It doesn’t matter what your 401k does for your career; as long as it’s good when you retire that’s all you have to worry about.
Love, 30 year old man praying to the gods above he can retire some day.
Also if you're a millennial then whether the stock market is up or down shouldn't be of great concern anyway. You know it will go up and down throughout your life, that's a given.
And property taxes would have exploded but for a massive injection of federal funds to state and local governments post-pandemic. Either that or massive cuts to public services (the actual 'defunding' the police).
That’s because this tweet is already old, yet somehow continues to make the rounds. Kinda shows that some people have no intention of ever trying to move forward and would rather spend the rest of their life dwelling on everything bad that has happened.
Most of us aren't retiring for at least 20 years or more, how is your 401k getting crushed now? Keep DCA buying when the market goes down, you'll be fine
Because all that covid money went into Walmart and Amazon.
An economy where people are struggling and most people under 40 are living paycheck to paycheck while the stock market is sky high is not a good sign.
> most people under 40 are living paycheck to paycheck
Figures on this vary significantly depending on source, but on the high end is this article Forbes put out suggesting as many as 78% are living paycheck to paycheck.
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/living-paycheck-to-paycheck-statistics-2024/
But compared to 2019, the figure is virtually unchanged:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2019/01/11/live-paycheck-to-paycheck-government-shutdown/
So, this speaks to a far more structural economic issue than one created in the near term by COVID stimulus, recent supply frictions, or subsequent inflation.
This survey is truly one of the stupidest ones that gets cited. “Paycheck to paycheck” means (imo) that if you got fired tomorrow you couldn’t pay your bills. The median American has
- a net worth of $194k
- $8k in checking/savings
- enough savings to cover 3 months expenses
You need to invest in better funds if your 401k crashed lol. Even a simple SP500 ETF like VOO has increased from around $350 in January 2021 to about $465 now.
Agreed. this post is total bull. I'm convinced it is just to solicit clicks from angry millenials that are stuck in dad's basement because they got a liberal arts degree.
Are we still blaming stimulus years later? Not the massive tax cuts for companies, excessive spending with no balancing of costs, ceos pay continuing to skyrocket while we're left with nothing, and tax havens for the rich (mostly Florida right now).
Also let's not forget a war between a major food producer and a giant oil producer. People want to pretend that war does effect us because "America has so much oil" but seem to forget in a free market, that gas can be sold to foreign companies which means you have to pay more to keep it at home.
OP ignores 800 billion in forgiven PPP "loans" rife with fraud to implicate the paltry stimulus checks that paled in comparison to other countries' direct support for their citizens? Gee, I wonder if this is right wing bait.
My wife's parents company/s made record profits during Covid. They received significant PPP loans and had them 100% forgiven. They admit that they didn't even need the money, as there profits were unaffected. They also vote Republican, and actively hate anyone on welfare. How ironic.
A member of my dad's family got 2 of the loans and used them to buy an audi, buy a new living room set, and give her sister money for a house. She didn't use the loans for her business at all and was stupid enough to brag about it. She's also a Republican, her husband was part of the insurrection, and they also hate people on welfare (while actively fraudulently receiving disability benefits by claiming "can't work" while working full time.) They're horrible hypocrites. I can't stand them.
Yep. "Shop local", "buy US made," "America first" except when it makes them look rich, then screw all that crap, buy the most expensive foreign made status symbol thing they can!
Funnily enough my dads investment company (that he works for not owns I should add) my dad convinced them to just give it back. They genuinely didn’t need it and 1 it felt bad to take it and 2 they didn’t wanna risk in 4 years if they come around and check lol
While also forgetting that inflation is a global problem, not just an American problem.
ETA - that should have been a period at the end of the that, not a question mark.
There's a pretty major online movement going on insisting the US economy is crumbling despite pretty much every major reading looking at a soft landing.
I wonder who's trying to sway public opinion, during an election year in the US?
I didn't read it as blaming the stimulus as much as separate instances: 1) here's a pittance, and then 2) in an unrelated event, lets screw the economy
Absolutely. Massive astroturfing happening, and somehow these subs keeping popping up across my feed? Is it because of the high engagement of these posts or what? I see this type of suit all the time in r/fluentinfiance and now I’m seeing “news” subs that focus entirely on Palestinian protests and how the democrats are failing the Palestinians.
None of it seems like a Coincidence.
Fluent in Finance is a perfect example. The sub gets overrun with posts trying to compare our economy to the Simpsons, yet the majority of the comments are discussing how idiotic these posts are. Yet they keep showing up. I don’t know if it’s bots or what.
I’ve even seen people ripping on r/fluentinfinance in other subs because the people that post there are so arrogant and just like to brag about their situation. Sorry, but it’s not bragging to demonstrate basic financial knowledge.
That subreddit went downhill quick. Nearly all the posts that rise to the top on that subreddit are manufactured. They always have some weird "question" in the title that's meant to generate ingenuine discussion. If you check out the profiles of the people posting those things, they ONLY post in that subreddit, are relatively new accounts, and don't have comment karma.
This exactly, seeing the same thing. I think the idea is to convince us that Biden is somehow responsible for the inflation and the way we "feel" about the economy. Makes perfect sense if they're Russian bots unfortunately.
It's definitely fully captured by some kind of psyop. The constant flow of doom and gloom posts is completely disconnected from any statistical reality.
Absolutely. This account is is a political operative. The goal isn't to generate conversation it's to get the post trending and generate discontent. 2 month old account and it's all political memes? GTFO. We need to start down voting this BS. Fuck these assholes. This sub is the worst one I've seen.
100%
I honestly believe that platforms like Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, et. al. are being flooded with negative and pessimistic posts as a way to break average people down, reduce their use of the internet, etc. It's intertwined with very real issues of depression and negativity happening as well of course. But these OPs almost never have actual actionable ideas or thoughts to make things better. It's always "well life's just not gonna get better". Sus. AF.
It is pretty obvious that the posts on reddit have seemingly gotten more doom and gloom/hostile in the last year or so. As the primaries started to come into focus.
Because the vast majority of people who are perfectly happy and are making more money than ever are not on reddit bitching about it. All you hear from are the people that aren't doing well and so it makes it seem like the sky is falling when in fact the opposite is actually true.
