, but I do agree with some points you say, though I don't think it's a matter of standard of living at all. For example, you say people should be able to go to college and pay for that with not too much trouble when, as a rule of thumb, college is financial suicide. College is objectively bad, and any credential perk you could get from one can be taken from cheaper means, even if a community college or something. (Also, I'm from a country where college is "free", but in practice most people pay for it with a soul crushing experience which mostly teach them how to learn to hate things they used to like and not exactly *learn* new things, but pass tests. Oh, and taxes too. In my personal experience it was way better to pay for a "bad" college and actually work on my stuff in my free time instead of putting work into useless college tests about things that I would forget weeks after them.) If I were to nitpick on what you say, analyzing data like you are doing isn't exactly fair because production is cheaper, however I mostly agree with your point about standard of living. The dollar is shit, inflation is high and probably going to go even higher (thank the Fed by the way), however... it also has never been easier to protect yourself from inflation with crypto. Finances are much easier nowadays - you can buy Bitcoin, Monero or gold tokens, or if you're more open to different project concepts Ethereum or Polkadot or whatever. Also, stocks aren't really that good at measuring anything in individual levels and any economist knows that. If you take suggestions, Emp, I'd suggest you to read Bryan Caplan. The second and third chapters of Caplan's The Myth of the Rational Voter (yeah, he's not a big fan democracy) kind of show many *systematic* biases that people can have, one of them called the pessimistic bias - it's psychologically proven that people pay more attention and "feel" more things that go badly than things that go well. But I'm with you in most of the complaints. I just think the problem is mostly existential. People have never been as materialistic, politicized and overall lost. That kind of is the disease of the zoomer generation, and it's much harder to fix. I've been through some tough stuff in 2022, I didn't have a job, I was sharing an apartment with a friend who was doing much better than me and wanted to move on, I couldn't go back home because I was gonna Arthur Fleck my mother if I did, and one thing I noticed back then is that in that situation, I appreciated much more when small things worked and realized what a miracle it is for anything to work at all. It took me over a year to get back on my feet again, and things are slowly getting better. The normal state is for things to *not work* and it takes a tremendous effort for them to work, and that's what I learned. Being cynical doesn't solve things, and maybe you can say that what I'm proposing doesn't either, but at least I never treated myself as a victim of anything other than circumstance.
I absolutely would not say crypto is the solution, and especially not the popular ones like Bitcoin or eth. Monero _maybe_, but even as it stands the price fluctuates too much for me to put anything into it, and I've been looking into crypto for quite some time. I don't think the average person would want to do that.
We are in a new age of history, with a new age of problems. The first to realize we need RADICAL change, will be the first to rule. Honestly i think your average american is VERY aware that theyre being taken advantage of. The big argument, and the culture war we live in, is a result of everyone KNOWING shit is very bad, but disagreeing heavily on what to do about it. Its a textbook era of crisis as the old world struggles to adapt to the new, and i truely believe we as young people will live to see history unlike anything else we've ever seen before. Genuinely one of my biggest reasons to not unalive is getting to see what happens lol
I'm aware the bridge is nearly destroyed, but I have no clue what I'm supposed to do about it. After graduating college with a CS degree in the absolute worst time to get one, I got fired from my job due to butting heads with my boss and it took me over 200 applications to get a new job -- and it's not even tech. I'm barley getting by making half of what I did 6 months ago and outside of spam applying for jobs again, which everyone in my field is already doing, I have no clue what I need to do to stay afloat for the oncoming future. I know things are shit but everyone wants to gaslight me (us) that it's fine and it'll fix itself. Most young people go through some sort of crisis, but holy fuck we're all struggling.
If you want someone to blame for the US economy failing, blame the government, but also the philosophy of Keynesian economics that in good times justifies mass immigration and in bad times calls for Printing Money ™ to "alleviate" the economy. Don't be fooled, economies recover from depressions without governmental stimulation just fine, it's only when the government inflates an economic bubble that shit gets bad. What's worse is that people will point to these bubbles and say "durrr hurrr capitalism doesn't work" thinking it's natural for an economy to totally implode out of nowhere. In terms of our current economic situation? My advice would be buy a gun, and try to ride out the coming collapse of our current world order as peacefully as possible. There's no way out other than an economic collapse. This is the shit pie we have made for ourselves as Americans, and the rest of the world.
