ICYMI: 'Everything Is Terrible, but I'm Fine'

[Nevilledog]

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/06/american-economy-negative-perception-inflation/661149/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/iuEnw

In May, the Federal Reserve published a report on the economic well-being of American households in 2021. This survey is infamous for revealing, in 2013, that half of Americans couldn’t cover a $400 emergency with spare cash. An Atlantic magazine cover story called it “The Secret Shame of the Middle Class.”

In 2021, the findings were surprisingly positive, especially given the relentless heartrending punishment that is the 2020s news cycle. Self-reported financial well-being increased to the highest percentage in the nine-year history of the survey. As for that $400 emergency payment, more than two-thirds of adults now say that they can make it. This key measure of financial security improved 40 percent, during a pandemic.

Now here’s where things get weird. The Fed also asked Americans how they felt about the local and national economy. And though the number of Americans who said that they personally were “doing at least okay” actually rose slightly from 2019 to 2021, their evaluation of the national economy plummeted in that time frame. If this graph were a bumper sticker, it would read: everything is terrible, but i’m fine.

A graph shows that while most American adults would describe their own financial well-being as "doing at least okay," less than half would rank the local and national economy as "good or excellent."

So what’s going on here? Why is the gap between “how I’m doing” and “how America is doing” so dramatic?

One answer is that the Everything is terrible but I’m fine philosophy is something close to human nature. At least, people all over the world tend to be individually optimistic and socially pessimistic.

*snip*

[uponit7771]

1. K&R,

[phylny]

2. This is sorta true for us. I think my my local economy

is okay. There are plenty of jobs (although I suspect the wages are low). We have noticed prices going up (a box of Raisin Not Bran was $6.66! at Kroger) but we ourselves are fine. We’re buy what we want. I know it’s not the same situation for everyone.