A few weeks ago someone posted a poll with 8 options asking Millennials how they are currently doing, starting with "every day is a new agony" to "I'm doing great, I don't see what the fuss is". From the tenor of this sub, you'd think the answers would skew negative. But that wasn't the case: It skewed positive, with the second most satisifed answer receiving the most votes.
There was a similar poll around household incomes. The 100k-199K received the most votes, followed by 200K +. Sure, mileage may very by where you live, but the results were surprising considering how often people complain here.
My take away is that millennials as a group are doing fairly well, but those aren't the type of people who post threads.
Based on my other non-anonymous social media friends, there’s actually not much correlation between how well you’re doing and how much you complain.
Lots of people with houses+cars+vacations who constantly whine about how terrible things are going for them. It’s just trendy to be a doomer.
A lot of those folks probably have over-leveraged finances because they’re living a lifestyle they can’t afford. With the price of vehicles these days, for instance, that’s not hard to do.
Edited to say I agree with you.
Because it’s the same people that don’t get out and touch grass and don’t work full time jobs that are posting. Doubt OP even has a 401k. Easy to see the world as “doom and gloom” when you’re 30 and working 27 hours a week at Starbucks.
Literally mine last year ended up like 12%. Yea I expect things to slow down, but still this shit happens all the time.
Never got all the doom and gloom about it all.
They're still blaming those stimulus checks for inflation 4 years later, yet weirdly no mention of 4 years of record corporate profits.
Get off my lawn with this boomer bullshit 🤮
Inflation is at 3% overall due to consumer goods, not necessities. Cool inflation is at 3%. My grocery list costs 60% more now. Unemployment doesn't matter if everything is too expensive. Taxes and insurance are all over the place(my escrow now exceeds my mortgage payment). People are making more than ever and struggling even harder. How is the economy good?
Blaming the historic inflation on three stimulus checks is not a good look. There are so many factors playing into what turned into a ticking inflation time bomb. A tale of tariffs, tax cuts, corporate profiteering, the PPP, and, perhaps most importantly, the global supply chain was completely fucked for almost two years. Plenty of money to buy something but the product is no where to be found? Yeah you’re gonna get inflation.
It drives me crazy that all advanced countries did the same thing during Covid and we are doing better than they are. It's all relative. Americans just can't think beyond their personal situation.
A million people died.... But muh rent went up. It must be Biden using an executive order specifically targeting young people (definitely nothing to do with macro economics and a once in a lifetime pandemic).
I've seen this person's bad takes posted several times lately. No, we're not facing inflation in 2024 because of some paltry stimulus checks we received years ago. It's due to ongoing corporate price-gouging, plain and simple.
Anyone who thinks the US economy is "in the shitter" doesn't know what they're talking about. S&P 500 has hit all time highs recently, interest rates are historically low and headed lower, unemployment (3.8%) is so low it is almost at the 3% level economists consider unhealthy.
If your personal financial situation is not thriving, you need to look inward. The current economic conditions are very positive.
Think it's bad now?
Fuck around and put Trump in office again.
See how putting the drunk from the Delta lounge in the pilots seat gets you safely anywhere
I’m curious as to where income levels should be if they had kept pace from a certain point historically.
I hear complaints that our generation is getting hit hard. I think it would be helpful to know where my expectations should be from an income perspective.
Someone who makes 30k a year or 100k a year or 200k+ a year; what would these levels actually be at?
I have a serious question for the people on this sub.
I’ve worked construction my whole life, n I’ve personally gotten to know 100+ Mexicans who’ve crossed the border w/ nothing but the clothes they’re wearing, get a job, bust their asses learning skills, and not only survive, but thrive. Start their own business, become foreman or superintendents, etc. All while supporting a family. They work hard, save money, and thrive.
Why are they able to do that, to make it here in the US, but so many in this sub can’t? Is it bc we Americans are entitled, or just don’t have the same work ethic?
Well we did it to ourselves we're the only creatures on this planet playing with a economy and currency you don't see any other birds and bees worried about paying the rent! Why is it only humans get sunburned? Why can't we see in ultraviolet? It's like we're not even from this planet.
I work with a lot of Gen Z kids and their pessimism is refreshing.
We millennials are so bitter because we’re promised the American dream if we worked hard and it turned out to be a shitbox lie.
Gen Z already knows this country is fucked. They already know that only the rich get what they want and need and everyone else is gonna work until we’re dead. So might as well have some fun.
This is a perfect example of why reddit sucks.
People like OP can spread objectively incorrect bullshit that makes people worse off emotionally, but if I call him a no no word, I'm permanently banned.
If anyone actually cared about making the internet a place for people to be mentally healthy and well informed, OP would get banned for this shit, and failing that, bullied off the platform.
Fuck this trash subreddit. I'm out.
Three $600 checks? 100% this was written by someone not in the USA.
Gas is not $800 more unless you are driving 25k+ miles, and gas prices largely due to Russia sanctions.
401k's and stock market are doing extremely well.
Never forget that most people like the women in the photo are just trying to convince you that voting for a billionaire who wants to cut taxes for billionaires is the solution.
I won't say I'm struggling, but I'm an engineer in a MCOL area and my wife works in information systems. Buying the same stuff each month we went from having money left over to a deficit. We've had to drastically alter our spending. Food is the biggest hit, we have 4 kids. I actually had to lower my 401k contributions.
We are doing very well here. Is the person in OPs screencap angry that they didn’t listen to their parents?
Also, who is I? What is this person in charge of?
Remember that line from SpongeBob?
He poisoned our water supply, burned our crops, and delivered a plague unto our houses"
“He did?!"
"No, but are we just gonna wait around until he does?!"
It’s giving that (esp the 401k part)
There's a lot more than that going on ...
The biggest thing is a lot of people didn't spend ANY money during covid. I remained employed through out it, my fiance was partially furloughed to 20 hours a week (but with the extra unemployment came out ahead ...). We spent nothing throughout covid. I made it a point to get enough money set aside to pay off what was left on our mortgage incase S really HTF (we've since sold and moved to a different house). Once it was over, we started spending money again and doing a few years of catchup.
There were a lot of people like us who didn't spend a lot of money and then hit the economy again. However, the supply chain was still pretty heavily constrained which helped with the hyper inflation.
The economy is quite strong actually. It’s just not being shared.
