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Excellent post, and in the tradition of the other replies engaging in my own reasoning for why the economy might feel bad even though it is or looks good, here's my argument: sudden economic shifts over the past 5 years, radically out of line with past experiences, have people feeling increasingly precarious in their economic situation regardless of the broader numbers.
To @Walterodim 's point about housing costs: I am lucky enough to be locked into a 2% mortgage on a house I love and have no intention of moving out of under any circumstances for the foreseeable future regardless of financing issues. A house mostly similar to the one I live in now, 10% larger and with some extra useless land attached to it, is up for sale for 50% more than I paid for our house. Add on that I got a 2% mortgage and rates now are closer to 8%. One has the distinct feeling that one dodged a bullet, for all saint's day I placed a wreath on grave of the widow whose family sold us the house, she picked a very propitious time to die for my finances. I'm at the age where most of my friends are purchasing first homes, similarly situated friends who happened not to purchase a home until now for whatever reason are facing a very different market. Similar markets impact cars, I own outright a used car that drives well and has been reliable so for a long time I was insulated from the car market; others were not so lucky. I have needed to buy appliances, and found myself on 6-8 month backorders to get anything. That I face or don't face those markets at any given moment is pure luck. Precarious.
I have work. Business is good. Sales are good. Revenue is good. But I remember 2020, when business disappeared. It could happen again. Covidiots and truthers of all stripes fear that it will. The quintuple vaxmaxxed people who think Covid is still super serious worry that the virus will recur in a new and yet more deadly strain; those who think that it was always just a cold and no one actually died presumably fear that government will shut society down over a particularly bad season of pollen allergies. I am not looking for work and don't foresee myself doing so, but businesses moving changing downsizing left and rightsizing makes me wonder if I'd find a job if I needed one. Precarious.
What all this cashes out to, I don't know. Much of it can be thought of as people having unrealistic expectations: when were people ever more secure than they are now? What does security even mean? But the lack of it haunts people.
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