Goldman Sachs identified a potential culprit for sour consumer sentiment readings: A decline in happiness.
The consumer sentiment index tracked by the University of Michigan hit record lows this year. The index fell 13% year over year in September, due to a drop of almost 8% from August alone.
Economists have widely questioned why sentiment has remained depressed since the Covid pandemic, even as the economy hummed along on paper. Goldman economist Joseph Briggs told clients this week that the downward pressure may stem from broader pessimism in society.
“Low reported economic sentiment likely reflects a more fundamental, downbeat assessment of the state of the world rather than the economy,” Briggs wrote to clients.
Its not the escalating COLA? It definitely isn’t the coming disel crunch. It’s just a sour mood?
You know what helps me when I am in a bad mood? Comfort food. Maybe this Goldman guy should advise that the government let the people eat cake. That sort of advice has always had a good outcome.
Solid economy? WTF are they smoking? Shit has never been more expensive.
Shit has never been more expensive.
That’s what makes it a solid economy: the Epstein class makes record profits because the costs are so damned high. They can afford to eat the increased expense because their paycheck is enormous at the expenseof the wage workers’ stagnant wages of over 20 years.
Sure, the workers’ quality of life goes down. But, if/when the workers die off, they’ll be able to afford to gobble up more of the Earth. Heck, climate change is a problem that needs to be solved with less CO² being dumped into the airCan’t image a better way of doing that than culling the proletariat. If anything, they’re too poor to afford healthcare.
There’s also the fact that a large part of that class is Silicon Valley, and an alarming chunk of them are mildly to all-in on the “AI will eventually birth God” train. Why wouldn’t they be? It’s an emotionally stunted tech-kiddy’s fantasy - you’re going to save Earth and all you have to do is play on the computer and hang out with your rich friends every so often.
it’s wild isn’t it? these fucks watch the stock markets climb and can’t be bothered to look at the HUGE, STRUCTURAL PROBLEMS and flashing warning lights as the debt spikes…
I don’t understand why people think the stock market is the golden child for wether an economy is doing well.
You know how the stock market does well? By companies making money. Do you know how companies make money?
By ripping off the common man and jacking prices up until you can just barely afford stuff.
By suppressing your wages and screwing you over every way they can to save a dime.
By breaking the laws and polluting the environment so you get sick and feel unhealthy and then your tax dollars need to go towards cleaning up after their mess.
That’s what a “good economy” is according to these people.
Good. Withhold on buying new applicances, or any non-essential purchases. Don’t buy cars. Don’t eat out. Buy and prepare foods and refrain from sweets, bagged and boxed goods. When you can walk, use a bike or just stay home if you don’t need to go to work or run essential errands. Don’t take trips abroad or fly. Refrain from all social media use that pushes ad traffic when possible.
Tips: A lot of ethnic stores, like Indian markets, sell big bags of things like legumes, rice and various flours that are dirt cheap. Hell, eat vegan. Fuck livestock farmers. You’ll do good for the animals and the planet.
Focus on the things that really matter in life - each other. Make friends spend time with family. Break free from the need for consumeristic, material bullshit. I’m seriously contemplating giving up my mobile device and reverting back to a flip phone. Join clubs, study things, acquire new skills. Enrich your like instead of doping yourself up on technology. If you use technology, use it to learn things, not just a 24/7 stream of shit news. Go to bed on time and get some sleep.
Even if you can’t directly participate due to being imprisoned by a capitalistic grind (which we could actually break free from at any time, it just takes all of us at once to not comply, eg not working , paying bills, squatting in our living spaces), donate money to action networks like the DSA.
Let all of this BS collapse in on itself. Deliberately crash the economy. Twist the arm of the capital class. The only way they’ll surrender is if you run the value of their stolen assets into the dirt. It’s either that or violent overthrow.
Look at this way. We’re all going to be living in a third world anyway, where they’d prefer we die. Do it before they extract any more wealth from us and complete their mission. They’re counting on us to comply.
How do I boost a comment on lemmy
The economy is solid, because the people only get paid 40% of their productivity. The rest goes to the rich, and they are “the economy”.
Never forget to mentally replace “the economy” with “rich people’s yacht money” if you want to make sense of these kinds of articles
Oh I think it’s way way lower than 40%.