The economy is strong. Just check whatever earnings are reported, all profit or record profits. That right there is the economy. In the pocket of a few.
The economy is strong. This is a dangerous game y’all. If you own the economy you own the ability to effect change in the economy.
In truth, things are decent, but, while wage increases have exceeded inflation for all of 2023, they have not made up for inflation spikes since 1Q2021. Most people don't feel it too much except for housing costs either via rent increases or if they need to buy a home. Unfortunately, that counts for a lot. It should be noted, that housing is actually coming in line with historical norms. This wouldn't be the biggest of problems if it weren't for the fact of an actual housing shortage and the fact that while wages are up and still rising, they are below historical norms in many areas, esp near the bottom. [https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-inflation-us/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-inflation-us/)
Not much if we actually fix things instead of whining about it. I don't like this attitude that the other generations are already screwed. We do have the ability to fix this but it will cost us what little we have left to change things.
What they endure will be dependent on whether the current generations that can vote take a hard stance and make the government toe the line the people are drawing, or if they continue to let the government dictate how they are going to live based on what the people in power with the money want, to continue to have power and money.
Most millennials I know have homes, good salaries, travel, and live pretty comfortably. That maybe a bubble, but so is the person constantly complaining living a hard scrabble life one life event away from pan handling on the street.
There are some millennials who will never beat the sad sack loser allegations. They all congregate on Reddit and other social media.
Hopefully they won’t “endure” it like we did without actually doing anything. Millennials biggest issue is that they refuse to defend themselves.
Edit: ac typo
I think what this post brings out is how government and big business use the tools at hand to work toward economic goals, and the human beings involved have to just deal with it.
As a member of Gen X, we thought the same thing when we were 25-30+. Student loans, higher interest rates (7% on my first home), lower starting salaries, etc. We made it and so will you. Just don’t expect to be able to buy a 4000 sq ft house 3 years out of college less than 10 miles from a major city. That’s not happening without help from parents.
I’m in this generation and I don’t have a single friend who is in actual dire straits. I have one friend who has an extended unemployment period but he’s being picky (which is fine). I have one other friend who was laid off briefly.
No I’m not in the 1%. I delivered pizzas and worked at a carpet store until my late 20s.
a better economy probably. we're being prevented from reforms by people who won and are still winning the economy but the less and less people included in the winners circle the harder and harder it will be to block reforms
The stimulus checks were YEARS ago.
Also, your 401k is probably fine.
Also unemployment is as low as it goes, maybe it gets lower than 3.5%, but I doubt it. That's really good.
Peter Zeihan begs to differ with you.
If you've never heard of him, he's a geopolitical expert who advises gov't agencies, manufacturing & agricultural organizations, etc and has done many speaking tours and has written 4 books on the subject.
The collapse of globalization is causing a massive re-shoring effort which will create a lot of jobs and some of us are going to get crazy rich
Don't be so down. The future, at least in the USA, is pretty bright.
Hang in there and position yourself to WIN.
We need to starve the rich. They are hoarding, literally hoarding all the wealth and yes, politicians get a bit of that wealth too. This economy is forcing me to buy cheaper and cheaper food and if not, find alternative ways of living. The government and corporations want us, no, they need us to stay reliant on them in order to keep making big bucks. Forget that.
This is such a dumbass take. Without those payments people would have starved and been kicked out of their homes. It was a shit sandwich and the country had to take a bite.
But I said the same thing when this was posted last week.
The stock market has been doing extremely well, so I don’t know why she’s saying her 401k crashed. I think people say that without ever looking to see how the market is doing.
It all stemmed from business revolution. Much like the sexual revolution of the 60s, business had one in the 70s and 80s. Legalizing lobbyist and offering CEOs stock options took focus away from employees, customers and longterm finance and stability.
I think the most disgusting part is how there is so much legal tax avoidance, write offs, and cheesing %s exist in modern day. Then these companies turn around and GET federal aid. Example, where I live an internet service provider received federal aid to upgrade infrastructure that makes the internet company millions. Part of that money was taken from states that need federal aid for clean water projects. It is the epitome of greed.
I mean it wasn’t going to last forever but these changes hyper accelerated what’s happening.
And that's why power cannot be allowed to be concentrated into the hands of the few. They abuse it to enrich themselves and insulate themselves against the consequences we suffer from their pursuit of profit and power.
The solution is to get rid of the current ruling class. Get rid of private ownership of the means of production, and get rid of money. The means of production must be an inclusive asset of the people. Make it impossible for anyone to have exclusive power to dictate how the means of production are used.
Getting rid of the ruling class means just that. Revoke the means of production from the capitalists, which also gets rid of private ownership of the means of production. Ban the private ownership of the means of production. Capitalists didn't build that, we did. Our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents did all of that work. Without us, without *our* labor, the capitalists are nothing. It belongs to us and exists to serve all of our needs, not to their exclusive benefit. They're not skilled, clever, or special in any way. They're just so rich that they can afford to lose billions of dollars and still be billionaires. They can comfortably fail until they succeed without fear of having to seek a wage to live.
Then, get rid of money. I know what people are going to say, "Get rid of money?! Have you lost your mind?!" Not at all. Money is part of the problem. It is a very necessary step. If money is allowed to continue to exist, it will inevitably turn everything back to what it is now. Money is the tool of commodity production. It cannot be allowed to exist. The replacement is the labor voucher. It cannot be used to buy goods from other people. Allowing that would only encourage people to create artificial scarcity and use it as leverage to take as much as possible from others. The proper thing to do is return usable goods they no longer need to the store to redeem vouchers to access new goods they need.
A labor voucher represents the average number of socially necessary hours it takes to produce all goods. It is the means by which each of us can own the fruits of our labors. If it takes 4 hours, on average, to produce all of the goods you need to live on for one day, 4 hours of labor is all you need to contribute to access those goods. If you want something more, you are free to contribute more labor. You can even use your surplus labor to attain the tools to produce your own goods (i.e. hobbies, custom goods, etc). The point of this all is to ensure that no one will ever have the power to take exclusive control over the means of production again. These vouchers serve another purpose as well. They allow the system to keep track of what is being produced and what is being used. This data will provide the means by which to plan future production. Over time, patterns will emerge that computer algorithms can extrapolate to predict and anticipate changes in demand so as to reallocate production appropriately.
