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Notes -
I think I’d use Ezra’s stories to add context. The important issues still need to be addressed especially where, when, and doing what in the case of Ezra’s story. Being hassled might well have more to do with location and time of day. A kid, any kid, out at 3am is going to be hassled by police simply because he’s not supposed to be on the streets at 3am. Likewise, being in a high crime neighborhood makes being hassled more likely. Being out of context for a given area (looking like you’re poor in a very rich neighborhood, being a black guy in the white parts of town, being in places where people usually don’t hang out in general) is also likely to get you hassled.
I think the same is true for economics versions of lived experience. I don’t know what HylinkaGC or the rest are living like, and almost all of those things matter to your “lived inflation”. Not all industries gave raises, and of they did, they didn’t give them all at the same rate. This varies by industry, and job title and experience and even in some cases job performance. How much your rent goes up depends on your city and where you live in that city. The costs of goods depend on your city but also where you shop. National chains have bargaining power that local shops don’t, and goods bought locally are somewhat cheaper than things trucked in from far away.
This is something that a lot of people miss in simply going after blind statistics — they’re aggregated versions of the mean experience and while they’re certainly useful, they don’t necessarily tell the whole story. I suspect that a lot of “MAGA thinks the economy sucks” headlines are missing the context of the difference in the local economy in the blue collar sector and in rural areas where there’s no economics of scale to keep prices low and where the pay for the jobs MAGAs tend to hold (or the businesses they own or run) cannot pay more.
Indeed, I feel like people are reacting against the vibes rather than the actual numbers.
"Inflation was high but it has subdued to a normal level" has a very different feel to "Prices have gone crazy over the last few years and they're still going up" but they're both accurate ways of describing the same reality.
Well inflation is still pretty hot compared to most of the 2010s and it is hot on a much higher base.
That is another accurate way of describing the same reality. The 2010s of course featured unusually low inflation.
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