Guys, I don’t even know what to say anymore. So much of this shit isn’t worthy of being dignified as based in reality.
I’m really, really, super fucking really tired of just reading and arguing. I’m tired of years of regression being sold to us as progress that we’re just too simple to understand the realities of.
I want class solidarity with my fellow humans who feel the same way. I want to take actions that will actually change things or at least stand a chance or even just get people talking more.
Lemmy is fantastic, it’s doing what it set out to achieve, I would say. But I want to start thinking about something more, and I nor any of us can do that alone.
Perhaps a group chat? Signal or SimpleX?
One person is enough for me to start it.
Class solidarity. Power to the people. Representative government. Social safety nets. Corporate reform.
Are you in a socialist party? Getting organized is the number one task to build such a movement. With a worker party, we can educate ourselves, creating disciplined and effective organizers that can help convey these ideas to others in the working class, struggle alongside them for unionizing and tenant struggles, and get more people organized.
I am consistently in favour of socialist policies, so I think calling myself a socialist is absolutely apt. Capitalism as I know it has completely beat me down. I’m sure I’m not alone in that.
Socialist countries consistently score highest on citizen happiness indexes. Their taxes are high because they are going towards policies that make measurable differences for all citizens. Why is it that those entrenched in capitalism so often dream of escape from their lives? Maybe they aren’t the problem, maybe the system is.
I am in Canada, but the organization needs to spread across borders to anybody who feels that this resonates with them.
You’re right that we need to get organized. I hear this so often and I never see anything truly being done. The alternative political parties I’ve seen have never succeeded in hooking people. We need a way to organize for the new age.
I am open to all ideas. We are the majority, we are brothers and sisters of the working class.
Please, people, I understand being a lurker online and being tired as hell. Not every day will we have the fight in us, but together we can make the fight persistent and strong. For all of us.
How should we organize online in a way that will be effective, and that won’t be censored or flooded with propaganda? I suggested Signal and SimpleX to start, but what do we all really want?
I’m a Statesian, so if you were down here I would recommend an org like the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Instead, I recommend channels like Red Pen who are based in Canada and bring a Marxist analysis to the forefront. I cannot say which orgs are good or bad as I am not familiar. I do think it’s important to point out that welfare in capitalism is not socialism. The Nordic countries are social democracies, not socialist, and as such are both reliant on the imperialist system propping up the west and are seeing a withering of social safety nets as capitalism continues to decay.
Sorry, I did mince words when I labelled social democracy as socialism. Sometimes I find myself simplifying things because I feel like describing idealogies and systems of government can get confusing for those who aren’t too familiar with all the terminology yet.
I will check out Red Pen, thank you. I’m also still on Lemmy and all of my words still stand in case anyone else is reading.
I appreciate your recommendations.
No problem!
“lower happiness” is a symptom, not a cause.
My decline in happiness comes partially from the fact that these consultant fucks got paid $300k to send the report that said this.
Thank God these monsters aren’t in charge of our economy!
Oh wait, sorry, I had a seizure. Excuse me. Everybody knows that members of The Fed work for Goldman Sachs! I feel so dumb.
(… and JP Morgan and so on. They are in charge of our economy)
I ain’t buying shit. Glad to be part of the problem.
“The citizens we are bleeding dry for grossly huge profits are not happy”, said a befuddled collective of CEO’s. “What are we doing wrong?”. A green acolyte mewled, “What if we gave ourselves bigger bonuses?” and he was immediately made King of the CEO’s for his originality. /s
Solid economy? No it isn’t. Its nothing but doubt and price gouging.
It’s corporate media quoting Goldman Sachs, ‘the economy’ means capitalists wealth and holdings, not workers
I’m imagining the guy staring at his bank account wondering “how could people be upset about this?”
Soon there will be a critical mass of people who have nothing left to lose
Workers of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains!
damn, they fuck you then call you ‘bottom’!
@Sunflier it’s not peoples happiness level, it’s the fact that people are only spending on necessities. Nobody is running out to put $2000 on a credit card for a foldable iPhone.
The money isn’t there or quite possibly won’t be there going forward.
Folks are embracing a simpler more affordable life either by choice or circumstance.Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.
Let’s see I bet people still buy the foldable. Which is insane.
