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devingtieme.bsky.social
Devin S.
@devingtieme.bsky.social
2K followers 1.2K following 4K posts
He/him

Please help Sandra survive and escape genocide: https://chuffed.org/project/135773-save-mahmouds-family
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devingtieme.bsky.social
If you compare real wages in 2019 to 2024 using the employment cost index, the only occupations that saw higher wages were ones that have became deadly during the COVID pandemic

www.ineteconomics.org/uploads/pape...
Trump versus Biden: The Macroeconomics of the Second Coming Thomas Ferguson and Servaas Storm Working Paper No. 221 May 14th, 2024 Figure 11 Real Wage Growth between 2019 and 2024Q1 Employment Cost Index, 2021 = 100 percent The graph shows a decrease in real wages between 2019 and 2024 in all employment categories except for two: “leisure and hospitality” and “retail trade, which increased by 3.81 and 0.61, respectively.
December 9, 2025 at 6:13 AM
devingtieme.bsky.social
And yet inequality increased. Why is that

www.cbo.gov/publication/...
Income Inequality Increased, Both Before and After Transfers and Taxes When calculated using income before transfers and taxes, the Gini coefficient—at 0.560—was higher in 2021 than in any other year since at least 1979, the earliest year in CBO’s analysis. When calculated using income after transfers and taxes, the Gini coefficient was 0.443. Despite the reductions in inequality stemming from means-tested transfers and federal taxes, the Gini coefficient was still higher in 2021 than in any other year since 2012. But without the effects of the temporary policies, it would have been 0.468, the highest since at least 1979.
December 9, 2025 at 6:08 AM
devingtieme.bsky.social
More K shapes, and studies finding increasing inequality

2. home.treasury.gov/news/feature...

3. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

4. www.cbo.gov/publication/...
Washington Post Intergenerational wealth Chart: Share of national wealth owned by each generation, by median cohort age, 2008 through 2019. Baby boomers age 25 to 60 go from having 20% of the national wealth to about 55% of the national wealth. Generation Exers age 20 to 47 go from having about 2 percent of the national wealth to 16% of the national wealth. Millennials age 20 to 33 go from having about 1 percent of the national wealth to 3 percent of the national wealth. U.S. Department of the Treasury, “Rent, House Prices, and Demographics.” Date: June 24, 2024. Figure 5: Per-Age Headship Rates. Excerpt (describing chart): The youngest groups have experienced the largest declines in headship rates. In 1980, 50 percent of Americans aged 25 to 34 were heads of their own household (the lowest line on Figure 4). In 2020, that number had fallen to around 40 percent. The headship rate for Americans aged 35 to 44 also fell substantially: from almost 55 percent to less than 50 percent. The decline in headship rates for younger Americans can be seen in the rise of young adults living at home over the same period, as shown in Figure 6. This rise is at least partially attributable to rising rents and house prices. American Journal of Sociology, “Life Course Trajectories and Wealth Accumulation in the United States: Comparing Late Baby Boomers and Early Millennials.” Authors: Rob J. Gruijters, Zachary Van Winkle and Anette E. Fasang, September 2023. Abstract: Millennials are often assumed to be economically worse off than previous generations because of more precarious employment and unstable family lives. Using sequence analysis and unconditional quantile decomposition, we analyze the work and family trajectories of late baby boomers and early millennials and relate them to wealth holdings at age 35. We find that the poorest millennials have less wealth than their baby boomer counterparts, but the wealthiest millennials have more. Millennials are less likely to enter high-status occupations and are more likely to work in low-skilled service jobs, and family trajectories show a strong decline of traditional early marriage and parenthood; however, changes in life course trajectories cannot account for the increase in wealth inequality. Instead, the distribution of wealth has become more unequal because the economic returns to typical middle-class trajectories have increased, while the returns to typical working-class trajectories have stagnated or declined. Congressional Budget Office, “Income Inequality Increased, Both Before and After Transfers and Taxes.” Date: September 2024. When calculated using income before transfers and taxes, the Gini coefficient—at 0.560—was higher in 2021 than in any other year since at least 1979, the earliest year in CBO’s analysis. When calculated using income after transfers and taxes, the Gini coefficient was 0.443. Despite the reductions in inequality stemming from means-tested transfers and federal taxes, the Gini coefficient was still higher in 2021 than in any other year since 2012. But without the effects of the temporary policies, it would have been 0.468, the highest since at least 1979.
December 9, 2025 at 6:01 AM
devingtieme.bsky.social
These look like K shapes to me

1. www.cbpp.org/media/income...

2. fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=18R1W

3. www.census.gov/data/tables/...

4. academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Income Gains Widely Shared in Early Postwar Decades - But Not Since Then Chart: Real family income between 1947 and 2018, as a percentage of 1973 level Income gains in 1947 are about 50 percent of the 1973 level. They rise for all Americans at about the same rate until 1980. Income gains for the top 5% increase at the same rate while income gains for the median income and bottom 20 percent of incomes flatten. In 2018: The top 5% have about 180% of their income in 1973. The median income is about 130% of the income in 1973. The bottom 20% have about 120% of their median income in 1973. Four lines showing the total labor force participation rate (one line) and participation rates for the following age groups: 16-24, 25-54, and 55 and over, relative to June 2017. All lines rise by about 2 percent from 2017-2020 then drop in 2020. The 16-24 line and 25-54 line rebound then climb to about 2.5% above their 2020 levels, respectively. The 55 and over line briefly rebounds then drops to 5% below its 2020 level. U.S. Census Figure HH-3 Households by age of the householder, 1960 to 2024 Older adult line (age 65 and over) goes from 10 percent to 25 percent between 1960 and 2010, then becomes steeper, going from 25 percent to 37 percent between 2010 and 2024. Younger adult line (under 30) goes from 7 percent to 15 percent between 1960 and 1980 and remains at 15 percent through 2024. National Academy of Sciences, PNAS Nexus, “Missing Americans: Early death in the United States—1933–2021” (June 2023). Long-term mortality trends in the United States and other wealthy nations prior to the COVID-19 pandemic Figure 1 displays long-term trends, 1933–2021, in age-standardized mortality rates for each of the countries in the study. Mortality has fallen dramatically across all countries. The early time series bears the imprint of WWII and its aftermath, with high mortality rates observed in Europe and Japan. The United States had similar age-standardized mortality rates as other wealthy nations in the 1960s–1970s. However, since the 1980s, the position of the United States relative to other wealthy nations has progressively deteriorated. Figure 1. Age-standardized mortality trends in the United States and other wealthy nations. Figure shows deaths per 100,000 person-years: A) 1933–2021 and B) 1980–2021. The solid thick red line is the United States, the dashed thick grey line is the population-weighted average of 21 other wealthy nations, and the thin grey lines are country-specific trends for each of the other nations. Total mortality was age-standardized to the 2000 US population age distribution.
December 9, 2025 at 5:54 AM
devingtieme.bsky.social
With a little bit of reason #2 thrown in there

bsky.app/profile/devi...
YouTube clip of Louis CK on Late Night with Conan O’Brien doing a bit about how “everything is amazing and nobody is happy”
December 8, 2025 at 11:22 PM
devingtieme.bsky.social
Maybe stop calling people MAGA for wanting their life expectancy to increase at the same rate as rich people’s

1. academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

bsky.app/profile/devi...
National Academy of Sciences, PNAS Nexus, “Missing Americans: Early death in the United States—1933–2021” (June 2023). Long-term mortality trends in the United States and other wealthy nations prior to the COVID-19 pandemic Figure 1 displays long-term trends, 1933–2021, in age-standardized mortality rates for each of the countries in the study. Mortality has fallen dramatically across all countries. The early time series bears the imprint of WWII and its aftermath, with high mortality rates observed in Europe and Japan. The United States had similar age-standardized mortality rates as other wealthy nations in the 1960s–1970s. However, since the 1980s, the position of the United States relative to other wealthy nations has progressively deteriorated. Figure 1. Age-standardized mortality trends in the United States and other wealthy nations. Figure shows deaths per 100,000 person-years: A) 1933–2021 and B) 1980–2021. The solid thick red line is the United States, the dashed thick grey line is the population-weighted average of 21 other wealthy nations, and the thin grey lines are country-specific trends for each of the other nations. Total mortality was age-standardized to the 2000 US population age distribution.
December 8, 2025 at 10:57 PM
devingtieme.bsky.social
Urban Institute, “Employment and Material Hardship among Adults with Long COVID in December 2022” (July 2023)

