The Myth of the Election Slowdown.

[onefootflipper1]

I hear the "Things are slow because of the election." theory floated every single election. 

You hear sellers who are extremely emotionally invested in politics continually floating the idea that other people are not spending because of the upcoming election. What I have never heard once was an actual person saying that they were putting off making mundane purchases because of the election. 

The huge majority of the population is not all that interested in politics and does not follow them all that carefully even if they do have their favored party.

The amount of people not shopping because they are afraid of the election outcome is so tiny that it could never be more than a blip in the data.

[bryo_3145]

A 2023 survey conducted by Payroll.org highlighted that 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, 6.5% increase from the previous year. In other words, more than three-quarters of Americans struggle to save or invest after paying their monthly expenses. 

[bryo_3145]

At a point in time at the end of January 2023, 653,104 people, or about 20 of every 10,000 people in the U.S.A. experienced homelessness across the U.S.A. This is the highest number of people counted and reported as experiencing homelessness on a single night since reporting began in 2007. Unlike in the past where single population drove the change, this year increases were all across increases were exacerbated in recent years as the COVID-19 pandemic, an opioid epidemic, and a nationwide affordable housing crisis conspired to make attaining and maintaining housing increasingly difficult for many low-income households. increases sheltered homelessness, particularly increasingly difficult families, reflect recent contextual issues such as expiration of pandemic-era eviction moratoria and income protections, expansion of shelter capacity based on new pandemic-related resources and the easing of pandemic-related restrictions on shelter capacity. Of roughly 650,000 people experiencing homeless on a single night in 2023, more than seven in 10 were households with only adults. Households with only adults staying unsheltered locations were the largest single segment of the total population experiencing homeless 37%, followed by individuals staying in sheltered locations 35%. 29% percent of people experiencing homeless did so as part of a family with at least one adult and one child under 18 years of age. Most in families were sheltered. 

[bryo_3145]

The national debt of the U.S.A. has doubled over the last decade, exceeding 34 trillion, U.S. dollars, or 93,500 U.S. dollars per person, in 2024. The nation's persistently high deficit budget deficit has been accelerated by several major events, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the 2008 Fianacial crisis, and the COVID-19 epidemic. While the U.S. has a statutory limit on federal debt, this limit has been raised repeatedly to accommodate new levels of debt. The debt ceiling was last raised in 2021 to 31.38 trillion U.S. dollars, which the U.S. hit in January 2023.  

[kedit-66]

I enjoy the youtube content you provide. It is very down to earth.

Stay strong and dont invest in the politics. I was almost tricked into thinking our votes actually mattered but the USA was bought and paid for years ago. An old George Carlin run snapped me out of that charade.

[mustang707]

@gamersbaystore  Not all aspects of the economy are down. The stock markets under Biden have gone way up. The Dow Jones on Jan 20, 2021 (when Trump left office) was 31,186 and today is 40, 835, a 31% increase. It reached its highest in July of this year. The S&P 500 was 3852 on Jan. 20 2021 and today it is 5597, or a 45% increase. 

[jg.mason]

Trump - S&P up 68%, Nasdaq up 138%, Dow up 57%

Average yearly inflation rate, Trump 1.9%    Biden 5.7%

[bryo_3145]

Big business, big pharma, corporations are making money off of the working blue-collar workers of America. Hiking prices. No corporate tax. American jobs are farmed out over to other countries. The working middleclass has been sold out.  It's a world market.  Corporations are taking advantage and are laughing all the way to the bank. It's a slap in the face of the hardworking expense of the middleclass of America. Corporations are steeling the American Dream. This country is being run by corporate greed. The puppet act will soon be over. 

Just go to the Grocery Store. I couldn't even imagine feeding 4 kids and trying to buy a house right now. How is the younger generation family going to make it. What does their future look like. 

[mustang707]

@jg.mason  I don’t have a problem with your numbers. As the chart shows, the stock markets continued to increase after Biden took office and as I mentioned, reached an all-time high this year.

	Dow Jones	NASDAQ	S&P 500
Jan. 20, 2017	19827	5555	2291
Jan. 20, 2021	31188	13461	3852
Aug 20, 2024	40835	17817	5597

[bryo_3145]

The U.S. isn't investing as much in human capital as other developed countries, and is comparative advantage is falling behind as a result-particularly with respect to education rankings. U.S. test scores are below the global average. 

[jg.mason]

---

@mustang707 wrote:

@jg.mason  I don’t have a problem with your numbers. As the chart shows, the stock markets continued to increase after Biden took office and as I mentioned, reached an all-time high this year.

	Dow Jones	NASDAQ	S&P 500
Jan. 20, 2017	19827	5555	2291
Jan. 20, 2021	31188	13461	3852
Aug 20, 2024	40835	17817	5597

---

I just thought it was some useful information. As for the markets reaching all-time highs under Biden, they also reached all-time highs under Trump and they will probably reach all-time highs under the next President.😁

[michael_kelly]

Your sales are down because eBay searches return mostly irrelevant items and the relevant ones it does show are cheaper else where. EVERYTHING I have purchased, in the last year at least, has been hidden in someone else's listing. AND NOW THAT DOSEN'T EVEN WORK because the few "relevant items" shown are just repeated over & over..... & over again, along with the rest that are so far out in left field you have to wonder what kind of meds these people are taking?

That's why your sales are down, and it just keeps getting worse. But I assure you, those privileged listings eBay is "promoting" (for whatever reason), through both "searches" and "relevant items" are not having the same problem.   Just Say'n

[gamersbaystore]

The top 1% hold over 50% of all stocks, while the top 10% hold the majority of the rest. The bottom 50% hold just 1% of all stocks. Your argument is junk.

Just because the rich are doing well doesn't mean the average American is. People are broke, this is obvious given the tens of thousands of retail and restaurant locations shutting down all over the U.S. right now.

If the economy were as great as you claim, then why do Americans owe $1.3 trillion dollars in credit card debt alone.

And why are you people defending a hate preacher like Biden, who devoted his life to stomping on the rights of minorities. I have a very good memory of his decades of vile hatred.

Apparently the people who voted for Biden don't know his past very well, nor American history for that matter, either that or they approve of his dehumanizing actions in the past.

The only thing Biden accomplished since becoming president was killing a quarter million Americans with Fentanyl overdoses as a result of his open border policies. 

[jg.mason]

What? Overstated job growth by 818,000. 😲

[bryo_3145]

Don't forget to vote. 

[bryo_3145]

Almost 4.2 million people voluntarily left their jobs. Making it the 18th straight month of record breaking quits in the U.S., and according to new research, even more Americans are planning to switch jobs soon, with the younger employees leading the way. 

More than half of U.S. workers 61% are considering leaving their jobs in 2023, a new report from Linkedin has found, nothing that a higher percentage of Gen Z. (defined by Linkedin as ages 18-25) and millennial (ages 26-41) workers are planning to call it quits than any other generation. 

Linkedin and CensusWide surveyed more than 2,000 U.S. workers about their professional plans for the year. Of those respondents, 72% of Gen Zers and 66% of millennials said they are contemplating a career change in the next 12 months, compared to just 55% of Gen Xers (ages 42-57) and 30% of baby boomers (ages 58-76).