According to Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index, voters feel worse about the economy than they have since November. Only 22% of those polled rated the economy “excellent” or “good” while 46% rated it “Poor” and another 33% rated it “Only fair.”
It is true, as the Democrats say, that the stock market is booming, that unemployment is low, that the GDP is rising and that inflation is closer to normal than it has been recently. However, those indicators are no longer an accurate measure of the quality of life for Americans.
Last year, chronic homelessness hit an all-time high. Collective credit card debt reached over $1 trillion in the US for the first time. And with rising interest rates and prices, home affordability hit an all-time low while rent asking price hit a new high in January (though that has eased somewhat).
Most Americans don’t own stocks, so they don’t care about the stock market. Even when unemployment is low, workers will still feel unsatisfied if they cannot afford their basic needs without incurring debt. Inflation can be 3% but if it was 9% last year, then that’s still a 12% increase over two years when 4-6% would be typical for that timeframe.
On a visceral level, if you are seeing more of your fellow Americans sleeping on the streets, you’re not likely to think the economy is strong, no matter what economists on television tell you.
So far, the Biden administration’s only answer has been a typical one, “Who are you going to believe, these economic indicators, or your lying eyes?”