www.urban.org/research/pub...
FIGURE 1 Self-Reported Impact of Long COVID Symptoms on Employment among Adults Ages 18 to 64, December 2022 One in 10 adults with long COVID reported that they stopped working for a period because of their symptoms. In addition, 1 in 4 reported that they limited activities outside of work to be able to continue working. Ten percent of adults with long COVID reported they stopped working because of their symptoms, including 5 percent who were not working at the time of the survey (figure 1).6 An additional 5 percent reported reducing their work hours. One in four adults (24 percent) with long COVID reported limiting activities outside of work—such as social activities, errands, or chores at home—so they could continue working. Smaller shares changed employers to accommodate their condition (3 percent) or requested a change at their current employer, such as a reasonable accommodation (2 percent).
December 8, 2025 at 2:15 AM
devingtieme.bsky.social
See also:

www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary...
New York Federal Reserve, Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, 2025, third financial quarter. Chart: Transition into Serious Delinquency (90+) for Student Loans by Age. Between 2004 and 2020, student loan delinquency rose from about 3 to 9 percent of the balance for all age groups to 6 to 12 percent of the balance. During the federal pause on student loan repayment, delinquency fell to 0 to 3 percent of the balance. When the pause ends in 2025, delinquency for people age 50+ spikes to 20% of the balance; for 40 to 49-year-olds spikes to 15% of the balance; for 30 to 39-year-olds spikes to 13% of the balance; and for 18 to 29-year-olds spikes to 9% of the balance.
December 8, 2025 at 1:50 AM
devingtieme.bsky.social
No results for the search term “gaza”
December 7, 2025 at 11:41 PM
devingtieme.bsky.social
Just shut up
Julie H. Howard Ph.D., Disinfo expert @upine.bsky.social September 1, 2025: Understandable. What I'd like to stop being flooded with are the covert MAGA helpers--obsessed with Gaza or trans issues or race--not in rather normal ways, but in particular ways--the purpose of which seems to be to try to help MAGA by always defeating all Democrats at the polls. Julie H. Howard Ph.D., Disinfo expert @upine.bsky.social August 10, 2025: These accounts that claim to be from Gaza needing money for food etc. need to have someone vouch for them whom ppl have heard of. Surely many of these accounts must be fakes, just random ppl trying to get easy money by lying.
December 7, 2025 at 11:28 PM
devingtieme.bsky.social
Weird time for you to begin caring about the U.S. treating random dudes like terrorists

www.aa.com.tr/en/info/info...

Are you sure you aren’t misunderstanding the complexities of the issue?

bsky.app/profile/devi...
Infographic, October 9, 2025: Dozens of scientists and researchers killed in Israel’s attacks on Gaza: Israeli army attacks that targeted academics, scientists, and cultural elites were carried out within a systematic policy aimed at depriving society of its intellectual and cultural capacity. Since October 2023, Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza killed: 193 scientists, academics, and researchers. 800 teachers and education workers. SOME OF THE SCIENTISTS KILLED IN ISRAELI ATTACKS SUFYAN TAYEH Rector of Gaza Islamic University ADNAN AL-BURSH Faculty Member, Faculty of Medicine, Gaza Islamic University NASIR ABUNNUR Dean, Faculty of Nursing. Gaza Islamic University NAIM BAROUD Dean, Faculty of Arts, Gaza Islamic University JIHAD AL-MISRI Director, Open Jerusalem University AHMED AL-DALU Dean, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Palestine University AHMED ABU ABSA Dean, Faculty of Engineering, Palestine University IBRAHIM AL-ASTAL Dean, Faculty of Education, Gaza Islamic University TAYSIR IBRAHIM Dean, Faculty of Sharia and Law. Gaza Islamic University SAID AL-ZUBDE President, University of Applied Sciences REFAAT ALAREER Lecturer in English Literature, Gaza Islamic University
December 7, 2025 at 11:25 PM
devingtieme.bsky.social
On the other hand, Stancil will fight you for saying it was wrong to supply unlimited bombs to the ones doing this. Are we sure the Venezuelans in the boat weren’t human shields 🤔

bsky.app/profile/devi...
Gaza now: miles of rubble and bombed out buildings that used to be a city.
December 7, 2025 at 11:05 PM
devingtieme.bsky.social
Remember when you called people childish for caring about this? 👇

www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/202...

