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Comment by Racing0461 | Hacker News Reader

Unemployment/GDP/<insert other stat here> are pretty much vanity metrics for the average family.

Doesnt really mean anything if rent is double and gas is 5$ a gal. It's actually even more insulting when the gov is telling you how good you have it.

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Look up GDP, unemployment rates, and inflation rates during the Great Depression and then tell us GDP and unemployment are vanity metrics.

I think you actually might not know how good you have it.

We have armies of econ grads measuring baskets of goods to account for this and report it in various metrics.

Try a search "cost of living basket of goods" for more info.

Worry not, despite unrealistic public expectations and wanton reductivism bred from saltiness regarding wealth's stubborn unwillingness to consistently grow without effort... We actually can measure a lot of useful things.

Worry not.

> It's actually even more insulting when the gov is telling you how good you have it.

I agree that these aren't the best times the country has ever seen, but, objectively speaking, things are pretty good. Just as an example, gas is $5 a gallon (it's actually $3.40). But, where is it cheaper? Belarus? Is that really where you want to live?

>"But, where is it cheaper? Belarus? Is that really where you want to live?"

Why the fuck would we compare our lives to Belarus, Zimbabwe Ethiopia / etc. Let them sort their own problems. I can compare my country (Canada) to what it was 30 years ago and I do not like where we are going.

Ok, but compare yourself to the rest of the world. There's literally almost nowhere better to live than in Canada. You're assuming the current state is an aberration and that the status quo of the past is somehow obtainable. But most of human history has been profound suffering of the masses. More than likely, the good times of ol' are the aberration and aren't coming back.

Another thing to consider: the entire wealth of Canada and the U.S. is predicated on a genocide. Yea, it turns out when you're not killing people and taking their land, it generally gets more expensive over time.

Is that past an aberration or rather something we're actively destroying? We spent literally trillions of dollars on Iraq. By the time Israel and Ukraine are done, we'll also be into the trillions there. This is money that could have been used to have improve society in countless ways.

Get humanity to Mars? Sure, it's literally a rounding error on the scale of the money we completely squander. Fund a million startups? Sure, why not? A trillion bucks can offer a million dollars to a million startups, which is kind of mind boggling to even think about. One can think of near to any cause, and they could all be exceptionally well funded with all the money we waste on war and geopolitics. Because war has this amazing magic trick. It can take a trillion dollars and just make it disappear, like it never existed, with nothing to show for it. Houdini couldn't hold a candle to that sort of wizardry.

>"Ok, but compare yourself to the rest of the world."

I do not want to. I do not live in "the rest of the world". And Canada has everything for people to live decent life and keep improving it. Our "servants" however keep fucking it up lately.

Just looking at gasoline prices is misleading. You need to look at how much people spend on gas, and on cars, insurance, maintenance, parking, commute in traffic etc. If gas is more expensive in Barcelona, but I can walk to work or take the subway there then quality of life might be much better there even with higher gas prices.

Regarding the times objectively being pretty good, it depends what objectives you're using. Measures of consumer sentiment, for example, are similar to the 2008 financial crisis.

I would think if your metrics all say the economy is good and people mostly say it's bad, then your metrics are probably broken.

Retail gas prices have been just about flat for 50 years. Energy expenses as a fraction of GDP have never been lower. Household spending on motor fuels is also historically low. I really have no idea why people point to gas prices, which are objectively dirt cheap.

Flat? Not in the USA where I lived. A gallon of gas was 0.99 in 1999, and also 0.99 for a brief time in 2020. It is now $3+.

> Energy expenses as a fraction of GDP have never been lower

This is the kind of bullshit i'm talking about.

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