Housing costs are sky-high. Rent is ridiculous. Good luck ever trying to own a house. And yeah, cost of living went way way up and now it's "stabilized" there.

And to say wages are up is just laughable. I mean, yeah people are now being paid $15 an hour instead of $10, but what does that matter when food and housing costs increased more than that?

The data is skewed by the people that benefited from raising the price of everything during COVID-19 and then never brought the prices down.

The rich are richer and they are the measuring stick for the economy because they own all the news sources. It is dramatically worse for the poor now than it was 5 years ago.

Don't let bullshit propaganda fool you.

I'll tell that to the out of control housing, rising food costs and the worsening healthcare coverage and quality. Man! So glad these few things you mentioned are superficially better. There's no problems now!

/s because you know someone is gonna take it literally.

If his is purely anctedote, then yours is decontextualized.

Gas prices are down.

Sure. Since a high in June of 2022. The last time gas prices were at this level was June 2021. And the time before that was October 2014. Which is to say, for about 6 years, gas prices were lower than today. And just looking at the graph, they were significantly below today's level. Just to note, they have yet to return to the levels before the precipitous rise stating in December 2020.

There maybe, as you noted, vibes, but they ain't wrong.

Unemployment should be looked at with, of course participation rate which has held even for the last year, and how long people have been unemployed which has been growing slightly for those unemployed for 27 weeks or more. This also doesn't address underemployment which disporporstely effects the young and poor. Underemployment colors one's outlook for stability in the present and future.

Thankfully, Biden and others in the administration have managed this far better than 2008 for the average citizen. Not having a recession is a good thing. I've lived through several. But that doesn't mean there isn't looming concerns. Inflation is still higher than the target and instigating further disinflation is uncharted territory.

Data, in of itself, is not enough. It needs to be contextualized to develop political and social narratives. Addressing people with condescension and dismissing their anxieties as mere vibes fails politically.

Living is more unaffordable than ever. What even is your comment

I stopped reading at gas prices are down. They are up .40 the last week.

The data is clear

The gaslighting is all thats clear. All the data conflicts with your claim. Homelessness up to the highest level ever recorded, housing is unaffordable, food is unaffordable, wages are stagnant, income inequality is the widest ever recorded.