bsky.app/profile/devi...
Al Jazeera, “Foreign doctors say Israel systematically targeting Gaza’s children.” Date: September 14, 2025. Excerpt: California trauma surgeon Feroze Sidhwa told the paper he initially assumed the cases were isolated until he encountered multiple boys in one hospital, all shot directly in the head. Later, when he compared notes with other international doctors, he realised it was widespread. “This is targeted fire. Someone is pulling a trigger on a child,” he said. Forensic pathologists consulted by Volkskrant reviewed X-rays and confirmed the wounds were consistent with long-range sniper or drone fire, not shrapnel from explosions. Former Dutch army commander Mart de Kruif said the sheer number of children shot in the head or chest made the claim of “accidents” implausible.
December 7, 2025 at 5:47 PM
devingtieme.bsky.social
Remember how you spent 2023 and 2024 calling people virtue signaling wreckers for caring about things like this

bsky.app/profile/devi...
Tweet by the news outlet Democracy Now, April 16, 2024: “On Monday, doctors uncovered a new mass grave at the decimated al-Shifa Hospital. The bodies clearly belonged to patients as some still had medical bandages & catheters attached to their dead bodies. Attacks on healthcare are considered war crimes.”
December 7, 2025 at 5:34 PM
devingtieme.bsky.social
Do you remember this?

www.aa.com.tr/en/info/info...

