“It’s the economy, stupid.”

Even though consumer sentiments about the economy remain low, inflation rates have actually been steadily declining for the past year. (Image Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Many people, especially young people, believe that our country’s economy is going in the wrong direction. Polling data from a New York Times/Siena Poll shows that 59% of voters under the age of 30 rate our economy as being “poor”. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth! 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment rates are currently just under 4%. This means that record numbers of jobs are being created, and millions of people are going to work at levels comparable to just before the pandemic. Additionally, the inflation rate has fallen from its 8% height in July 2022 to just 3.2% as of October, which is approaching the Federal Reserve’s persistent goal of a 2% rate, meaning that prices have stopped increasing.

So why do people still think that the economy is doing so poorly? One possible reason could be due to misinformation on social media sites such as TikTok. According to the Pew Research Center, 32% of Americans aged 18-29 get their news from the social media app, and according to a recent article in the New York Times, trends such as the “Silent Depression” that disingenuously compare today’s economy with that of the Great Depression have received hundreds of thousands of views.

However, this could also be because our economy still hasn’t recovered from the COVID pandemic and ensuing supply chain disruptions. According to the Energy Information Administration, the average price of gasoline is $3.443/gallon, almost a full dollar more than it was pre-pandemic, and housing prices are almost 150% more than what they were before the pandemic.

Regardless of whether people are still facing some economic issues or whether most of the discontent is purely based on misinformation, it is important for Americans to have a more positive outlook on the economy that actually reflects the facts. According to an op-ed in the Washington Post, if this negative consumer sentiment continues, it could risk becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy leading to an actual recession, a term called the “vibecession”. So the next time you watch a TikTok or read a post that perpetuates harmful myths like this one, instead of spreading it further, figure out the real facts of the situation.

Works Cited:

“All-Transactions House Price Index for the United States.” Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), 28 Nov. 2023, https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/USSTHPI. Accessed 29 Nov. 2023.

“Civilian unemployment rate.” Bureau of Labor Statistics, 8 Dec. 2023, https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/civilian-unemployment-rate.htm. Accessed 29 Nov. 2023.

“FAQs.” Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 27 Aug. 2020, https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/economy_14400.htm. Accessed 29 Nov. 2023.

Levin, Jonathan. “Risks Are Growing of a Double-Dip ‘Vibecession’.” The Washington Post, 28 Sep. 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/2023/09/28/risks-are-growing-of-a-double-dip-vibecession/4c1a9518-5dee-11ee-b961-94e18b27be28_story.html. Accessed 29 Nov. 2023.

Matsa, Katerina Eva. “More Americans are getting news on TikTok, bucking the trend seen on most other social media sites.” Pew Research Center, 15 Nov. 2023, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/11/15/more-americans-are-getting-news-on-tiktok-bucking-the-trend-seen-on-most-other-social-media-sites. Accessed 29 Nov. 2023.

“Petroleum and Other Liquids.” U.S. Energy Information Administration, 11 Dec. 2023, https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=emm_epm0_pte_nus_dpg&f=m. Accessed 29 Nov. 2023.

Smialek, Jeanna and Tankersley, Jim. “Want to Know What’s Bedeviling Biden? TikTok Economics May Hold Clues.” The New York Times, 17 Nov. 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/17/business/economy/tiktok-biden-economy.html. Accessed 29 Nov. 2023.

Sorkin, Andrew Ross, et al. “Voters Aren’t Believing in Bidenomics.” The New York Times, 6 Nov. 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/11/06/business/dealbook/biden-economy-trump-2024.html. Accessed 29 Nov. 2023.
“12-month percentage change, Consumer Price Index, selected categories.” Bureau of Labor Statistics, 8 Dec. 2023, https://www.bls.gov/charts/consumer-price-index/consumer-price-index-by-category-line-chart.htm. Accessed 29 Nov. 2023.

What High School is Like in 2023

Mengze Li, a senior at Ames High School, is working hard in AP Lang (Credit: Aneesh Shrotriya)

One word I would use to describe high school in 2023 is “hectic.” There are so many things going on, not just in homework and learning in classes alone, but also with having to juggle extracurricular activities and the looming specter of applying to colleges on the horizon. It seems like every day passes at an alarming rate, and some deadline or another is always just ahead. If you aren’t working frantically to tread water, you’ll begin to fall behind. All of these things piling on all at once make high school today an extremely stressful experience.

However, I could also describe high school as “mind-numbingly slow.” It has been crawling forward at a snail’s pace, and after 12 years of straight education, school has started to become a bit dull. In the big picture, we do the same kinds of things every day: wake up early in the morning and drive to school, sit through classes, and then leave school in the afternoon to go home, work or club activities, and eventually burn the midnight oil working through homework. Every day seems to blur together in the long run, and it starts to feel like we’re just doing things for the sake of doing them, never accomplishing anything.

In my opinion, this is the essential contradiction of high school, especially senior year. We’ve been going at it for so long that few among us can even remember a time when we weren’t in school, but things change every year, sometimes even just for the sake of it, making it impossible to fall into a consistent routine. Additionally, although everything is coming at us at a breakneck speed, it seems like after you’re done with one effort, you only have the next big thing to look forward to, ad infinitum. Even though the light at the end of the tunnel is nearly in sight, there’s still so much work to do before we’re finally finished with it all.