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Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

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Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#861

Post by hmmm-i-wonder »

anon291 wrote: post #185
hmmm-i-wonder wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This, combined with America's relative freedom from prejudice, is an unstoppable juggernaut. It is absolutely insane how easy it is in the United States to be handed money with limited liability to go and do whatever you want with it. This is a true blessing, and we see it not just in venture capital, but in the plethora of small businesses, as well as the plethora of credit (for better or worse). I was with you unt…

As the child of non-white immigrants to this country... I simply disagree. We faced more discrimination in the country my parents left than we did here. My father was unable to be employed due to his skin color and social status in his native country, and became successful mid-level exec here in America, was given a mortgage, etc. Capital is available for people here without reference to social standing. Is it perfec…

I was actually talking about class differences not race.

>Capital is available for people here without reference to social standing.

Social standing relative to color of skin sure, but not economic class.

You are coming from a place of economic privilege and are ignoring how many suffer to access things like capital, housing, healthcare and other needs based on their economic starting point.

The American view you can raise yourself from lower to middle class with hard work and effort is less true today than ever.

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#863

Post by matthewdgreen »

_1tem wrote: post #588

If you go to the doctor with a problem and get a blood test and they say that everything looks fine, but you don’t feel fine, then you don’t say: “well the numbers are right, I should feel fine”. Rather you try to find what the numbers aren’t capturing, because you know something is wrong. Same with the economy. The perception of the economy being bad is really pervasive as demonstrated by the last election, and perc…

I'm not saying the economy is good. But according to polling, many folks who said the economy was "poor" before the November election now believe it's doing great. All in a very partisan fashion, of course: https://jabberwocking.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/blog_mi...

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#864

Post by Hilift »

rich_sasha wrote: post #48

One thing this article doesn't touch on is the soaring government debt, which is now really quite big: 120%, and IIRC if you add municipal debt, it's more like 140%. That is high. It also seems like much of the recent growth has been fueled by this debt. It's unclear how this is going to unwind. America can afford, apparently, to run their deficit hot, but not forever and without limit. So at some point they have to…

The US administration of the next four years has no intention of making a principal payment on the debt. They borrowed $7 trillion before, they can do it again. If a country dumps their US treasury bonds, the administration will impose tariffs on them.

I think it's interesting to compare other countries. 120 years ago the UK was the most powerful empire in history. Now 36% of UK children live in poverty, and 43% of single parent families and families with three or more children live in poverty. Over 40% of UK families from Asia/Caribbean live in deep, persistent poverty.

Many in the US are really close to that, and describe it as a "poor economy". They may have an iPhone, but they can't afford it.

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#865

Post by jayd16 »

hunglee2 wrote: post #590

GDP is a measure of the marketisation of society. If I go visit my grandma over the weekend, my activities do not register on GDP. If I hire a care assistant for $800 per day to do so, that's $800 to national GDP. The encroachment of the market into society correlates with record levels of mental and physical health crisis. US life expectancy has declined over the past three years, even as 'the economy' has surged ah…

> If I go visit my grandma over the weekend, my activities do not register on GDP.

How do you mean? There are travel expenses and you were also doing that instead of consuming. Saving shows up in the numbers so I'm really not following what you mean here.

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#866

Post by throwaway2037 »

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #603
_1tem wrote: post #588

If you go to the doctor with a problem and get a blood test and they say that everything looks fine, but you don’t feel fine, then you don’t say: “well the numbers are right, I should feel fine”. Rather you try to find what the numbers aren’t capturing, because you know something is wrong. Same with the economy. The perception of the economy being bad is really pervasive as demonstrated by the last election, and perc…

My understanding is: * Perception of the economy depends tremendously on whether the president is of your preferred party. Whenever the presidency changes hands, you see a massive and rapid flip in which party supporters are satisfied with the state of the economy. * If you ask Americans about how they are doing personally, as opposed to how they believe the economy is doing, their response is much rosier. See also:…

I never saw the term vibecession before. Wiki has a separate page for it!

I wonder if this trend also appears in other highly advanced economies. Example: When UK switched from conservative to labour, was there a similar sentiment swing? My guess: Yes.

Netherlands also moved much more right in the last election after PM Mark Rutte stepped down after 8 years. However, broadly, the NL economy is doing much better than UK economy. Maybe the vibecession effect is stronger when the economy is weak? Could be.

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#867

Post by trts »

agp2572 wrote: post #815
slifin wrote: post #803

The US dollar is the world's reserve currency So countries keep huge stores of dollars in their reserves because they need it for trade Then what happens is the US starts the money printer to pay for US government services This inflates the dollar and means that everyone who holds the dollar has lost value Including Americans who are paid for their labour with dollars and do not own assets So wealthy Americans/compan…

I would argue the opposite. If you compare US dollar to every other currency the value of their currency has decreased a lot compares to US dollar. This would be a plus to hold US dollar as their own currency has depreciated and holding more dollars has helped them reduce their losses. But it has one down side is that if you hold too much US dollar the country exposes itself to US monetary policy.

not sure there is a country on earth that you could save your money in the national currency and not watch inflation rip away the value of your earnings. The purchasing power of USD has declined 95% over the past century.

Prettiest horse in the glue factory

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#868

Post by throwaway2037 »

yccs27 wrote: post #660
vasco wrote: post #646

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> perception of the economy being bad is really pervasive as demonstrated by the last election How does the election tell you anything about the economy? Are you injecting a bunch of your reasons why you think people voted for X or Y or is there a factual argument behind that sentence?

There was a poll asking "what was your motivation to vote the way you did", and "the state of the economy" ranked pretty high among Trump voters (don't remember where I saw it though, sorry).

As a general rule, it is very hard to win a popular vote (again) when the economy is weak for middle class and below. By definition, this would mean that more than 50% of people are not benefitting enough from current economic growth.

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#870

Post by diatone »

_1tem wrote: post #588

If you go to the doctor with a problem and get a blood test and they say that everything looks fine, but you don’t feel fine, then you don’t say: “well the numbers are right, I should feel fine”. Rather you try to find what the numbers aren’t capturing, because you know something is wrong. Same with the economy. The perception of the economy being bad is really pervasive as demonstrated by the last election, and perc…

Not exactly a watertight metaphor as https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypochondriasis and anxiety exist, but I certainly agree that it’s possible to lie or mislead with statistics.
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