Bidenomics: 83% of Americans cutting back on personal spending due to inflation, poll finds

While this current Administrations response to inflation has been nothing short of pathetic, the bolded part isn't necessarily a bad thing....

I've said this dozens of times before but the majority of our economic model is based on convincing Americans to buy crap they don't need with money they don't have. Even before this inflation crisis and the recession that we are probably going to figure out we're in next month Americans were still terrible with money and terrible at saving anything because we just tend to buy way too much stuff. I'm obviously not talking about the actual poor who are spending their meager wages on essentials I'm talking about the average American middle class household that earns 6 figures yet is in debt up to their eyeballs and one missed paycheck away from foreclosure.

Again I am by no means cheering people losing their buying power but if any positive could come from this perhaps it can help some folks plan their lives a bit better and be more responsible with the money that they do have going forward. Take the 32% of drivers who are spending way more on gas now. Honest genuine assessment of this, how many of these folks are driving a Honda Civic or something who are commuting to work and have no choice but to spend the money on gas? Or how many are driving a 2019+ full sized V8 powered pickup truck that they use to do nothing other than commute to work or drop their kids off to school? But they "want" a nice big pickup truck that gets 15mpg because trucks are cool? How many of those spending $100-$500 more per month on food are buying raw goods to cook their own dinner vs spending 10 bucks per easy convenient frozen meals or ready made meals that cost way more than cooking for yourself and your family? How many people are spending 100-200 bucks per month on Starbucks hot milkshakes every morning instead of buying a 30 dollar coffee pot and making 500 cups of coffee at home to take to work for 10 bucks?

I'm not ragging on folks, I get it life is hard and luxuries are nice but the reality is that recessions and inflation spikes are a "thing" in the real world. They do happen sometimes whether they are triggered by normal economic factors or the fact that those running a country happen to be incompetent fools. Folks need to seriously understand that and at least make a halfway decent effort to prepare themselves and their families for when this sort of things rears it's ugly head.

Sure we can be rightfully pissed and point the finger at those who did this and those who put the people in charge who did this but at the end of the day what exactly is that going to do? Crush them in November fine, that isn't going to magically make my gas 3 bucks a gallon again the damage is done. Best thing to do is better situate ourselves for WHEN (not if) this sort of thing happens again in the future so it stings a little less next time because betting on a 2019 style economy indefinitely is just not responsible and setting up our lives with the belief that it will always be that strong is a recipe for disaster.

 

Absolutely. Of course nobody is happy about whats currently going on and as per protocol the ones actually responsible will never openly admit nor take responsibility for it. The silver lining is the fact that this is going to be an unfortunate painful lesson for a whole lot of people when it comes to financial responsibility that some will hopefully acknowledge going forward when the economy recovers.

Here's the reality that nobody likes to hear based on modern American culture. We spend too much money, period. Even during the most prosperous years of our economy the majority of Americans had less than $1000 in savings with most Americans being a mere ONE missed paycheck away from being absolutely screwed. We suffer from lifestyle creep, get a raise and increase your standard of living, buy that thing you wanted, take a vacation, etc. Granted yes these are all good things and as I said I get it, life is hard and luxuries are nice and yes live your life because you very well could die tomorrow. But you probably won't.

"You" have no control over the economy. At any given point in your life the economy could take a turn for the worst whether that be due to natural disasters, global plague, normal economic factors, or the majority of voters deciding to elect completely unqualified idiots to run the country for a few years. "You" can't control ANY of that as a single individual but what you can do is prepare yourself for not IF but WHEN this sort of thing happens because it WILL happen again and there is absolutely nothing "you" can do about it.

I learned in 05-06 when gas was 5+ bucks a gallon not to buy gas guzzling vehicles unless I absolutely NEEDED one, not "want" one, need one. That's why I drive a 30 year old small pickup and have a full sized V8 that sits parked unless I need to haul or tow something that my old truck can't handle.
I learned how to do auto repair to fix things during the years I was struggling on minimum wage and was one alternator failure away from going bankrupt if I had to take it to a shop.
I learned how to cook food for myself back when I was forced to eat fast food and ramen noodles because it was literally all I could afford and didn't even know how to cook rice at the time.
I learned to pocket my pay increases instead of increasing my lifestyle with the extra money back when I decided to get a larger apartment after getting a raise then lost the job and realized I was 2 weeks away from being homeless unless I figured out how to pay the rent.

The key takeaway here is that through prior hardship I learned. So now during the next (current) hardship this particular one stings a whole lot less than the last time because I now have the life skills and financial ability to weather the storm better than a lot of people. Unfortunately a whole lot of folks are about to/currently are learning the hard way that they need to make some changes in life the same way I learned the hard way when this sort of thing happened the last time. You need to learn how to cook for yourself. You need to learn how to fix your own vehicle. You need to learn how to ask yourself do you NEED that full sized V8 15mpg F-150 or do you WANT one and would a Honda Civic do the exact same thing you want a big truck to do for a lot less money and a lot less gas. Do you NEED to increase your quality of life with that new raise or should you put that extra money away until you build up a decent emergency fund just in case you get laid off next year? Thats the silver lining.

So yes blame whoever voted in this knuckleheaded government we are currently stuck with. It doesn't matter. Every single person who voted for these people can come out tomorrow with a formal apology and say we are sorry we made a mistake and what exactly is that going to do? Make the rest of us feel better emotionally who didn't vote for these people? Yeah well fine, shame them, that ain't gonna magically make your gas and food cheaper...