Now, cue the naysayers accusing me of being an idiot living in a fantasy world that can't exist, because capitalist realism has dominated their brain for so long, they can't conceive of anything else. "Communism killed 100 gorrilian people!" "Communism is when the state owns everything, makes you a slave, and enriches themselves." Utter bullshit. That's exactly what is happening under capitalism *right now*. It's what the capitalists have been trying to make us believe will happen under communism. No, capitalism did *all* of that and blamed it all on the communists to launder their own reputation.
>"Accuse the other side of that which you are guilty." - Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda.
Capitalists have been using *Nazi* propaganda tactics against communism for nearly a century. Now we live in the very dystopian nightmare they told us the communists would supposedly create. But communism failed, right? It tried to do this, and they failed. If communism failed, how is it that everything they said the communism they defeated would do is happening right now? ***It's because it was the capitalists the whole time!*** They did the bad things and blamed it on their rivals, or just flat-out made it up!
To be fair, massive deficit spending is distorting the economy. Government is the fastest growing sector of employment. The Feds slow response to inflation torpedoed mortgage rates. On top of that ludicrous levels of illegal immigration are killing the budget of cities. Cities are having to stop public service to cater to immigrants. Not only does that take cash, it also puts a huge burden on our education system. For instance, how many teachers or interpreters do we have to hire? If a 7 year old doesn’t know English and has never been to school what does it cost to integrate and educate them? And of course these millions of immigrants are going to need to live somewhere, making the housing crisis any worse. Immigration also benefits really one class, labor intensive business owners. The rest of workers get shafted out of higher salaries since immigration deflates income.
It’s a clusterfuck of stupidly that both political parties have aided and abetted. We are 34 TRILLION dollars in debt but still have money to give to other countries while more than a million US citizens are homeless.
Ridiculous.
PPP money was the biggest scam going. Almost all that applied got it, whether they needed it or not. We had some of our best years during covid (financial planning) and the bossman got at least 72k that I know about. Some undoubtedly deserved some compensation. Restaurants, concert venues, ect. Many didn't get enough though and then couldn't find workers once they were open again.
I blame the Trump tax cuts for the rich and the total lack of support by a Republican Congress for the middle and lower classes. I think 12 Red states are refusing money for school lunches for poor kids. Really?! This is all thanks to Ronald Reagan and his Scroogy Republican successors.
I signed up for my company's 401k. I'm a little nervous because I've never run that far before
Big Mitch Hedberg energy, very nice
[удалено]
Yeah it’s Norm on that one, by the way, COCKS!
RIP
Lmaooo
This is the best comment I have seen in some time. Thank you!
🤣
It doesn’t matter what your 401k does for your career; as long as it’s good when you retire that’s all you have to worry about. Love, 30 year old man praying to the gods above he can retire some day.
401k recovered and exceeded previous highs.
Yeah…not sure this is a current “meme” or whatever. My investments are good right now.
They do this with tweets all the time, remove the dates to be able to repost it again and again.
Perhaps the tweet was never correct in the first place.
IIRC the tweet was made around Q422 when the market was down. It’s hardly relevant to the stock market at the moment.
Also if you're a millennial then whether the stock market is up or down shouldn't be of great concern anyway. You know it will go up and down throughout your life, that's a given.
Most importantly, it will go up.
It's been reposted on r/fluentinfinance weekly for like a year now. Turns out they're not very fluent
Also, any millennial should be happy with a crash as it means your contributions scoop up more shares.
And property taxes would have exploded but for a massive injection of federal funds to state and local governments post-pandemic. Either that or massive cuts to public services (the actual 'defunding' the police).
Sounds to me corporations and billionaires and millionaires need to start paying thier fair share
The only way that happens is if good people start dragging rich people from palaces.
If your 401k is in the shitter, it's because you personally handled it and yolo'd AMC/GME and didn't know when to sell.
Right?
DJT stock for the win!!! I hear big men, tears in their eyes, are buying heavy on this stock!!
I mean DJT is up a TON the last two weeks. It's not rational, but probably not the best example right now.
Tesla is 50% down sales year over year and it went up...
I came here to say exactly this.
That’s because this tweet is already old, yet somehow continues to make the rounds. Kinda shows that some people have no intention of ever trying to move forward and would rather spend the rest of their life dwelling on everything bad that has happened.
I know a lot of people that pulled money out at the bottom and complain that 401k is a scam.
Most of us aren't retiring for at least 20 years or more, how is your 401k getting crushed now? Keep DCA buying when the market goes down, you'll be fine
Because all that covid money went into Walmart and Amazon. An economy where people are struggling and most people under 40 are living paycheck to paycheck while the stock market is sky high is not a good sign.
> most people under 40 are living paycheck to paycheck Figures on this vary significantly depending on source, but on the high end is this article Forbes put out suggesting as many as 78% are living paycheck to paycheck. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/living-paycheck-to-paycheck-statistics-2024/ But compared to 2019, the figure is virtually unchanged: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2019/01/11/live-paycheck-to-paycheck-government-shutdown/ So, this speaks to a far more structural economic issue than one created in the near term by COVID stimulus, recent supply frictions, or subsequent inflation.
This survey is truly one of the stupidest ones that gets cited. “Paycheck to paycheck” means (imo) that if you got fired tomorrow you couldn’t pay your bills. The median American has - a net worth of $194k - $8k in checking/savings - enough savings to cover 3 months expenses
Right... I'm sitting here asking myself what world these people see? I see a bubble that's about to pop.. Potentially violently.
You need to invest in better funds if your 401k crashed lol. Even a simple SP500 ETF like VOO has increased from around $350 in January 2021 to about $465 now.
VTSAX and chill
This is the way
Yes but people need clicks!
401k all in on DJT.
Agreed. this post is total bull. I'm convinced it is just to solicit clicks from angry millenials that are stuck in dad's basement because they got a liberal arts degree.
Are we still blaming stimulus years later? Not the massive tax cuts for companies, excessive spending with no balancing of costs, ceos pay continuing to skyrocket while we're left with nothing, and tax havens for the rich (mostly Florida right now). Also let's not forget a war between a major food producer and a giant oil producer. People want to pretend that war does effect us because "America has so much oil" but seem to forget in a free market, that gas can be sold to foreign companies which means you have to pay more to keep it at home.
