After reading this news story that half of Americans are skipping meals because of affordability and a bad economy, I have to ask how are you all doing out there?
I heard from a real estate agent friend of mine that REOs, i.e. bank foreclosures on home mortgages, are going up like crazy, which is a sign of bad times, like the recession of 2007-08.
I have heard from others about rents not being paid, lack of jobs, etc.
Every day, there’s more news of corporate layoffs, moreso than usual.
I live in the economic bubble of the SF Bay Area, where tech wealth more-or-less insulates me and mine from the most serious consequences of a bad economy, but how are things elsewhere?
Australian here. Financially things are okay for me and most the people I know, but the general stress is getting to us all. I always feel so worn down. A weekend is enough time to not want to die but not enough time to get actually rested.
I had to get a mouthguard because I’m grinding my teeth at night and the dentist said they’ve seen a spike in the number of people with the same problem. The stress is real and measurable.
I think that teeth grinding thing tends to happen anyway as you get older.
My dentist said I grind my teeth because I snore, i.e. apnea, which is a serious medical condition that can affect brain health later in life due to oxygen deprivation during sleeping hours.
This affects your ability to get long-term care insurance here in the States, because risk of dementia, stroke, etc. is much higher.
If a housemate/roommate/spouse/significant other says you snore, you should get yourself checked out by a sleep clinic and be prepared to have them prescribe a CPAP device.
Back to the grinding, like an idiot, I didn’t follow my dentist’s advice from 10-15 years ago to get a mouth guard, and my molars have been ground completely flat, resulting in multiple root canals and implants right now.
So you’re doing the right thing getting that mouthguard.
Cheers.
Northeastern US. Things are okay. Worse than I would have predicted 5 years ago but not terrible.
We pay our bills, contribute to the 401k and HSA, and have still been saving every month. Our electric + natural gas bills fluctuate as we switch from electric cooling to gas heating, but their combined monthly average has doubled in less than 5 years. I’m eyeing up solar systems for some relief. We don’t drive much so the direct price of gas hasn’t been huge. Groceries are a bit more expensive, but usually not as crazy as I see on the news. Clothing has gotten wildly expensive, with thrift and outlet stores selling stuff for prices I would have paid at regular retail 5 years ago.
We’re holding on. I wish we ate out, and especially drank out, less. I was always a homebody, but nowadays its $15-$20 for a cocktail, $10 for a domestic draft, plus tip.
Pretty decent in Switzerland. The cost of living has always been very high here, but so have the wages and inflation hasn’t been as bad here as in other places over the past few years.
Edit: Also, the fuel prices don’t really affect me at all, or at least only very indirectly. Now, more than ever, I am grateful for the awesome trains we have.
Not sure if I should write this, but here is a summary from Russia:
Everything is fine overall. There are some cuts (I work in a telecom company). Nevertheless, there are enough vacancies, and the only downside is the merging of positions from different departments in some places. At my last test interview sprint, I got a job in 3 days.
Fuel prices have almost doubled, so I’ve started driving less for non-essential matters. Small businesses have closed down in some places, so now there are only 3 snack bars in the neighborhood instead of 5. Inflation is felt unpleasantly; prices are slowly rising.
Nevertheless, I eat whatever I want, drink whatever I want, and buy electronics. Maybe I’m just lucky and things are worse for blue-collar workers.
In the provinces of the Philippines, electricity and diesel prices are hitting hard. Add to that a bad rice harvest and an expected drought which will make the next one worse, and things get bad. For me personally I am working a remote position from the us, so I am earning dollars which are worth more an more pesos each week. We try to take care of people where we can but too many people struggling will lead to instability and safety issues
You have Trump to thank for the bad rice harvest too, because a good chunk of that Middle East petroleum that is blocked because of the war that he started would have to making fertilizer.
If you think it’s bad now, wait until next year’s rice harvest…
Its because of the el nino, heavy rains beat up the rice for this harvest, and they expect a severe drought for the next harvest (we have two per year). We can blame trump for the diesel prices and the electricity price but not for the rice harvest.
