There was a recent poll about my home state of Michigan where they asked people for their thoughts on the state of the nation’s economy today.
Just 35% of people described the economy as excellent (6%) or good (29%) while 65% described it as either not so good (28%) or poor (37%).
But when asked how they would describe their own personal financial situation these days, a majority of people (61%) described their circumstances as excellent (9%) or good (52%) while 38% described it as either not so good (25%) or poor (13%).
So the prevailing sentiment of this group is: I’m doing just fine thank you very much but the economy stinks.
Kind of a headscratcher, right?
Michigan is not unique in these conflicted feelings. Gallup has a poll that shows people in America are five times as satisfied with their own life than they are with the direction of the country as a whole:
The country is going to hell but everything for me is coming up roses.
It’s a bizarre stance to take.
There are further examples when it comes to this line of thinking:
The education system in this country is failing our children! But my child’s education is pretty good.
This isn’t a new phenomenon but it appears to be getting worse in many cases.
Households have felt strongly about their own financial well-being throughout the challenging pandemic environment but their views on the local and national economies have diverged considerably:
So what’s going on here?
Some of these sentiments are political. Republicans are more positive about the economy when a republican president is running the show and more negative when a democrat is in charge. The same is true for democrats, in reverse order.
Surely, the pandemic and ensuing inflation drove down
