How the economy is doing has always been a contentious topic, particularly when friends and family with different politics gather for Thanksgiving dinner. And the question has gotten even thornier this year, with consumer sentiment and polling data about the economy becoming historically de-linked from official measures of economic health like GDP. It’s not our job to tell people how they should feel about the economy, but we can at least add some facts as context to common complaints.
Because you cannot convince someone that the economy is doing well when they think it’s not. Inflation was extremely high for too long, and the wage gap may be closing but it’s still absurdly high. “There’s a tumor in your brain, but we made it smaller by a third.” It sounds like objective progress, but when the tumor is in your brain causing psychological and physical disability. Celebrating the progress makes it seem like you don’t care about the remaining problems.