I feel like everything you said was right. I also feel like for America to remain THE world super power it has to be this way. I genuinely think the people at the top think they're doing the right thing because they're disconnected from the average persons life and because they see this as the path forward for American hegemony, which is probably true.
I think there's some confusion. First of all, the Americans didn't have a better level of performance because everything was going well at home, but also because everyone else had fallen by the wayside. In the 1950s, the United States was invincible because the developed world (Europe + the Far East) had been destroyed. Even the victors of the war had serious problems: the British Empire was dissolving, the USSR had suffered heavy damage and loss of life, France was in the midst of a decolonization war and China was in the throes of civil war. Eventually, they were overtaken by Japan and (West) Germany, too, because they allowed them to provide real prosperity to break any communist momentum in the Western bloc. This decline in American exceptionalism was inevitable as the rest of the world rebuilt itself. The 1990s saw a resurgence of this American invincibility, thanks once again to a collapse around the United States: Japan experienced a crisis (from which it still hasn't recovered, by the way), Germany had to deal with reunification and the USSR had collapsed. So for the United States to recover its exceptionalism, it's not just their fault. Sometimes you win because your opponent played badly. Then you talk about living standards and the economy, but I think they're 2 different things: Milton Friedman said in the late 1990s (when economically everything was going well for the United States) that the problem wasn't the economy but crime, for example. In his day, in New York City, nobody was afraid of their children playing in parks, but today it's unthinkable. All the drug gangs in Detroit have an economic activity, sometimes very lucrative, yet it's an activity that either kills you at 20 with a bullet to the head, or kills you at 30 with an overdose. You can be poor, have a very healthy lifestyle and live to be a hundred, you can be a millionaire and die of morbid obesity at 50. Economically, the United States isn't perfect, but it's still powerful. On the other hand, health-wise, there's the exorbitant cost of certain drugs, as you rightly point out, as well as eating habits (sodas, for example) that are fundamentally more a question of habit than money. From my point of view as a foreigner, for me the United States is far from perfect and there are reasons to be critical, but at the same time it's a country that still has significant resources. So I can't wait to see the rest of your videos on the subject, this contrast between how you personally live it as an American and how I imagine the United States since are really invaluable.
Crime is directly proportional to poverty, it's a symptom that's part of a larger societal illness, not the cause of it. Also sure, on an anecdotal level someone who is wealthy can make poor choices and die of avoidable chronic illness and a poor person can live to see old age, but statistics show that this is not what is happening on a macro level. You are describing outliers, not norms. On average, those living in poverty-stricken areas of cities and states have lower access to housing, healthy food, transportation, education, and economic outlets than those who are wealthy, which is what leads to the imbalance in life expectancy, chronic illness, depression, and crime between the rich and the poor.
Pssssh standard of living is declining everywhere when you peel it back enough. America is not without unique issues, but we need to be aware of the material costs to current world beliefs and structures.
I move houses at the moment. The only people paying for my services are the rich and old. They move out of already nice and expensive houses into nicer houses away from the general populus (moving into secluded gated communities or into the middle of nowhere).
I wonder what kind of weird and wacky event that happened at the turn of the new millennia. I wonder how this affected the center of global trade for the United States. Surely this didn't have negative effects on the economy.
It always bothered me when I took economics in university how we would be told how good things are because GDP is going up. I looked for alternative measures and was very disappointed. Even other measures like HDI are insufficient at capturing the societal malaise we are experiencing in the west
lot of fun stuff to unpack here. 4:02- "The arrow has not been pointed up for 50 years... The American economy has not been in great shape since the 70s" So, the US was at its peak in the 70s? The period of time where unemployment was higher than any point in our history since the Great Depression? The period of time where, until the 90s, violent crime in our nation was at its absolute peak? Violent crime in this nation has been on a downward trajectory since the 90s, with a few small exceptional periods such as the the few years following the onset of COVID. I don't even need to get into the 70s oil crisis and the fact that all vehicles back then were airbag-less gas-guzzling death traps. The air in major cities was literally carcinogenic. There hasn't been a single selective service draft since Vietnam. Moving-on... 7:48 - (comparing US to economies like Japan, Sweden, Germany) Apples to oranges comparisons all-around. All three of the nations you listed are wholly-dependent on defense blankets provided by other, larger organizations/nations like NATO, and the US military. Sweden and neighbors are trying to enter NATO as I type this as a response to Russian aggression. None of the three nations you listed possess sovereign control of nuclear weapons. One of the nations (Germany) doesn't even have a sovereign currency. The perceived "greatness" of these countries is wholly dependent on the defense burden placed on the US. I would love to see what Japan's mortality rate would look like if the US didn't have military bases stationed there as a deterrence against DPRK and CCP aggression. Concerning the rest of the video... I agree with all of your points concerning the charade of the economy in the context of corporatism and the stock market. As an early-30-something, I haven't deluded myself into believing that our country is "getting better" or "on an upward trajectory" by all metrics. By the same token, it would be incredibly silly to assume that our standard of living, on a planet with finite resources and finite sunlight, can infinitely rise. It is also incredibly silly to ignore the impacts of globalization and the fact that median worldwide income is $3000/year. In this global race to the bottom, Americans as a whole, including the ones who live in tents under freeway overpasses, live like kings compared with the rest of the world. The downward spiral you elaborate on in this video is a rounding error compared to the horrors that await given the completely unsustainable mode that humanity has operated in for the past 150 years.
