You're cherry picking one potential factor...

My point was simply that we're measuring sentiment which is best understood as "hope for future prosperity" not "my current economic condition".

3 years ago the reasoning could be different.

One element is certainly: party out of power messaging.

IMO you're not recognizing that these sentiment polls are mainly measuring future expectations. People feel the economy is bad because: layoffs increasing, tariffs beginning to impact, healthcare costs increasing, mega corporations getting richer and more powerful...etc. Not "today's impact on me"

I feel like there was a window of opportunity at the outset (or even before opening of war) where US could have said "we'll strike targets inside Ukrainian territory at their request".... And perhaps would have deterred the invasion altogether.

But like... They're doing it. So clearly the system doesn't prevent it. So... Maybe we have a system that DOES allow "I think" to work.

Change the system!

I was really hoping to find how in the replies here.

They don't have a plan here. They aren't proposing anything. They're just muddying the waters with a bunch of nonsense to make sure they can kill the expanded subsidies and preserve their tax cuts for rich and corporate benefactors.

I mean I think there's definitely issues with wage growth vs cost growth, but I think there's a missing element that **everything** is a scam/grift/frustration machine. Even for people doing well, it feels like losing everything is not too far away.

By numbers you're indeed correct... BUT-You miss the feeling: money and time feel insecure. Some product bad? Good luck with the chatbot or phone menu. get sick? $1000s + lost income. Lose a job for a while? Foreclosure. Hard to feel sure and comfortable. Inflation just feels like "one more thing"

I'll point: out a lot of things would be better if political leaders spent less time being pundits, and more time practicing the politics they're advocating and building that message.