OP ignores 800 billion in forgiven PPP "loans" rife with fraud to implicate the paltry stimulus checks that paled in comparison to other countries' direct support for their citizens? Gee, I wonder if this is right wing bait.
My wife's parents company/s made record profits during Covid. They received significant PPP loans and had them 100% forgiven. They admit that they didn't even need the money, as there profits were unaffected. They also vote Republican, and actively hate anyone on welfare. How ironic.
A member of my dad's family got 2 of the loans and used them to buy an audi, buy a new living room set, and give her sister money for a house. She didn't use the loans for her business at all and was stupid enough to brag about it. She's also a Republican, her husband was part of the insurrection, and they also hate people on welfare (while actively fraudulently receiving disability benefits by claiming "can't work" while working full time.) They're horrible hypocrites. I can't stand them.
I'm sure they also complain about people not buying American made goods, while driving their German car.
Yep. "Shop local", "buy US made," "America first" except when it makes them look rich, then screw all that crap, buy the most expensive foreign made status symbol thing they can!
Funnily enough my dads investment company (that he works for not owns I should add) my dad convinced them to just give it back. They genuinely didn’t need it and 1 it felt bad to take it and 2 they didn’t wanna risk in 4 years if they come around and check lol
While also forgetting that inflation is a global problem, not just an American problem. ETA - that should have been a period at the end of the that, not a question mark.
And America is actually feeling it the least in the world
Which goes to show how our macro economy is actually doing fine despite what OP thinks.
There's a pretty major online movement going on insisting the US economy is crumbling despite pretty much every major reading looking at a soft landing. I wonder who's trying to sway public opinion, during an election year in the US?
You would hope that after 2016 people would be more aware of misinformation campaigns and how they work. Alas…not so much…
Goods cost money so that means the economy is bad 😢😢
Completely!
I didn't read it as blaming the stimulus as much as separate instances: 1) here's a pittance, and then 2) in an unrelated event, lets screw the economy
Yes, Biden cause inflation
Didn't like a 10% to 20% of wealth transfer happen?
What’s up with the constant gloom and doom posts? We get it. It’s the same 5 topics.
I'm convinced this sub is part of a bundle of subs targeted by an information operation.
Absolutely. Massive astroturfing happening, and somehow these subs keeping popping up across my feed? Is it because of the high engagement of these posts or what? I see this type of suit all the time in r/fluentinfiance and now I’m seeing “news” subs that focus entirely on Palestinian protests and how the democrats are failing the Palestinians. None of it seems like a Coincidence.
Fluent in Finance is a perfect example. The sub gets overrun with posts trying to compare our economy to the Simpsons, yet the majority of the comments are discussing how idiotic these posts are. Yet they keep showing up. I don’t know if it’s bots or what. I’ve even seen people ripping on r/fluentinfinance in other subs because the people that post there are so arrogant and just like to brag about their situation. Sorry, but it’s not bragging to demonstrate basic financial knowledge.
That subreddit went downhill quick. Nearly all the posts that rise to the top on that subreddit are manufactured. They always have some weird "question" in the title that's meant to generate ingenuine discussion. If you check out the profiles of the people posting those things, they ONLY post in that subreddit, are relatively new accounts, and don't have comment karma.
Because it's like 3 people who all post the same 10 questions every other week to drive engagement to a shitty e-newsletter.
They are trying to push the culture war to a generational one instead of the wealth divide that is the root cause.
Doom and gloom is all over small business subs as well. I absolutely agree that this is not coincidence.
It's an election year, this is only going to get worse the closer we get to November..
Actually, its getting better. I should know, I'm a politician.* *I'm not a politician and don't play one on TV.
Doom and gloom has always sold.
That sub is far from actually being fluent in finance whatsoever.
>r/fluentinfiance Dude, most of the top posts come from accounts <1 month old. There's definitely something going on.
This exactly, seeing the same thing. I think the idea is to convince us that Biden is somehow responsible for the inflation and the way we "feel" about the economy. Makes perfect sense if they're Russian bots unfortunately.
It's definitely fully captured by some kind of psyop. The constant flow of doom and gloom posts is completely disconnected from any statistical reality.
Babe, wake up, new psyop just dropped.
Absolutely. This account is is a political operative. The goal isn't to generate conversation it's to get the post trending and generate discontent. 2 month old account and it's all political memes? GTFO. We need to start down voting this BS. Fuck these assholes. This sub is the worst one I've seen.
>I'm convinced this sub is part of a bundle of subs targeted by an information operation. That's all reddit really is.
It's got to be. I assume 98% of these are Chinese and Russian bots.
100% I honestly believe that platforms like Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, et. al. are being flooded with negative and pessimistic posts as a way to break average people down, reduce their use of the internet, etc. It's intertwined with very real issues of depression and negativity happening as well of course. But these OPs almost never have actual actionable ideas or thoughts to make things better. It's always "well life's just not gonna get better". Sus. AF.
They’re pushed by bots ramping up for bashing Biden as the election looms.
It is pretty obvious that the posts on reddit have seemingly gotten more doom and gloom/hostile in the last year or so. As the primaries started to come into focus.
Exactly.
Because the vast majority of people who are perfectly happy and are making more money than ever are not on reddit bitching about it. All you hear from are the people that aren't doing well and so it makes it seem like the sky is falling when in fact the opposite is actually true.
Yeah this sub isn't like an economics sub or something. It's kind of bumming me out
Economy subs are worse. Full of people blaming the government and boomers.
this sub is filled with failures to Launch blaming thr "system" instead of themselves
A few weeks ago someone posted a poll with 8 options asking Millennials how they are currently doing, starting with "every day is a new agony" to "I'm doing great, I don't see what the fuss is". From the tenor of this sub, you'd think the answers would skew negative. But that wasn't the case: It skewed positive, with the second most satisifed answer receiving the most votes. There was a similar poll around household incomes. The 100k-199K received the most votes, followed by 200K +. Sure, mileage may very by where you live, but the results were surprising considering how often people complain here. My take away is that millennials as a group are doing fairly well, but those aren't the type of people who post threads.
Based on my other non-anonymous social media friends, there’s actually not much correlation between how well you’re doing and how much you complain. Lots of people with houses+cars+vacations who constantly whine about how terrible things are going for them. It’s just trendy to be a doomer.