I make a decent wage as an electrician and still live in an RV. Not a nice new one. A 96 Winnebago lol. Every dollar I save is for getting into somewhere with a good shower 😂 so no worries the standard of living here is on the worst downward spiral 🌀 since I’ve ever seen (born in 92) it’s bad man. And it’s going to be the most laborious job ever fixing it all. If enough people give enough of a crap that is.
I would generally agree with the statement that the standard of living is decreasing in America for the average person. But we are far from worse off than other countries. I find it particularly amusing when many people who have lived in America their entire lives preposterously, clam that America is some sort of third world country "disguised" as a first world country. We live in an extremely safe country where wars are all in some far away land, and because of this we cant even comprehend the concept of being worried about some bomb flying into your apartment building. As someone who has been extensively on free health insurance provided by the state I live in (Missouri) , even with the crappy free insurance, have always received high quality health care with low wait times at reasonable deductibles. The price of college is absolutely out of control though and my purchasing power is in the trash. My college just hiked tuition by 30% and tuition for this school is only increasing so they're just going to keep going. I know I will be able to pay off the loans because I'm pursuing a high earning degree and am working hard, but I would never attend college if I could have avoided it. But its impossible to be an electrical engineer without a bachelors. America has a lot of problems, and I agree with the "arrow being pointed downwards" but this is the best country in the world and Im extremely privileged to be born into it. Also, most people actually don't think the quality of life is increasing. Atleast most young people. Perhaps people who are in their 50s or 60s now do, but that's because they got to suckle off the nipple when resources were a lot more plentiful. Big business in this country has swallowed up the wealth from young people and is holding on as tight as possible. I don't have the statistics off of my head but I bet there were a lot less billionaires pre 1990 when you could pay for college on a grocery bagger's salary
Yet rich news anchors supporting the party in power say our economy is better than ever. Meanwhile in many parts of the country homes are more expensive than ever. Gas is more expensive, groceries are expensive, and we have more bills and subscription services than ever. Taking second and third side hustles just to get a leg up. Meanwhile our school education is rapidly declining, ranking lower globally every year. Illiteracy is increasing, memory retention declining, math, science, history and geography knowledge. We are pumping out low-functioning adults. And people are still not taught finances in schools. As corporate monopolies are bigger than ever. With government corruption overflowing. The people are drowning.
I’m literally shitting bricks even imagining the hell that’s gonna be entering this job market. But of course my conservative parents are continuously hitting me with the “Oh everything’s fine, you kids just don’t work hard enough.” As though both of my older siblings who are in their early-mid twenties aren’t busting their asses in career level jobs still needing several roommates just to sustain their rental housing. I just don’t think older people who have had a secure job and wage for a decade+ actually understand how down the shitter everything’s gotten, and it certainly doesn’t help that their oh so trustworthy traditional media is only feeding into this warped perception of reality. Like we’re all seriously fucked out here and half the population just refuses to acknowledge the demonstrable reality staring them in the face.
The top class is becoming smaller while middle class falls slowly into lower class. If the economy doesn't improve then we will inevitably have a massive lower class. The first thing we should do is stop printing money. Second is continue to shred old money. Third is reduce taxes and layoff bloat. Fourth is put veterans first. First in education, first in benefits and first in jobs. Fifth is abolish the teachers union. Sixth is bring morals back. Pick your religion as long as it doesn't discriminate and doesn't abuse others.
