Heading into the November presidential election, one of the biggest issues on voters' minds is the economy. According to a new poll, 73% of Americans say strengthening it is their top concern.
When people rate the economy they are looking at their personal situation. The article is complaining that people aren’t looking at all these economic indicators, but it’s not clear why they would care about them if they personally are facing hardship.
They shouldn’t care about the economic indicators but they should care about their own interests.
Conflating the economy with your personal finances is like conflating the number of trees in your country with the state of repair of your house.
The government could invest in planting new trees and agricultural maintenance, but that has nothing to do with how your wooden house was built.
Similarly, the economy, the ecosystem of finance, can be very strong without affecting your personal financial situation, since the two are unrelated.
How many trees are planted and how healthy the trees are doesn’t have much to do with the carpenter who used cheap wood or poor insulation when building your house.
This misunderstanding is an example of false equivalence: The economy means money, My finances means money, so the economy means my finances.
Since the US economy is completely separate from control over your personal finances (except for the stimulus checks), the health of the economy has nothing to do with how much your bosses choose to pay you or the benefits you are given.
That’s determined by the corporation employing you and the regulations they follow.
Those circumstances can be changed by laborers joining a union, the national labor relations board, the ACLU, grocery regulations, by good in responsible social decisions in general.
When people rate the economy they are looking at their personal situation. The article is complaining that people aren’t looking at all these economic indicators, but it’s not clear why they would care about them if they personally are facing hardship.
They shouldn’t care about the economic indicators but they should care about their own interests.
Conflating the economy with your personal finances is like conflating the number of trees in your country with the state of repair of your house.
The government could invest in planting new trees and agricultural maintenance, but that has nothing to do with how your wooden house was built.
Similarly, the economy, the ecosystem of finance, can be very strong without affecting your personal financial situation, since the two are unrelated.
How many trees are planted and how healthy the trees are doesn’t have much to do with the carpenter who used cheap wood or poor insulation when building your house.
This misunderstanding is an example of false equivalence: The economy means money, My finances means money, so the economy means my finances.
Since the US economy is completely separate from control over your personal finances (except for the stimulus checks), the health of the economy has nothing to do with how much your bosses choose to pay you or the benefits you are given.
That’s determined by the corporation employing you and the regulations they follow.
Those circumstances can be changed by laborers joining a union, the national labor relations board, the ACLU, grocery regulations, by good in responsible social decisions in general.