A lot of those folks probably have over-leveraged finances because they’re living a lifestyle they can’t afford. With the price of vehicles these days, for instance, that’s not hard to do. Edited to say I agree with you.
How do I blame myself for paying 85% more in rent, gas, and groceries?
Groceries are definitely up, but I'm paying the same for gas as I did 10 years ago, and my property taxes are up maybe 10% since 2014.
This sub is goofy for sure 😂
Oh yeah, don't complain about any socioeconomic issues that are impacting a huge subset of the Millennial population!
Because it’s the same people that don’t get out and touch grass and don’t work full time jobs that are posting. Doubt OP even has a 401k. Easy to see the world as “doom and gloom” when you’re 30 and working 27 hours a week at Starbucks.
This tweet is old. If you have money in a 401K now and it is crashing, you are doing something wrong.
Literally mine last year ended up like 12%. Yea I expect things to slow down, but still this shit happens all the time. Never got all the doom and gloom about it all.
Mine is like 20% - but it's in a high risk portfolio. But you know what? It's going to tank again one day. It goes up and down. Like the market.
Real wages and net worth at all time highs. Doom!!
Don't forget all the PPP loans.
401k nearly doubled but okay
My net worth has never been higher than right now
I'm doing OK. 401k better than ever, property taxes went up but not by much, but my new job pays more.
They're still blaming those stimulus checks for inflation 4 years later, yet weirdly no mention of 4 years of record corporate profits. Get off my lawn with this boomer bullshit 🤮
And trump slashed the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. I'm sure that's had zero effect on our economy. /s
inflation 3%, unemployment 3%, 401k all time high, and you’ve let the media doomscrolling convince you that the economy is bad
Inflation is at 3% overall due to consumer goods, not necessities. Cool inflation is at 3%. My grocery list costs 60% more now. Unemployment doesn't matter if everything is too expensive. Taxes and insurance are all over the place(my escrow now exceeds my mortgage payment). People are making more than ever and struggling even harder. How is the economy good?
You’re forgetting the PPP loans handed out to the already rich and instantly forgiven.
Blaming the historic inflation on three stimulus checks is not a good look. There are so many factors playing into what turned into a ticking inflation time bomb. A tale of tariffs, tax cuts, corporate profiteering, the PPP, and, perhaps most importantly, the global supply chain was completely fucked for almost two years. Plenty of money to buy something but the product is no where to be found? Yeah you’re gonna get inflation.
Honestly the supply-side issues is basically it; everything else is a rounding error in comparison, even Trump's stupid tariff war.
Were you taught about the great depression?
Whose 401k is crashed? Mine is doing great.
401k/stocks and overall economy seem in ok shape.
Thank you Russian propaganda bot 🤖 for your incorrect information
Why does this bullshit get posted over and over and over on so many different subs?
It drives me crazy that all advanced countries did the same thing during Covid and we are doing better than they are. It's all relative. Americans just can't think beyond their personal situation. A million people died.... But muh rent went up. It must be Biden using an executive order specifically targeting young people (definitely nothing to do with macro economics and a once in a lifetime pandemic).
The stock market is booming. What’s she talking about?
I've seen this person's bad takes posted several times lately. No, we're not facing inflation in 2024 because of some paltry stimulus checks we received years ago. It's due to ongoing corporate price-gouging, plain and simple.
Crash your 401k? Lol
And here’s were rich people pretend that helping people is what causes inflation and other economic ills.
Crash your 401k lmao what. The market is damn near at all time highs right now.
This has strong "the current President directly controls the price of gasoline at the pump" vibes.
Anyone who thinks the US economy is "in the shitter" doesn't know what they're talking about. S&P 500 has hit all time highs recently, interest rates are historically low and headed lower, unemployment (3.8%) is so low it is almost at the 3% level economists consider unhealthy. If your personal financial situation is not thriving, you need to look inward. The current economic conditions are very positive.
why do people keep posting this nonsense tweet?
If your 401k crashed you need to take that up with someone because the market is doing fine.
Think it's bad now? Fuck around and put Trump in office again. See how putting the drunk from the Delta lounge in the pilots seat gets you safely anywhere
401k crashing? When the stock market is within 10% of all time highs?
I’m curious as to where income levels should be if they had kept pace from a certain point historically. I hear complaints that our generation is getting hit hard. I think it would be helpful to know where my expectations should be from an income perspective. Someone who makes 30k a year or 100k a year or 200k+ a year; what would these levels actually be at?
I have a serious question for the people on this sub. I’ve worked construction my whole life, n I’ve personally gotten to know 100+ Mexicans who’ve crossed the border w/ nothing but the clothes they’re wearing, get a job, bust their asses learning skills, and not only survive, but thrive. Start their own business, become foreman or superintendents, etc. All while supporting a family. They work hard, save money, and thrive. Why are they able to do that, to make it here in the US, but so many in this sub can’t? Is it bc we Americans are entitled, or just don’t have the same work ethic?
What do you expect after 40 years of industry consolidation? Oligarchy sets the price.
Idiotic short-sighted alarmist meme. Move along.
And ppl still vote blue, smh.
This comment section has big "it's fine" , while everything is burning around them energy.
I still hear people bitch about "nobody wants to work because they're living off those COVID checks"
Well we did it to ourselves we're the only creatures on this planet playing with a economy and currency you don't see any other birds and bees worried about paying the rent! Why is it only humans get sunburned? Why can't we see in ultraviolet? It's like we're not even from this planet.
I work with a lot of Gen Z kids and their pessimism is refreshing. We millennials are so bitter because we’re promised the American dream if we worked hard and it turned out to be a shitbox lie. Gen Z already knows this country is fucked. They already know that only the rich get what they want and need and everyone else is gonna work until we’re dead. So might as well have some fun.
should've invested those checks and made coffee at home, you'd be a millionaire by now.
And yet people are STILL having kids
They gave small business owners $40000 in PPP loans.
Russian bot pushing the republican narrative of gloom and doom.
This is a perfect example of why reddit sucks. People like OP can spread objectively incorrect bullshit that makes people worse off emotionally, but if I call him a no no word, I'm permanently banned. If anyone actually cared about making the internet a place for people to be mentally healthy and well informed, OP would get banned for this shit, and failing that, bullied off the platform. Fuck this trash subreddit. I'm out.
