Exclusive Harris poll for the Guardian shows 55% believe economy is shrinking, in troubling sign for president’s re-election bid

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15676201

Nearly three in five Americans wrongly believe the US is in an economic recession, and the majority blame the Biden administration, according to a Harris poll conducted exclusively for the Guardian. The survey found persistent pessimism about the economy as election day draws closer.

The poll highlighted many misconceptions people have about the economy, including:

  • 55% believe the economy is shrinking, and 56% think the US is experiencing a recession, though the broadest measure of the economy, gross domestic product (GDP), has been growing.

  • 49% believe the S&P 500 stock market index is down for the year, though the index went up about 24% in 2023 and is up more than 12% this year.

  • 49% believe that unemployment is at a 50-year high, though the unemployment rate has been under 4%, a near 50-year low.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    307·
    6 months ago

    It’s not the people that are out of touch…

    It’s economists and politicians being out of touch.

    Here’s my explanation from yesterday, I’m not sure why OP “cross posted” something to the same sub it was on yesterday:

    The issue is voters talk about how regular people are doing, while politicians talk about “the economy” which is rich people and business…

    For them, shits going great. Because their record profits are coming from regular Americans being priced gouged.

    Also, I stopped reading when the article clearly couldn’t understand inflation compliants.

    The poll underscored people’s complicated emotions around inflation. The vast majority of respondents, 72%, indicated they think inflation is increasing. In reality, the rate of inflation has fallen sharply from its post-Covid peak of 9.1% and has been fluctuating between 3% and 4% a year.

    In April, the inflation rate went down from 3.5% to 3.4% – far from inflation’s 40-year peak of 9.1% in June 2022 – triggering a stock market rally that pushed the Dow Jones index to a record high.

    The inflation rate is slowly going down. But it’s a rate, prices are still up and continuing to go up. That 9.1% from 2022 is still baked into the 3% increase we’re experiencing.

    Like. Say it was 100, 9% increase makes it 109. 3% of 109 is more than 3% of 100…

    It’s compounded, but it’s not complicated and anyone writing about economics should understand that and explain it to their readers when talking about inflation rates.

    So the inflation rate should go down but it’s not like that means lower prices, it just means 1% increase now is more than a 1% increase in the past.

    And that’s not even getting into the harsh truth about inflation and capitalism:

    A lack of inflation means people save money. That takes money out of circulation. A lot of our problems are because the wealthy do that with huge sums.

    If enough money gets taken out of circulation then it leads to a recession as there’s less money floating around and changing hands.

    We need inflation to prop up this bullshit economic system the wealthy are obsessed with.

    • spriteblood@kbin.social
      112·
      6 months ago

      The issue is voters talk about how regular people are doing, while politicians talk about “the economy” which is rich people and business…

      This, 100%.

      Ask some person on the street how their stock portfolio is looking, and they’ll probably be like “The F are you talking about???”

      Ask the same person about the cost of groceries, and they’ll have a rant locked and loaded about why a 12 pack of soda costs $10 now.

      When people respond to these surveys, they are taking their experiences with them, and most of us are seeing expensive gas, expensive groceries, expensive housing, and jobs that don’t pay enough to live. People couldn’t afford to live on $8 an hour a decade ago, and now everything costs more.

      This has downstream effects in that it makes it harder to switch jobs because you cant wait two weeks for your new job to kick in - much less afford to take off work to go to an interview. You can’t move to a city with more opportunities because cities are more expensive and you can’t even afford to save up enough to make the move because you’re paycheck to paycheck. Jobs paying “market rate” for wages which is dragged down because the system keeps people desperate enough to work for cheap.

      These are people who have had to live with the boot of the economy on their necks for a long time. And while politicians can talk about all the great jobs out there and how amazing the economy is, for real people that boot is just stepping down harder. It’s no wonder they blame leadership when this is their experience with this economy.