The positive of this is that we are switching to solar at an unbelievable pace and I think this islands will be solar powered for the most part in 5-10 years. Yes, it’s all Chinese imported, but at this time it is better to partner with the Chinese to import solar panels than with the Americans to import diesel
Belgium. Personally, I have a job now so I feel fine, has a good bit of leftover money despite being on single salary. Salaries here are indexed against cost of living (not too many countries do this anymore), so anyone who is not living in the capitol can survive even on minimum salary; and in the capitol, yes with cohousing. People without a job are somewhat fucked though… yes the unemployment benefits are quite generous, but there simply aren’t many jobs out there. Belgium has a competitive strength in pharmaceuticals but then last year there was a pretty notable company shutting down, and recently GSK let go of a large chunk of their R&D team. Things are not looking very bright
I guess this isn’t what the topic is about but… macro-economics numbers seem functional? The fiscally conservative leading party implemented some budget cuts that were supposed to help, I’m not an economist so I can’t say whether they helped but there certainly were lots of protests. GDP is slowly growing, not as fast as NL but the numbers are going up
Edit: Just saw the news that the PM (Bart De Wever) submitted an official request to the king to resign. I take it back, we ball I guess 😂
well to put it nicely in egypt we are doing bad and probably failing because the
PresidentDictator is just not wanting democracy and is just bad at his jobWhat’s weird to me is that economist are observing the official numbers and concluding that things aren’t that bad and the public is suffering some kind of mass psychosis, when the reality is just worse than reflected in their numbers completely escapes them.
That’s because they aren’t looking at numbers or statistics that are directly relevant to typical citizens. GDP isn’t the same thing as average wages or cost of living.
The economy is great if you’re disgustingly wealthy.
Yes, but they do look at stuff like the unemployment rate, wages, etc… But I don’t think it captures the lived experience of stagnation we’ve been having for the past several years, and even if there’s “job growth” it might not be good jobs and people might know that they’re chances of getting a good job are slim to none, etc… lots of little things that wouldn’t necessarily be reflected in these incredibly broad statistics.
But economics, as a practiced science, is about boosting GDP, not making the lives of individuals better, so I think it indicates that the entire field is deeply flawed.
But economics, as a practiced science
“Economics” and “science” don’t belong in a sentence together
Unless there’s a “pseudo” immediately before the “science”…
Never forget that the capitalist economy thrives off of the exploitation of the working class.
UR is bs?
It kind of it is, because it doesn’t capture people who have given up on looking for work, either because they don’t think they can get a job, or think the jobs they can get are emotionally/physically worse than living off whatever systems they have access to.
The one you want to look at it if you want to understand society better is NEET–people Not in Education, Employment or Training…
Yes because economic metrics were never intended to show how the economy is doing for the average person. The entire field needs to be reworked from first principles before it has any value to us
Pay attention to the news reports talking about ‘K’ shaped economy, which is exactly what you’re talking about
I see economic indicators that I’ve never heard commented on.
We’ve been building storage places around here non-stop for several years. This is clear evidence that people are downgrading their living arrangements.
There are fewer flea market vendors and they’ll selling cheaper and cheaper. This leads me to believe the lower end of the income spectrum can no longer afford what was already stupid cheap. This is kinda true of garage sales, but those have always been the cheapest end of the used market.
People are leaving far less free shit on the curb. Either that or people are snatching it up faster. Not a good sign in either case.
That’s been a phenomenon for awhile now, there used to be more of a correlation between the economic data and the public perception of the economy. Things like low unemployment and wages outpacing inflation don’t necessarily result in improved consumer confidence like they used to.
Yes, but the academic question to ask if if people know something the numbers don’t.
Ahh logic. No longer a thing in the USA.
I am in Melbourne, Australia, things are still ticking along fine enough BUT we can see the wave coming.
There was a book from 1957 called ‘On the beach’, it was about Melbourne being last city on Earth that has survived a nuclear war and how we would surcumb to the same fate as everyone else. It is starting to feel like that but in economic terms.
On The Beach was adapted into a good movie in 1959
Researcher here who taught graduate level research skills: I’m walking dogs.
Because of the belief that the economy is bad, employers are taking advantage of working class people by removing their niceties like remote work and easy work days. We’re being told to work harder and produce +50% to make up for a 10% shortfall which feels like a fucking scam.
Are you in the US?
Yes, sadly. My husband won’t move.
I limit my food intake to stay skinny & petite & cute & energetic, but skipping meals also saves a lot of money. How’s the economy where I live? I can answer that in two words: Los Angeles.
Skipping meals now and then is energizing, I have found.
Skipping meals because you can’t afford food… That’s never happened to me, but I’d imagine it’s soul crushing.
Rural north-eastern Brazil.
