Nearly three in five Americans wrongly believe the US is in an economic recession, and the majority blame the Biden administration, according to a Harris poll conducted exclusively for the Guardian. The survey found persistent pessimism about the economy as election day draws closer.

The poll highlighted many misconceptions people have about the economy, including:

  • 55% believe the economy is shrinking, and 56% think the US is experiencing a recession, though the broadest measure of the economy, gross domestic product (GDP), has been growing.

  • 49% believe the S&P 500 stock market index is down for the year, though the index went up about 24% in 2023 and is up more than 12% this year.

  • 49% believe that unemployment is at a 50-year high, though the unemployment rate has been under 4%, a near 50-year low.

  • @CharlesDarwin
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    26 months ago

    And just wait until AI really gets going…I’ve been saying this kind of thing for years online and off, and was mostly mocked and dismissed. Of course, there seem to be few politicians that had the foresight to want to do anything about automation, other than silly mantras about “retraining”.

    As a for instance: I remember trying to tell the maqa types, when they were screaming about coal that the very coal companies they claim care so much about “American jobs” are actively seeking ways to automate the entire thing - all of it.