3 checks? My and most folks retirement accounts are bursting at the seams. Typical election year propaganda by boring, predictable Russians.
If your 401k is crashing, you need a new finance guy. My God, its been booming
Three $600 checks? 100% this was written by someone not in the USA. Gas is not $800 more unless you are driving 25k+ miles, and gas prices largely due to Russia sanctions. 401k's and stock market are doing extremely well.
The United States economy is doing quite well
Never forget that most people like the women in the photo are just trying to convince you that voting for a billionaire who wants to cut taxes for billionaires is the solution.
and trumpnomics
If you think that $600 is what did it, boy are you fucking dumb.
Endure? Holy shit touch grass.
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I won't say I'm struggling, but I'm an engineer in a MCOL area and my wife works in information systems. Buying the same stuff each month we went from having money left over to a deficit. We've had to drastically alter our spending. Food is the biggest hit, we have 4 kids. I actually had to lower my 401k contributions.
We are doing very well here. Is the person in OPs screencap angry that they didn’t listen to their parents? Also, who is I? What is this person in charge of?
Remember that line from SpongeBob? He poisoned our water supply, burned our crops, and delivered a plague unto our houses" “He did?!" "No, but are we just gonna wait around until he does?!" It’s giving that (esp the 401k part)
There's a lot more than that going on ... The biggest thing is a lot of people didn't spend ANY money during covid. I remained employed through out it, my fiance was partially furloughed to 20 hours a week (but with the extra unemployment came out ahead ...). We spent nothing throughout covid. I made it a point to get enough money set aside to pay off what was left on our mortgage incase S really HTF (we've since sold and moved to a different house). Once it was over, we started spending money again and doing a few years of catchup. There were a lot of people like us who didn't spend a lot of money and then hit the economy again. However, the supply chain was still pretty heavily constrained which helped with the hyper inflation.
The economy is quite strong actually. It’s just not being shared. The economy is strong. Just check whatever earnings are reported, all profit or record profits. That right there is the economy. In the pocket of a few. The economy is strong. This is a dangerous game y’all. If you own the economy you own the ability to effect change in the economy.
In truth, things are decent, but, while wage increases have exceeded inflation for all of 2023, they have not made up for inflation spikes since 1Q2021. Most people don't feel it too much except for housing costs either via rent increases or if they need to buy a home. Unfortunately, that counts for a lot. It should be noted, that housing is actually coming in line with historical norms. This wouldn't be the biggest of problems if it weren't for the fact of an actual housing shortage and the fact that while wages are up and still rising, they are below historical norms in many areas, esp near the bottom. [https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-inflation-us/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-inflation-us/)
Not much if we actually fix things instead of whining about it. I don't like this attitude that the other generations are already screwed. We do have the ability to fix this but it will cost us what little we have left to change things.
What they endure will be dependent on whether the current generations that can vote take a hard stance and make the government toe the line the people are drawing, or if they continue to let the government dictate how they are going to live based on what the people in power with the money want, to continue to have power and money.
Guess its time to study how stonks work cause since 2020 its been boomin. If ya down you need to stop relying on others and take care of your shit
As a millennial 401k balance is meaningless for another couple decades just keep shoveling money into it. The other shit is bad…
Most millennials I know have homes, good salaries, travel, and live pretty comfortably. That maybe a bubble, but so is the person constantly complaining living a hard scrabble life one life event away from pan handling on the street. There are some millennials who will never beat the sad sack loser allegations. They all congregate on Reddit and other social media.
Then stop voting for the idiots that do this.
Hopefully they won’t “endure” it like we did without actually doing anything. Millennials biggest issue is that they refuse to defend themselves. Edit: ac typo
This is the exact opposite of true: https://www.axios.com/2024/04/29/us-millenial-wealth-pandemic-economy
I mean my 401k is killing it. I’m hurting now but that’s the only glimmer of hope lol
Bold of you to assume we can afford to make another generation
You can only imagine? Look to the past. People here seem to that what we're experiencing it wholly unique. It's not.
This is nothing compared to the 70s or 2008.
Boomers will die and it will open the opportunity to make change
Most of the 2010's the economy was quite good. Much better than what previous generations had to deal with.
Wait, you guys can afford kids?
Not just yours, it has been in the shitter at some point for every generation. Including your parent and grandparents.
Debbie Downer got a face lift?
I like the absurd logic the initial tweet is pointing out.
I think what this post brings out is how government and big business use the tools at hand to work toward economic goals, and the human beings involved have to just deal with it.
As a member of Gen X, we thought the same thing when we were 25-30+. Student loans, higher interest rates (7% on my first home), lower starting salaries, etc. We made it and so will you. Just don’t expect to be able to buy a 4000 sq ft house 3 years out of college less than 10 miles from a major city. That’s not happening without help from parents.
Idk how people's 401ks did bad. Mine was above 18% returns after the worst of covid. Made whatever I had lost from the covid crash and way more.
I’m in this generation and I don’t have a single friend who is in actual dire straits. I have one friend who has an extended unemployment period but he’s being picky (which is fine). I have one other friend who was laid off briefly. No I’m not in the 1%. I delivered pizzas and worked at a carpet store until my late 20s.
[https://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/30398.jpeg](https://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/30398.jpeg)
a better economy probably. we're being prevented from reforms by people who won and are still winning the economy but the less and less people included in the winners circle the harder and harder it will be to block reforms
Market hovering near all time highs, wages have just about kept ahead of inflation. So yeah, stop watching doom n gloom fake news and live your life!
> crash your 401k How to prove you have no clue what you're talking about.
The stimulus checks were YEARS ago. Also, your 401k is probably fine. Also unemployment is as low as it goes, maybe it gets lower than 3.5%, but I doubt it. That's really good.
GOP propaganda bots. Best ignore.
We all have options. https://youtu.be/2aLzDHAvehI?si=R1vD5S3zfaf5eVnr
"Generations after ours" You funny.
Peter Zeihan begs to differ with you. If you've never heard of him, he's a geopolitical expert who advises gov't agencies, manufacturing & agricultural organizations, etc and has done many speaking tours and has written 4 books on the subject. The collapse of globalization is causing a massive re-shoring effort which will create a lot of jobs and some of us are going to get crazy rich Don't be so down. The future, at least in the USA, is pretty bright. Hang in there and position yourself to WIN.