Maybe you were too busy telling people to shut up about it

bsky.app/profile/devi...
Infographic: 257 journalists killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza as of February 12, 2025.
December 7, 2025 at 5:30 PM
devingtieme.bsky.social
Why people say the economy is bad, per Will Stancil: 6. They think poor people are too important
Stancil skeet, 12/15/23 (quoting a headline saying that “Homelessness Rose to Record Level This Year”: This is bad, we don't have enough housing in the United States. But this does not indicate the economy is bad for the 99.8% of Americans who are not homeless. Stancil, 12/27/24 (2 skeets): Skeet 1: An increase in homelessness, while clearly alarming, does not undermine the economy or recovery. There's just a huge scale disparity. Over 80 million Americans are in the lowest quartile. The increase in homelessness was about 120k Americans. One population is over 650 times larger than the other. Skeet 2: We should obviously build more housing and implement other measures to help people living at this extreme bottom fringe of US society, but we are talking about a fraction of a percent of the population, not the whole economy. The vast affluence elsewhere is why we can afford to help them Stancil, 9/28/25 (2 skeets): Skeet 1: Looking at the bottom ten percent of Americans to measure the strength of the entire American economy clearly leaves us with some blind spots. Looking at the bottom ten percent - and then including programs that are specifically targeted for that ten percent - is borderline nonsensical. Skeet 2: None of these lefties would stand for an argument that only considered the wellbeing of families at the 90th percentile and above, but that's effectively what they're doing, in reverse. Stancil skeet, 11/8/25: Remarkably it's often seemed as if this presumption of the fundamental political agency of the poor persists even when you explicitly define that poorest group as a minority. "Dems can't win if the poorest decile is struggling!" Okay, but why not? That's 10% of the population! It's not many people!
December 7, 2025 at 5:19 PM
devingtieme.bsky.social
3/3
Stancil skeet, 11/21/25: The "affordability crisis" is a serious-sounding formulation of a fundamentally reactionary concept, that things were simply better in the past and we should go back. What things? You know, basically of it. Do the numbers show this? Not really, but we just KNOW. Make America Affordable Again! Stancil skeets, 11/27/25 (2 skeets): Skeet 1: The four horsemen of the apocalypse are nostalgia, ressentiment, conspiracism, and indulgent bigotry Skeet 2: "Things were better before" "We are suffering because they took the good times from us" "They're working together in ways we cannot see to take what we deserve" "Doesn't it feel good to hurt them? Your inferiors, who persecuted you?"
December 7, 2025 at 5:44 AM
devingtieme.bsky.social
2/3
Stancil skeet, 8/5/25: Yeah, I know it's crazy, but "in the 70s, a person working one job could buy a house for his family, we must RETVRN" and "in the 70s, a white man working one job could buy a house for his family, we must RETVRN" are not actually that far apart and clearly draw on the same hazy reactionary nostalgia Stancil skeet, 8/5/25: A LOT of extremely online leftism comes from the exact same place as extremely online rightism: the internet propping up a permission structure for adherents to indulge in whatever makes them angry, which, wouldn't you know it, is often "Things were better in the good old days and we must retvrn" Stancil skeets, 11/9/25 (2 skeets): Skeet 1: A large share of politics coded as "left" on this site is in fact reactionary nostalgia - an inchoate belief that times were better in the good old days and nebulous forces have taken that from us. Skeet 2: It's only distinct from the far right's reactionary nostalgia in that the forces being blamed are neoliberalism and capitalism rather than liberalism and racial pluralism. But the resentful paranoia about the modern world is unmistakable on both sides, even if certain explanations are taboo here. Stancil, 11/11/25 (2 skeets): Skeet 1: I think on some level I get really frustrated to see progressives claim the far past was better than today because it's explicitly the MAGA project to take us back there, and people need to understand that it was a poor, cruel, ugly, hard world compared to the one we've built Skeet 2: There is nothing to RETVRN to. There is no great America in the past for us to reclaim. The America we lived in only a year ago was the best of all of the Americas there have ever been
December 7, 2025 at 5:42 AM
devingtieme.bsky.social
Why people say the economy is bad, per Will Stancil: 5. They are MAGA (1/3)
Stancil tweet, 11/5/24: Yes: economic dissatisfaction ultimately reflects the domination of the information environment by the right wing (and antisocial sentiment more generally), rather than real economic conditions, which are better than most voters have ever lived through. Stancil, 11/13/24 (3 skeets): Skeet 1: It is no different than the way MAGA claims the right to invent its own facts: you know crime is bad, you know immigration is out of control, even if the numbers say otherwise. It doesn't matter what is REAL, it only matters what you believe, and screw anyone who tries to impeach your feelings Skeet 2: Indeed, you can go look at MAGA talking about the economy and they're saying the EXACT SAME THINGS as the left-of-center misery merchants: grocery prices, egg prices, lived experience, interest rates, the statistics are a lie, don't trust the data, blah blah blah Skeet 3: People need to grasp that regardless of the partisan valence of their inchoate anger, MAGA and the left are ultimately joined together in this project: insisting on the sacred inviolability of memelike internet misery, which cannot be impeached by facts or evidence Stancil skeet, 2/24/25: The number of lefties who still think I'm persona non grata because I used charts to argue that wages and employment were way up is actually appalling. Most of them won't even argue that I was wrong, just that | "should have known better." You're scum if you believe this! Barely better than MAGA Skeets, 8/5/25: Shane Carrow @/shanecarrow.bsky.social: Literally the opening piece in Studs Terkels' 'Jobs' is an interview with a 1970s steel mill worker who talks about what a shit job it is and why he's making his kids go to college so they don't have to do this Stancil (quote tweeting the preceding skeet): the entire American left: "RETVRN"
December 7, 2025 at 5:38 AM
devingtieme.bsky.social
2/2
Skeets, 10/13/25: Chris S. @/chrismshea.bsky.social: Listen I'm left. Not the communist left but far enough to realize you are oblivious to the plight of average Americans and it's really pathetic. Only the rich have benefited by the economic growth of the last 5 years. Life has gotten harder for us average people. Are you sure you're not a fascist? Stancil: This is not true. This is a myth you have absorbed because it makes you angry and the internet has provided you with endless resources to defend and validate any belief that makes you angry Will Stancil skeet, 11/3/25: Not to mention that the "discussion" Very Online Leftists want to have with me is just "calling me an idiot for not admitting that random TikToks where people earn millions of views sobbing about grocery prices do not actually supersede or disprove carefully collected BLS and Federal Reserve data"
