This Chart Helps Explain Why Americans Are So Mad About the Economy

You can't spin your way out of the economic pain Americans have experienced

“The economy is doing well. Americans just don’t believe it,” wrote an ABC News/Five Thirty Eight article from earlier this year. 

The article was one of many over the past year that has contrasted positive economic indicators – like the low unemployment rate and strong consumer spending – with surveys that show deep pessimism about the economy among the American public.

“The Economy Is Great. Why Are Americans in Such a Rotten Mood?” read one headline from The Wall Street Journal. 

“If the economic statistics are good, why do Americans feel so bad?” was another headline from USA Today.

Some of these articles have a more explicitly partisan bent, associating a strong economy with President Biden.

“US economy going strong under Biden – Americans don’t believe it,” wrote a headline from the Guardian. 

The title of a Bloomberg Opinion piece by pundit Matt Yglesias was even more blunt: “Biden's Economy Is Great Everywhere Except in the Polls.”

All of these articles are correct to notice that there are some strong economic indicators like the low unemployment rate. But to understand why so many Americans are so upset about the economy, it might be worth looking at what’s happened to their wages the past few years.

Matt Bruenig, who runs the left-leaning People’s Policy Project, did just that.

He used data from the Atlanta Federal Reserve to track what’s called “wage growth” – basically, did your wages go up or down – over the past few years, adjusted for inflation. 

“In 2021 and 2022, wage growth got to about negative 3 percent there for a while,” Bruenig told me in an interview.

He noted that only in February of this year had wage growth become positive for most Americans. That means that during most of Biden’s tenure, people have had a negative experience with their real wages.

This doesn’t mean that everything that happened with wages is Biden’s fault. The economy is complicated, and no president simply has a button they can press to improve things – their policies matter but so do economic cycles, global events and other factors that are not completely in their control.

But it’s easy to understand why Americans, when faced with positive wage trends for virtually all of Trump’s presidency, might view Biden’s presidency as much worse for their pocketbooks. 

Polling bears this view out. A recent New York Times poll found that when it came to who they trusted on the economy, 59% of voters chose Trump and 37% chose Biden.

There may be other factors, too, driving the economic pessimism among Americans. Higher interest rates – deployed to tame inflation – are making it more difficult for Americans to purchase items like housing and cars; nearly half of young adults are living with their parents. 

Meanwhile, many pandemic-era social support programs – like expanded Medicaid – have lapsed while President Biden’s student loan pause has finally come to an end. Put together, these factors may be creating a particularly gloomy mood among young voters. 

One poll released in September found that just 8% said that the national economy is “excellent” or “good.”  63% of respondents in that survey aren't confident they will be able to own a home.

This isn’t to say that every respondent to national surveys is well-informed about the latest economic trends, some of which are positive. The average American isn’t an economist who can recall the latest unemployment numbers by memory. 

But the overall pessimistic mood may reflect the reality of most voters’ lives over the past three years more than pundits are willing to admit. Why then do the media insist everything’s fine?

A Partisan Media Leads To A Lack Of Trust