There have been a whole spate of articles (here’s a decent one) attempting to determine why, despite some strong economic indicators, people say they’re pessimistic about the economy–even as they spend more money, which is usually associated with boom times. That’s why I refer to it as a Great Crankiness, because it just seems people are upset and are taking that out on the economic indicators.

Rather than go through the entire list of possible reasons, here are some I haven’t seen discussed much (or at all):

1. Buying a house is expensive: due to interest rates, the difference between buying a house in April 2022 and August 2022 is about $1,000/month on a $400,000 house.
2. The rents are too damn high. There are several reasons why this is happening, including price collusion, but, for renters, much of their wage increases are pass-throughs to their landlords.
3. Business rents are too high. Not only would this make business owners cranky, but many businesses are closing up because they can’t afford large rent increases, making things uglier. This also feeds into a sense that people who are running profitable businesses are getting the shaft (unfairly, if that needs to be added).
4. The ongoing crapification of, well, everything. While the article linked above describes how a tight labor market makes it harder to provide customer service, that’s not the only factor. The need to not only have high profits, but annually increasing profits, means that companies aren’t ‘cutting fat’, they’re cutting into muscle and bone. As Cory Doctorow has noted, enshittification (sensu strico and just general lousy service and products) is a dominant feature of, again, everything.
5. COVID, part I: 1.1 million Americans died from COVID, and hundreds of thousands of those deaths were needless. The U.S. has not come to grips with this (and if it ever does, it will take decades).
6. COVID, part II: a subset of people are either worried about COVID, or suspect they should be worried. At the same time, others feel abandoned by society. General crankiness all around.
7. Incipient fascism and theocracy: most normies don’t like to think about politics very much, and they don’t like having to be on ‘constant alert’ (for lack of a better phrase). For example, normies in Ohio wanted to legalize pot, and now the Republican-dominated legislature is attempting to prevent that. It’s exhausting and demoralizing. MOAR CRANKY.

Like I said, this isn’t close to an exhaustive list, but I think a fair amount of economic discontent has less to do with economics per se, and more to do with general dissatisfaction.