Another Thors Day

Thor wearing Megingjörd wielding Mjölnir crafted by dwarfs wins in November

The issue is there is simply no partisan entity paid by lobbyists to care. Your tax dollars line no wallet of any Congress critter. Indeed they fund your further misery. Your consenting to vote for more misery always works. The idea of normalcy is too deeply entrenched to overcome. What is normal on a high speed brakeless train with only an A.I. controlling it? What evidence of COGNITIVE change as an improvement since the murder of JFK? Differences yes, substantial-no. Obviously I exclude dumbing down as a COGNITIVE benefit despite college degrees a-plenty and college debt going higher. As of the first quarter of 2023, student loan debt in the U.S. stands at a total of over $1.77 trillion. More than 92% of this is federal student loan debt, while the remaining amount is owed on private student loans. O yes, we see credit card debt also-Americans now owe a record $1.14 trillion on their credit cards, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported Tuesday.

https://mises.org/mises-wire/americans-are-poorer-united-states-misery-index-rises-again

Inflation remains persistent and citizens have lost more than 24% of their purchasing power since 2019, with a 0.6% negative real wage growth in the January 2021–June 2024 period. Real wage growth in 2024 is rising only 0.8% year-on-year.

This shows why the United States Misery Index is rising to 7.4% in June from 6.8% in January. The Misery Index, which measures unemployment and inflation, bottomed out at 68% in 2023 and has been worsening since then. Furthermore, the index is far away from the pre-pandemic level of 5.4%.

All these measures allow us to understand why Americans are negative about the economy. Despite messages of redistribution, social policies, and equality, the average citizen is poorer, and only the wealthy have been able to improve their position and navigate high rates and inflation thanks to investments in the stock market. While this shouldn’t come as a surprise, it’s important to remember. There is nothing social about increasing debt, deficit spending, and taxes.

The problem for most Americans is that it is increasingly difficult to make ends meet despite record government spending, or because of its negative impact on inflation and taxes.

“Me miserable! Which way shall I fly
Infinite wrath and infinite despair?
Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell;
And in the lowest deep a lower deep,
Still threat'ning to devour me, opens wide,
To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.”

―John Milton,Paradise Lost