Is it great? No, but I’m above water and not having to cut back. Couldn’t afford kids though
My 401k is up, especially compared to the Trump crash in March but in general as well. Not enough to retire though. I still have a job but it’s looking precarious: lots of layoffs
Just got back from moving the second kid into his dorm room. College expenses for two kids are mighty frightening
I am.
To answer your question, though: no. Some people are doing GREAT. It may not be a majority of people, but anyone who was rich in 2015 is now super rich. The super rich are now obscenely rich. Even a majority of the moderately well-off - e.g. people who own their houses outright or people with >3 times their annual income in investments - are doing pretty damn well. That is part of the reason that Trump, no matter how vile or incompetent, never dips below 30% approval. People will overlook all kinds of evil when their bottom line is improving.
Not really. I’m my industry I’m making just as much as I have the last several years. Some parts of my business have slowed down, others have increased.
My situation isn’t great, but it’s not new enough to really be “right now”.
Some people are doing just fine, but they’re not going to post as much. If you want a representative sample, you need a poll instead.
Suicide is on the menu.
Don’t give up yet. We need you for the revolution.
I’m unemployed for a entire year , it sucks and I’m sick of being unemployed
Yeah that’s mighty frightening. Last time I was in that situation, I had no dependencies and it was bad enough. Now I have a mortgage, 2 kids in college, and am wondering if ageism would let me get another job of if I had to
Not at the moment no, I was unemployed for around 9mo last year after layoffs but I finally found a job and am doing pretty well for myself.
I’m trying to pay off debt from my mom at the moment but decided to splurge on myself for a few months first now that I’m employed again.
Shit was damn good, but now, I’m a frog boiling in water; it’s no longer easy, and I’m house poor, but I do still own a house and two cars that are getting old enough to vote.
Job got bought up by another company, they’re horrible, but the market is so bad I can’t find a good place to advance. No cost of living increases in 6 years, regular bonuses went to zero, and people who work hard are threatened with being fired every day.
Not yet, once the local Meta datacenter fucks electricity even harder in Alberta we’ll see. Smith says lock in a fixed rate early, fuck you so I’m expecting it to be bad for a few years until their gigawatt natural gas power plant comes online to indoctrinate the plebs until the end of humans. Theist leaders seethe they’ve been outclassed. I digress.
I’m fortunate enough to be doing okay thanks for asking
Not everyone but a strong majority are. When roughly 2/3 of the citizens are paycheck to paycheck or one bad event away from insolvency, it becomes easy to find them amongst everyone.
The fediverse undoubedtly skews to the educated middle class; most of us are squeezed but not dry.
Two good jobs and digging out from each of us being single parents before we got together but no, we are ok. Can’t retire or anything like that but not one bad month from homeless anymore.
I was even in a position to help a friend with a (no interest) loan when she had a very bad month, it was tight for us but not impossible, and my husband did not get mad or worried at all that I did that, so I would say we are well off?
The overall economy is made up of a lot of data points - we are a little bit worse off than we were in terms of cash flow, but wealthier because we bought a house before (well at the start of) the bubble.
I’m not struggling personally. Most of my close peers are doing okay, but we’re much closer to the end of our working careers than the beginning. We’re established and at least had the chance to make our large purchases earlier in our lives (education, housing, cars, etc) when things were cheaper and a dollar went farther.
If we had to do the same with today’s financial environment we’d be in worse shape. Some of my peers didn’t make some of those big purchases back then and are staring down tougher choices.
For most of the those of working age today, I don’t see a workable path long term if this keeps up. Costs continue to spiral upward for the basic needs (food, housing, etc), and the job market is such a polluted game of cat and mouse jobs are incredibly hard to get (and keep for that matter).