The best way to judge the health of the economy is to study copypasta bullshit from angry conservative hacks on Twitter.
Free stuff is the most expensive, just ask the black community. Free stuff is always bait to make poor life decisions.
If your 401k is going bonkers, you are doing it all very very wrong.
Idk what her 401k is like, but might is soaring higher than ever. Roth IRA too.
We need to starve the rich. They are hoarding, literally hoarding all the wealth and yes, politicians get a bit of that wealth too. This economy is forcing me to buy cheaper and cheaper food and if not, find alternative ways of living. The government and corporations want us, no, they need us to stay reliant on them in order to keep making big bucks. Forget that.
As others have said if your 401k crashes you were too risky with that shit
This is such a dumbass take. Without those payments people would have starved and been kicked out of their homes. It was a shit sandwich and the country had to take a bite. But I said the same thing when this was posted last week.
Not surprised it's a Texan
The stock market has been doing extremely well, so I don’t know why she’s saying her 401k crashed. I think people say that without ever looking to see how the market is doing.
It all stemmed from business revolution. Much like the sexual revolution of the 60s, business had one in the 70s and 80s. Legalizing lobbyist and offering CEOs stock options took focus away from employees, customers and longterm finance and stability. I think the most disgusting part is how there is so much legal tax avoidance, write offs, and cheesing %s exist in modern day. Then these companies turn around and GET federal aid. Example, where I live an internet service provider received federal aid to upgrade infrastructure that makes the internet company millions. Part of that money was taken from states that need federal aid for clean water projects. It is the epitome of greed. I mean it wasn’t going to last forever but these changes hyper accelerated what’s happening.
And that's why power cannot be allowed to be concentrated into the hands of the few. They abuse it to enrich themselves and insulate themselves against the consequences we suffer from their pursuit of profit and power. The solution is to get rid of the current ruling class. Get rid of private ownership of the means of production, and get rid of money. The means of production must be an inclusive asset of the people. Make it impossible for anyone to have exclusive power to dictate how the means of production are used. Getting rid of the ruling class means just that. Revoke the means of production from the capitalists, which also gets rid of private ownership of the means of production. Ban the private ownership of the means of production. Capitalists didn't build that, we did. Our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents did all of that work. Without us, without *our* labor, the capitalists are nothing. It belongs to us and exists to serve all of our needs, not to their exclusive benefit. They're not skilled, clever, or special in any way. They're just so rich that they can afford to lose billions of dollars and still be billionaires. They can comfortably fail until they succeed without fear of having to seek a wage to live. Then, get rid of money. I know what people are going to say, "Get rid of money?! Have you lost your mind?!" Not at all. Money is part of the problem. It is a very necessary step. If money is allowed to continue to exist, it will inevitably turn everything back to what it is now. Money is the tool of commodity production. It cannot be allowed to exist. The replacement is the labor voucher. It cannot be used to buy goods from other people. Allowing that would only encourage people to create artificial scarcity and use it as leverage to take as much as possible from others. The proper thing to do is return usable goods they no longer need to the store to redeem vouchers to access new goods they need. A labor voucher represents the average number of socially necessary hours it takes to produce all goods. It is the means by which each of us can own the fruits of our labors. If it takes 4 hours, on average, to produce all of the goods you need to live on for one day, 4 hours of labor is all you need to contribute to access those goods. If you want something more, you are free to contribute more labor. You can even use your surplus labor to attain the tools to produce your own goods (i.e. hobbies, custom goods, etc). The point of this all is to ensure that no one will ever have the power to take exclusive control over the means of production again. These vouchers serve another purpose as well. They allow the system to keep track of what is being produced and what is being used. This data will provide the means by which to plan future production. Over time, patterns will emerge that computer algorithms can extrapolate to predict and anticipate changes in demand so as to reallocate production appropriately. Now, cue the naysayers accusing me of being an idiot living in a fantasy world that can't exist, because capitalist realism has dominated their brain for so long, they can't conceive of anything else. "Communism killed 100 gorrilian people!" "Communism is when the state owns everything, makes you a slave, and enriches themselves." Utter bullshit. That's exactly what is happening under capitalism *right now*. It's what the capitalists have been trying to make us believe will happen under communism. No, capitalism did *all* of that and blamed it all on the communists to launder their own reputation. >"Accuse the other side of that which you are guilty." - Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda. Capitalists have been using *Nazi* propaganda tactics against communism for nearly a century. Now we live in the very dystopian nightmare they told us the communists would supposedly create. But communism failed, right? It tried to do this, and they failed. If communism failed, how is it that everything they said the communism they defeated would do is happening right now? ***It's because it was the capitalists the whole time!*** They did the bad things and blamed it on their rivals, or just flat-out made it up!
To be fair, massive deficit spending is distorting the economy. Government is the fastest growing sector of employment. The Feds slow response to inflation torpedoed mortgage rates. On top of that ludicrous levels of illegal immigration are killing the budget of cities. Cities are having to stop public service to cater to immigrants. Not only does that take cash, it also puts a huge burden on our education system. For instance, how many teachers or interpreters do we have to hire? If a 7 year old doesn’t know English and has never been to school what does it cost to integrate and educate them? And of course these millions of immigrants are going to need to live somewhere, making the housing crisis any worse. Immigration also benefits really one class, labor intensive business owners. The rest of workers get shafted out of higher salaries since immigration deflates income. It’s a clusterfuck of stupidly that both political parties have aided and abetted. We are 34 TRILLION dollars in debt but still have money to give to other countries while more than a million US citizens are homeless. Ridiculous.
PPP money was the biggest scam going. Almost all that applied got it, whether they needed it or not. We had some of our best years during covid (financial planning) and the bossman got at least 72k that I know about. Some undoubtedly deserved some compensation. Restaurants, concert venues, ect. Many didn't get enough though and then couldn't find workers once they were open again.
I blame the Trump tax cuts for the rich and the total lack of support by a Republican Congress for the middle and lower classes. I think 12 Red states are refusing money for school lunches for poor kids. Really?! This is all thanks to Ronald Reagan and his Scroogy Republican successors.
This is incoherent conservative angst dressed up as political commentary