December 7, 2025 at 5:33 AM
devingtieme.bsky.social
Why people say the economy is bad, per Will Stancil: 4. They are doomers (1/2)
Stancil tweet, 10/2/23: Comically low economic approval during record low unemployment, and well after inflation peaks, just goes to show how much "the economy" is just a narrative constructed by media and memes, and the utter futility of running on it into that negative media headwind Stancil tweet, 11/13/23: Listen to an economist: something has gone terribly wrong in the American political-economic feedback system. People are no longer accurately perceiving the state of the economy. And it's not that hard to guess what's happening: it's the media and social media doom loop. Stancil, 11/23/23 (2 skeets): Skeet one: And food costs and rent, far from being signs of a deeper rot in the economy, are basically the darkest clouds in the whole economy. Still not remotely sufficient to explain the widespread despair. Skeet two: Instead, what explains the widespread despair is the quoted post, which demonstrates how social media has enabled this ChatGPT-esque approach to these debates, where whatever narratives the audience WANTS to hear (gloom and doom) are hallucinated into existence, fake stats and all. Stancil skeet, 11/29/23: From the reliable TikTok genre of "woman cries about hard times" to the ridiculous, endlessly-repeated LendingClub survey about "paycheck-to-paycheck" to the whole thing being promoted by a left-leaning online outlet, a pristine example of how we've built a giant factory for misery narratives.
December 7, 2025 at 5:29 AM
devingtieme.bsky.social
Why people say the economy is bad, per Will Stancil: 3. They don’t live here
Stancil tweet, 12/5/23: One reason I think social media vibes are so influential is that if you say the US economy is good you get jumped on by 100 people who are furious and then if you check their locations 50 of them aren't in the US, but that's sure not stopping them from egging on the mob anger Stancil tweet, 1/19/24: One reason I think the vibes have been really bad is that the rest of the Western anglosphere economies, lacking the steady hand of Joe Biden at the rudder, ABSOLUTELY SUCK, and those people share social media with us and express their nonstop gloom. Stancil tweet, 2/15/24: My personal favorite vibecession theory is that international social media means the US has been absorbing negative narratives from the dismal economies elsewhere in the Anglosphere. Brits and Australians reliably get really mad online if you say the economy is good!
December 7, 2025 at 5:17 AM
devingtieme.bsky.social
3/3
Stancil skeet, 9/7/25: Biden presided over the greatest economy of all time by any measure. It's literally incontestable that Americans were richer during the Biden administration than the residents of any large nation during any period in history. Stancil skeet, 10/28/25: Look, I obviously agree Dems should be willing to take more fights. But the idea that Biden could have changed things if he'd done more to reverse "worker backsliding" is delusional. He oversaw some of the greatest material gains for US workers in decades. And those workers DESPISED him for it. Stancil skeet, 11/6/25: What happened in actual practice is that grocery prices went up but wages went up faster, so that people ended up buying more stuff. The average American actually didn't have to make cutbacks. They bought MORE and BETTER stuff, including by going out to eat more often! Stancil skeet, 11/9/25: People also consume more and higher-quality housing, food, and healthcare today than they did 30 years ago. It's true that as consumer goods have become extraordinarily cheap we spend a larger share of our income on housing and healthcare. But we're still consuming more and better.
December 7, 2025 at 5:11 AM
devingtieme.bsky.social
2/3
Stancil, 12/5/24 (2 skeets): First skeet: The thing I can't get over is how by just about any measure you can find, life in the US is better than the recent past and dramatically better than the distant past, and yet it's taken as a given that we live in a dystopia. We simply do not, except for how we keep electing dystopian leaders Second skeet: By most empirical measures you'd rather be alive in the US today than pretty much any other country in history at any point. I'm not saying things are perfect, they certainly are not. But the amount of inchoate rage and discontent simply doesn't align with conditions on the ground in any logical way Stancil, 1/4/25 (2 skeets): First skeet: When it comes to food choice, a majority of Americans are literally living far better than the kings of old. Better than kings-of-fairly-recently, even! But it's true that embracing this mind-boggling luxury, touching one of the core pillars of human existence, will increase food expenses somewhat Second skeet: The nice thing about having extra income is that you can get better stuff: clothes, goods, housing, food. But people buy better stuff and then... complain it costs more. Like I guess the idea is that everything we consume should get better while getting cheaper so we can have more and save more? Stancil skeet, 1/4/25: What many zoomers do not understand, because they've never experienced an actual bad economy or food markets characterized by anything less than extreme choice and diversity, is that being able to rotate cuisines nightly is a ludicrous modern luxury inconceivable for many Americans even 20 years ago Stancil skeet, 1/11/25: People are consuming more than ever before, and real wages are higher than ever before. That means cost of living is, to a first approximation, lower than ever before. Democrats think it's really savvy to challenge Trump to "listen to Americans and lower cost of living" but he's already won there.
December 7, 2025 at 5:08 AM
devingtieme.bsky.social
Why people say the economy is bad, per Will Stancil: 2. They are spoiled (1/3)
Will Stancil, 1/3/24 (three tweets) Tweet 1: Real wages are the highest they've ever been. On average people are making more money than they ever have in US history Tweet 2: No, it's true, I promise: after controlling for inflation people are making the most money they ever have, on average. Tweet 3: Housing and rent may cost more, but food costs are way down, other costs are down. The quality of housing is also up. Most stuff is cheaper now and it makes up the difference. Stancil, 1/7/24: One pretty good vibecession theory is that a certain segment of the middle class experienced a lot of lifestyle creep during COVID, when life became a series of cheap food deliveries made available by cheap labor and low interest rates, and now people think that's normal Stancil tweet, 4/23/24: Biden has presided over a ludicrously pro-worker, pro-labor, pro-employment administration, and has been rewarded for doing so with both a spectacular economy and the bitter economic resentment of many progressives Stancil tweet, 6/12/24: I really think one thing happening with the vibecession is that eating out has become more the norm - and people forget that they're doing it more than before, or that this represents a more comfortable lifestyle - and DELIVERY has also been more normalized, in the same way.
December 7, 2025 at 5:04 AM