Consumers are so demoralized by inflation and high rates they've given up on saving for the American Dream and are spending money instead, economist says

This is exactly what mega-corporations want. If we save money, they don't get it.

I'm saving up for the American Dream 2.0™️: Moving to another country

“Consumers demoralized by capitalism…” …paywall…

Every time I read the phrase 'the American Dream' I think of the part of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas when, after spending the whole novel trying to find the American Dream, they're given directions, only to find the remains of a burnt-down nightclub, "a huge slab of cracked, scorched concrete in a vacant lot full of tall weeds."

If the American Dream were realistic, we wouldn't be calling it a dream...

"Everything is very expensive, and people can't save money"

FTFY

This is true, I asked a new-ish employee about getting/saving for a house and she was like, "why bother? They cost to much."

The headline reads like big retail trying to squeeze more profits. Of course people aren't saving as much, they have to buy groceries.

I love how Fortune always deflects from the actual issue: wages aren't matching prices, which means the average American is getting screwed by company owners and wealthy investors, at work, at the bank, at university.

It's not about interest rates or inflation, although those are both relevant. If inflation were evenly balanced, it wouldn't hurt most people, right? That is definitional. And high interest rates block house purchases, but in theory they also benefit house owners who have fixed interest rates. So again, if people were able to afford houses in the yhr past few decades, this wouldn't be such a big issue.

Oh. Oh shit it hurts that reading this made me self-aware of this behavior. It’s one thing to be in this mindset and not be aware of it and it’s another to have it written out in front of you. 🤢

Economists: “WONTFIX: Working as designed.”

Lots of news articles this week using a lot of words to say "Americans don't have savings"

🙋‍♂️ That'd be me. Keep moving the goalposts society. I'm over it. I'll wait for my mom to die to get her house. Idgaf anymore. Don't need a house.

Well, you gotta be asleep to believe the American Dream, so maybe this means a lot of people are waking up.

By brother in Satan, high inflation makes you spend money now. It's either that or going to hell.

Im saying that this bs is out of some relative comparison of how much generations are saving/investing. Everyone tried saving. But with low relative wages ofc ppl wont save as much as eg boomers - they didn't give up vacations or buying whatevers, but still saved money. Younger gens are just left with no money after that.

And also falling relative wages (inflation) makes you buy things asap to actually save money.

This is literally a tool tip in the fascist parody helldivers 2.

Organize a mass, simultaneous bankruptcy filing nationwide. Overwhelm the system with claims, and all debt collection ceases the moment you file for bankruptcy while the claims are being processed.

I've gone the other way with this. I've significantly cut my spending down in the last couple years. No more eating out, no vacations, grow my own food, don't eat meat, no ac and minimal heating to only to keep pipes from freezing. Even with all that and more I'm spending as much as I did a few years ago but a much more restricted lifestyle. Be cool if my pay rate kept up with this inflation but my union agreed to a shit contract just before all this started.

Paywall removed https://archive.is/IyuC2

We have been very lucky and fortunate to acquire the American dream. My wife and I wouldn't have been able to do it without the help of her family though. Every time I look at the housing market it's only gotten crazier.

truth, I feel pressure to buy the things I want because I have no faith I will be able to afford them later. I figure, get it now while I can so that when I can't, I'll have it.

It'd really be great if journalists even attempted "educating" readers or providing meaningful context. But then again, would it get this kind of traction?

The interesting story here is that interest rates are raised to SLOW spending and encourage saving. The interest rates spiked to CURB inflation. It has worked, despite most journalists seeming keenness for it not to, for the most part. If consumers and businesses reduce their spending due to higher costs of borrowing, this will bring down prices over time, aligning with the Fed's inflation targets.

No one explains this to the average person, ever. Ironically, the story here should be consumers are spending money even when saving it should be incentivized because they can't afford not to... because of profiteering by large companies, grocery chains, etc as well as stagnate wages for the past few decades. This means that inflation will creep up faster than it should because of demand-driven inflation. This makes the problem worse for low-income earners.

It seems to me that THAT type of inflation might require less of an "interest rate adjustment fix", and more of a wage adjustment fix. Even potentially a regulatory fix to go after price gougers.

Yup.

Yay GDP!

And that's while already having a trillion in credit card debt.

Bootstraps are too expensive to buy because your daddy thinks his broken ass house should be worth a cool mil.

We're in late stage capitalism. Getting rid of the gold standard was one of the biggest mistakes in US history.

So is that what's keeping the economy afloat?

The American Dream

Yes, that’s me.

Pretty fun stuff I mean I wonder where it is going. Will there be some kind of collapse crisis or smh

douchebags gonna douche

This is what happens when history is forgotten. Obviously we've had inflation B4. Don't read all the negative sh*t out there. And don't let other people with their agenda run your life.

Isn’t that good for the economy?