I’m unemployed, living with my mom and sibling and we’re neck-deep in debts while living on less than $400 a month. I can’t afford to go to university and there are little to no jobs that I can do nearby (I’m autistic and have a shitload of sensitivities). I’ve a couple more places to apply to, and my dad is studying the possibility of bringing me to live with him somewhere else.
Scotland. Fucked. The terrifying thing I realised recently is how I can see the sharp decline in living standards pre-and-post covid. If we dont get a grip of it we’re backsliding toward Dickensian levels of poverty and deprivation.
Other thing I noticed recently - how most of our short-term problems can be linked to that cunt Trump. Iran war, tariffs, Ukraine etc. I say this to highlight to the Americans in the room that your political choices have implications far beyond your own borders. Theres fuck all I can do about him, but plenty you can do.
Hey the American progressives are trying but we’re not even our own party because of our two party system. Not to be a dick but I think other countries hold more power than Americans at keeping a senile dementia riddled Cheeto fuck in check. His congress and court aren’t.
I grew up somewhat privileged. We weren’t rich, but my family never really wanted for anything growing up. And then I was able to live at home until 25 and pay off my student loans and get a good career with no debt. So the economy doesn’t really affect me. I don’t live paycheck to paycheck but I’m extremely frugal and I do notice grocery prices increases. That being said I’m 100% progressive and do have sympathy for others and we need to fix this system.
What does fixing the system look like though? Far too many people seem to just want to consume unsustainably and would do so even more if they could.
How much does someone need?
Yes, some at the bottom really should have more. But there are many in the middle who should consume less and will justify it by comparing to those at the top who are even worse.
Unfortunately I don’t know how to stop the spending habits of others. Me personally I only buy what I need, not because I can. No fancy car. Once in a while I might splurge but usually on a birthday or Christmas. Part of my frugal is because I don’t know the future of the economy. If the market tanks that will affect my 401k too.
Taxing the rich could be a start. Universal healthcare. I’d be fine paying more taxes if it meant everyone was covered. Putting the right people in charge to make these changes. Get rid of the two parties, the electoral college, and use ranked voting. We’re close to getting rid of the popular vote, just need some more states to sign on.
Honestly its not their problem to create a new system that magically works. Its OK to just say the system sucks and we need to replace it. Americans are so caught up in perfection that we can’t see the good that a few actions can take to make the world more habitable.
The rent is too damn high guy has a point. Lower housing costs and even if you change nothing else, cost of living becomes far easier to manage.
Feel like donating to the cause? (The cause is that I would like a computer)
I live in rural northern Japan so… not great? Everything keeps concentrating to Tokyo. We were promised “work from anywhere in Japan” and “remote-first”, but the company tried to revoke that. A couple of us joined a union and are fighting it, but most people just rolled over and took it. Still don’t know what things will look like come next year.
There are very few remote backend software engineering jobs in Japan now. The situation is pretty dire. No US or Canadian company wants me in this time zone (even if it allowed them to have people available around the clock). No one wants to sponsor a visa in another country.
I have a small farm, but it’s not profitable. Most of the other jobs around here are forestry, fishery, and factory and pay less than half of what I make now which my family cannot survive on. Things are rusty and falling apart all over in the countryside.
Here in Tokyo, I feel things are pretty rough financially too. I cannot imagine how hard it is in inaka. It’s quite sad that everything seems to be pulled towards a few cities. This feels different than America where the draw is to bigger local cities whereas here it’s mostly to only the biggest cities.
I really wish I could go back to my northern (urban) Japan cost of living, though. Not sure how things are now over a decade later, but I was paying 700円 per month for cellular + data, 2000円 per month on gigabit internet, and 33000円 per month for a 1LDK apartment…
Excluding food and utilities, that was just a hair over 200 Euro per month for expenses in today’s currency (but conversion rate may also be more favorable to Euro today than back then).
I have a cell provider with a pretty small data limit, but I almost never use it. They no longer even take new customers. ~2400/mo. My internet is with NTT and fiber to the home at 5500 a month + servicer fee -> about 6500 a month after price increases in 2027 they announced.
When I lived in a sharehouse in 2013, it was over double what you were paying and about 12 minutes from a station in suburban tokyo. My first apartment about 8 minutes away was 115,000 ish plus all utils just inside the 23ku and was 33sqm IIRC.
Cost of living including groceries and such have gone up like crazy since corona. Everything is undergoing shrinkflation and raises aren’t keeping up unless you’re at a really good company.
