Down goes the Dow

Giles Corey wrote:

agip wrote:

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans' ratings of their standard of living are on pace to be the best in Gallup's 10-year tracking history. The index average for the year now stands at +54 -- four points above last year's record-high +50.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/218981/americans-ratings-standard-living-best-decade.aspx

You want to explain what a Gallup tracking of the past ten years has to do with comparing today's standard of living with that enjoyed 50 years ago?

fine, withdraw that one.

Desperate to deflect away from our actual conversation are you?

Giles Corey wrote:

agip wrote:

and learn the F how to quote.

just hit quote. that's it. it's a very very very easy tech to master. you hit quote. That's it. that's all you do. then type below the quoted passage.

FFS.

Desperate to deflect away from our actual conversation are you?

I'm deflecting? I posted multiple stats and you ignore them in favor of this post.

Desperate to deflect away from our actual conversation are you?[/quote]

I'm deflecting? I posted multiple stats and you ignore them in favor of this post.[/quote]

Is that what the lecture on how to post quotes was?

Giles Corey wrote:

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS750US750&q=average+debt+of+american+1970+vs.+2020&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjr4Mju9IXoAhWNlXIEHWlHABsQsAR6BAgKEAE

agreed that many tens of millions of americans handle their personal finances very poorly. paying finance charges every month reduces their standard of living. Their choice.

But anyway, the amount paid to cover debts as a ratio of disposable income is a generational lows because of low interest rates. This is a positive.

Giles Corey wrote:

Desperate to deflect away from our actual conversation are you?

I'm deflecting? I posted multiple stats and you ignore them in favor of this post.[/quote]

Is that what the lecture on how to post quotes was?[/quote]

WHY CAN YOU NOT QUOTE CORRECTLY??????WHY????????

SERIOUS QUESTION

agip wrote:

[quote]Giles Corey wrote:

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS750US750&q=average+debt+of+american+1970+vs.+2020&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjr4Mju9IXoAhWNlXIEHWlHABsQsAR6BAgKEAE

agreed that many tens of millions of americans handle their personal finances very poorly. paying finance charges every month reduces their standard of living. Their choice.

I see. Tens of millions of Americans just organically became a lot dumber of over the past 50 years?

well boys this looks like a giant massive puke today.

I will be taking multiple walks around the block and trying not to trade based on emotion.

but man this is gonna suck.

agip wrote:

You are new to this thread. Stop with the bitter and angry would you?

I'm being incivil to you because you are being very rude on this thread. Clean it up.

He’s not new to the thread. He started it.

I'm done with you for today Giles. I know nothing could change your mind one inch. No piece of data, no research, nothing. You are done thinking on this. So I don't want to disturb your peace of mind. UBU.

agip wrote:

as an aside, the measurement of inflation is a devil that has infected politics.

mismeasuring inflation (and health c are) is the great reason for all those false 'US workers made the same in 1970 as they do today' type stats.

Any of us boomers or Xers know that living standards are massively higher for almost everyone now compared to the 70s.

Ah, I see it was agip stirring the pot.

I think he and I went back-and-forth on this years ago, I hesitate to revisit it...but there is something interesting here, the concept of “living standards”.

What does that mean? Durability and quality of material goods? Quantity of material goods? Zeitgeist?

Living standards to my mind has always meant some sort of a reference standard that constituted “the good life”, and how many people approached or approximated that standard.

By that construction, I think it’s an open question. For sure, there has been a shift in what constitutes “the good life”. IMO the 60’s/70’s version favored independence, whereas today’s favors dependence, the change maybe deriving from generationally-evolving views of government, as historic governments recede into the past, and recede from memory.

Things were pretty homogeneous back then, there was mainstream and a few counter-culture hippies for whom the gov’t did not care. Today there is mainstream and some snowflakes, about whom the gov’t does care.

The essential difference is that the hippies were revolutionary outsiders, whereas the snowflakes are evolutionary insiders. Everything the hippies stood for, they learned outside school, in response to gov’t—but everything the snowflakes stand for, they learned inside school, at the behest of government.

So today, it is the mainstream that is being marginalized...the fish is swallowing the whale. It will take a tectonic shift in attitudes to change this, and I don’t see it. The mainstream has a certain reference standard, judged by which some of them are living the good life; the snowflakes have a different standard, judged by which many of them are living the good life. Time will tell if the snowflake standard changes.

In the 70’s, I think that a far lower proportion of the mainstream were at or near the good life, by their own standards, while all the hippies had their good life.

Why do I think this about the 70’s mainstream? Because the 70’s was not the 50’s/70’s. Shlt was starting to happen, the draft was on, corruption and influence were exposed, politics entered the household, families were fracturing, inflation was happening, etc. Also in the 70’s, there were fewer everyman approximations, facsimiles, and substitutes for the real good life than there are today, which actual good life has always been all but inaccessible.

So I would have to say that there is more satisfaction today than back then, but that among the mainstream, that satisfaction is more fragile than that which obtained in the 70’s—all it takes is a good economic shock to bring it down for the mainstream, and inevitable personal evolution to bring it down for some snowflakes. Look at Racket, he has evolved to a state of dissatisfaction.

As far as material standards are concerned, that is subjective so I won’t go into it unless someone wants an argument on specifics.

What a day this will be.

tl/dr Maser but I'll say that tech has ruined community. people get world-class entertainment at home so they stay at home in front of their screens. It's a real downturn.

It's simple.

More and more wealth is being sucked up by the top 1/10th of one percent.

The rest of us tried to maintain our standard of living by more and more family members taking on more and more jobs (get your "side hustle" on -- as if its cool that you need more than a single full time job) and also going further and further into debt.

The cost of necessities -- health care, education, housing -- has exploded.

While salaries are stagnant, at best.

We have been getting screwed and people won't even admit it

agip wrote:

I'm done with you for today Giles. I know nothing could change your mind one inch. No piece of data, no research, nothing. You are done thinking on this. So I don't want to disturb your peace of mind. UBU.

Anything but admit you were wrong.

agip wrote:

I'm done with you for today Giles. I know nothing could change your mind one inch. No piece of data, no research, nothing. You are done thinking on this. So I don't want to disturb your peace of mind. UBU.

Here's a challenge.

How many times has agip typed this today?

And since he joined this thread?

Anyone planning to buy today? I've placed some orders to buy a US market ETF if the price drops about 5%.

looks like a good jobs number...will that make a difference?

the idiot wrote:

Anyone planning to buy today? I've placed some orders to buy a US market ETF if the price drops about 5%.

I've been making buys every day since a few days ago, and selling long term bonds to pay for them. I'll do the same today.