• Jordan Lund@lemmy.one
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    39
    ·
    1 year ago

    Because, for a lot of people, the economy isn’t improving.

    Say you were on the verge of buying a house, interest rates have doubled, are at a 22 year high, and now you’re priced out of the market.

    Or, say you’re like me and bought a house in 2021 with a 3.25% interest rate. You’re locked in. You can’t sell your house, a) because nobody could afford the 7% it’s going to take to buy it and b) you likely can’t afford the 7% it will likely take to buy a new house.

    Refinancing isn’t an option because who wants a higher rate. Ditto for a 2nd mortgage.

    And this doesn’t even get into rising food and fuel costs.

    • mean_bean279@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      I don’t know how people are surprised by the current interest rates or market… when lockdowns happened my wife and I had bought our house a year prior and I immediately told her since we both had high paying and safe jobs we should remodel everything we wanted and buy three cars since I figured interest rates would get jacked up and supply economics indicated people were going to stop doing renovation work using contractors for a minute before supplies would get expensive.

      These are all market reactions. It’s a rubber band of effects that happened because of the pandemic and the shock to the economy. Capitalism requires constant feeding so when the world stopped it for even a month it did major damage and when it went on longer in key areas it basically collapsed those sectors. It’s gonna be a while before things get better, but honestly this recovery is better than I expected.

      • MisterScruffy@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        Sounds like capitalism is the problem. Boom and bust cycles are terrible for working people and great for billionaires.

        • mean_bean279@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          1 year ago

          100% it’s why I mentioned Capitalism requiring feeding. It’s like when people say “I can’t wait for the next housing collapse so I can afford a home.” While forgetting the part of housing collapsed where the average worker can’t afford a house and often all that happens is the millionaire and billionaire class swoops in and buys up all the property. 08 wasn’t famous for making more average Americans able to afford a house. It made it so companies like Blackstone could go around and feast for cheap.

    • pjhenry1216@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      That isn’t a reflection of the strength of the economy. That’s just capitalism. Republicans are even further from being able to fix that. They somehow think getting rid of taxes and benefits will somehow fix that. Sure you can get some deflation if you increase the amount of debt of the populace, but that’s not an actual fix.

      Our economy’s health is not directly related to the average person’s buying power. One can argue that it’s actually inversely proportional.

      • MisterScruffy@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Our economy’s health is not directly related to the average person’s buying power. One can argue that it’s actually inversely proportional.

        If that’s the case then a weak economy is what we should be aiming for

        • pjhenry1216@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Or just fix the problem and stop letting capitalism run rampant without regulations and start taxing the corporations and wealthy individuals who’s own profits are responsible for a majority of inflation.