Even living in the countryside now, costs are still way over what they were for Tohoku. My prices here are more than even Tokyo when I moved here for a lot of groceries and such.
My mortgage on its own is over 85,000 in the deep countryside almost an hour walk to a station. I’m sure apartments are cheaper, but this is on a used house built in '96 IIRC (though with some rennovation and a new roof not long before I bought it).
I can’t day I’m very well-informed on the issue as an outsider, but I’ve heard that the central government (at least in the recent past) have tried to encourage people to move out into inakas in an attempt to slow down or even reverse the migration trend. Some carrots, like housing subsidies if I remember correctly, are even offered, but there hasn’t been many sticks, eg actually encouraging able firms to keep their jobs remote, from what I know.
So I guess my question is, has this sentiment / tone changed from the government (esp since the LDP has had a few leadership changes in the last few years)? I did hear of the intention to have a second capital, likely in Osaka, but that seems only tangentially related.
encourage people to move out into inakas in an attempt to slow down or even reverse the migration trend.
That may sometimes be the case. However, companies like mine (and no I won’t name it since I don’t want to be sued) say “work from anywhere in Japan” and then go "J/K, we now require you in the office with no relocation expenses and a monthly travel budget of 20k JPY (which is less than a single trip for me which also takes 8 hours round trip with buffer). My union is fighting this and we are willing to go to court since I was never required to be in the office except for about 3 days of orientation. The results are spotty in cases like this with some courts favoring the contract which, as a permanent employee, has traditionally means the company more or less owns you. On the other hand, there are protections against undue hardship which is one way in which we would fight it. However, because of things like this, no one is willing to move to the middle of nowhere with zero job opportunities.
like housing subsidies
I got a subsidy to move with my wife and buy a house. 1.3 million JPY to be paid back if we leave in < 5 years. Families could get more. We used it to buy a used car since I was a bit optimistic in thinking my motorbike and taxis would get us by. Almost no taxis after 6pm without prior reservation. No easy rental places right in the area to go that route when we would need a vehicle.
has this sentiment / tone changed from the government
The lip service doesn’t change, but concrete actions, especially for people not doing low-paid manual labor, is missing. Add to that that companies still abuse laws and hope not to get caught, it’s worthless. Much like many places in the US, we have lots of other immigrants, particularly from SE Asia, moving in to do ag work as well as nurses and carers for the elderly that are in high demand.
I did hear of the intention to have a second capital, likely in Osaka, but that seems only tangentially related.
Yeah, that’s a thing. The LDP was trying to pay back the loyalty of those that worked with them. I don’t have any problem in principal with Osaka functioning more like Tokyo in terms of governance (though this is not definitely Osaka last time I heard, but I don’t follow it closely), though I don’t know what this accomplishes other than people saying “yay, Osaka is great!” feel better and maybe solve some redundancy (which is not necessarily bad). Then again, I’m not following closely.
My problem with things like this: Osaka also has big natural disasters; the world is getting hotter all the time, why not do this somewhere more north; it’s still performative more than anything as best I can tell (though I’m just a dude who can’t vote living on the other side of the country). It doesn’t actually decentralize and take pressure off the real estate market and other things that are facing increasing difficulty, and causing foreigner backlash (specifically AirBnB-type places and (often allegedly Chinese) illegal short-term accommodations buying up buildings illegally).
I’m sorry to hear about all that. I hope you and your union can win the case, if not find a path for you and your wife to go through the ordeal in one piece, cause it sounds like you’re basically trapped financially because of the repayment clause of the subsidy.
I imagine this is also partly the responsibility of the local government, given that they would be responsible for building the town to properly support the expected population growth? Though it also seems like it would be difficult for them to do much in really rural places in the short term, where there already is a lack of the necessary structures to provide these jobs, not to mention sustain these structures themselves.
And it’s fine not to dox yourself by naming your employer. This sort of rug-pulling move is reminiscent of companies here in North America though. To be fair, given that remote working is a fairly new phenomenon, it’s understandable that there simply isn’t a lot of protections in place against such nasty behaviours. If the different levels of governments want to decentralize to better spread the population around the country though, perhaps I’m being naive, but actually encouraging remote working, and making it a safe route for people to take, would be a really good path forward for that.
Thank you for sharing your story and perspective. I’m sure it’s been quite hard on you, so hope the conflict will be resolved soon, and satisfactorily.
