I agree that it is somewhere in the middle. 6 sounds about right to me in terms of the conditions right now.
I feel like I am seeing something that I was taught about many, many years ago when I took an introductory course on macroeconomics. If the government prints money and gives it to people, then you get inflation and relatively good employment numbers in the short term. Some of this money also makes it to the stock market, which does well in the short term. The price of groceries and gasoline are shocking, but the value of our 401kās offsets this. In some (perhaps many) areas the price of housing is also shocking.
We have noticed some weakness in biotech employment, and some weakness in high tech employment, and there have been some layoffs in both areas. The other parts of my family are in careers where staying employed is relatively independent of the economy.
My older son is in a career independent of the economy. Mine is independent, but only because of my time with the company, my accumulated knowledge, and products that sell very steadily.
As for your macroeconomic example, how many posters here had their 401k balance increase MTD by significantly more than the U.S. poverty income level for a family of 4($29,960)? The average college graduates first year salary($50,000)? The average entry level engineerās salary($76,000)? If we think the economy is less than an 8, how would younger people rate the economy?
I canāt buy expensive groceries with my accumulated 401k money when I go to the store. Iām sure less fortunate people are transitioning away from 401k contributions to afford groceries these days.
This is IMO all relative. Low income folks may sadly be low income, burnin this economy, most who want to be are employed.
High income or those with solid savings are living the stock market. So for us, Iād give it an 8.5. Would like inflation and interest rates to come down a tad (though we donāt have a mortgage) .
So 5 is not an average/typical economy. 5 instead means an economic catastrophe, such as a major recession, and in the bulk of years, the US economy would instead be an 8 or 9? And the many posters who are rating the US economy as 6-7 are indicating the economy is in serious trouble, with a strong negative outlook, including the poster who writes, āIām positive at a 7.ā?
It would be more straightforward to state what aspects of the economy persons have positive or negative feelings about, rather than assign an arbitrary number without clear meaning.
It depends on the curve. Iāve had exams where 30% was the average grade of A-. To use a scale where 90-100% = A, 80-90% = B, ā¦ you need to have extremely easy questions, often that directly quote lectures. Some professors instead choose to have more challenging questions. I donāt think itās applicable to a 1-10 economic scale. If 5 means 50%, what is that 50% a reference toā¦ 50% of economic goals being met? Are those economic goals comparable to the easy exam questions that directly quote lectures? Calling anything 5 or less āFā gives little use to having granularity on the lower end of the scale.
I am with those who rank it an 8. However as others have pointed out, a lot depends upon how the question is interpreted by the person responding. It is āall relativeā.
Perhapsā¦but does that mean a certain segment of the CC forum shouldnāt respond? I figured the original post was just a harmless poll. In that case everyone should be welcome to respond with the understanding that our individual opinion/viewpoint doesnāt apply to everyone else.
You may be overthinking this. Youāre a 5. Thatās fine. If you want to change your rating thatās fine too. This isnāt going into a time capsule for posterity.
My personal economy is fine, although because I am in retirement I do not have money invested in such a way that I get excited about how the market moves (I got burned in ā08 & Iām making sure my portfolio is stable).
My personal economy means nothing to the people I know who are struggling. I live in a very socioeconomically diverse area, so I hear about the struggles so many people are experiencing. My church has a lot of blue collar workers, and they are buried by rising prices of groceries (donāt get me started on that ā¦ why are grocery prices still so high??), rising cost of rent, stagnant wages (for them, but not the people who run the places where they work), rising healthcare costs, etc. I donāt consider it a political thing so much as it is a choice thing. People who run things are doing fine, and investors want profit. Those of us with investments do fine in part because the have-nots still have not. I donāt mean to stray into politics - just my observation. And yes, I do benefit from it.
Is the economy near crashing? That is news to me. It seems that everywhere is hiring. Iād give the economy an 8 right now.
People are taking vacations like crazy, they are buying like crazy, restaurants are full.
It is very difficult for college students to get summer jobs at almost any big chain (at least in my area) unless they commute. Big companies typically donāt want to invest the time training kids for jobs when they know they will leave soon. My eldest learned this the hard way. Some kids wonāt put their college on their application for this reason. Local restaurants are a better bet for a summer job if the student is interested in the restaurant industry.
Great answer @DadTwoGirls The amount of money that was printed between 2017-2021 when a conversation circles around inflation really isnāt included often enough.
Itās interesting the way people are interpreting the rating scale as some sort of grade scale. I assumed a scale of 1-10 would show as 5 being an average economy, with most people here rating it between 6-8, which is pretty good. Instead, some are considering a 5 to be terrible, like a 50% grade would be flunking, and 6-8 is between D- to B+. Maybe it would be good if the scale was explained at the beginning, so we can be talking about the same thing.
I would have said about a 7, but I would have considered that around a B to B+, not a C- to C+. So pretty good for me, with some inflation issues for others.
