A real dog and pony show going on in the House today, as congresspeople who constantly accept and solicit support from antisemites (and/or are antisemites themselves) are accusing public schools of being antisemitic.

Hards

I agree. I guess buying power in general is a better way to judge. How about the ability to take a family of four to Disney World on vacation? IMO, if you can take a family vacation with less stress than four years, that is an accomplishment and you are better off

I'm not sure.  I think that single measurements like this will always be a pretty inaccurate way of knowing how strong the economy is.  I honestly don't know what the best way to measure the economy as a whole is.  Probably some combination of CPI, unemployment, wage growth, housing prices/construction, and GDP.  And even that is a macro way to look at things.  The economy of one city to another is going to vary to some degree.

Sometimes I think people look at the economy as sort of "vibes based", and depending on the political climate they are biased to think things are going better or worse than they actually are.  I prefer hard data, as always... but what exactly the criteria to measure is certainly up for debate.

Hards

I agree. I guess buying power in general is a better way to judge. How about the ability to take a family of four to Disney World on vacation? IMO, if you can take a family vacation with less stress than four years, that is an accomplishment and you are better off

The problem I see with that is the amount of regulation (or deregulation), legislation and lobbying that is done on behalf of corporation and ultra wealthy interests far outweighs what is done for the average family of four.

And that's got nearly nothing to do with the president or their administration.

Hards

I agree. I guess buying power in general is a better way to judge. How about the ability to take a family of four to Disney World on vacation? IMO, if you can take a family vacation with less stress than four years, that is an accomplishment and you are better off

rocky

How do you define better off for yourself? I define it by have I done better than the average person. Having more money but being on par with the masses is not better off, imo.

Now, I am guessing you feel the same way, but I think many people have been lulled into believing they are better off simply because their net worth went up. I know a lot of under 40 people that have a bigger next egg than 4, 8 or 10 years ago and their ability to buy a bigger house is lower than it was 10 years ago.

Housing affordability is sort of a bad way to measure the economy.  I think we've discussed the reasons housing has exploded in price in the last twenty years.