Ask Lemmy

It's ok not great I guess? There is a growing disconnect between prices of goods, and wages. Rents and house prices being the biggest example but also electricity, food, gas (I don't drive much but the gas price shows up in other things like food)

My company had another layoff about a month ago. But it didn’t get me

Scotland. Fucked. The terrifying thing I realised recently is how I can see the sharp decline in living standards pre-and-post covid. If we dont get a grip of it we're backsliding toward Dickensian levels of poverty and deprivation.

Other thing I noticed recently - how most of our short-term problems can be linked to that cunt Trump. Iran war, tariffs, Ukraine etc. I say this to highlight to the Americans in the room that your political choices have implications far beyond your own borders. Theres fuck all I can do about him, but plenty you can do.

Booming in Taiwan. GDP growth over 10%, construction cranes everywhere you look, shops and restaurants going gangbusters. And it’s all because of the world’s insatiable appetite for AI chips. So, yah. What could go wrong?

To shreds you say...

Not giving a shit is what it is. Third? Fourth? time around, I think I'm getting kinky.

am in south korea.. samsung/hynix semiconductors are selling like crazy and that heavily lifts the numbers like GDP, but actual economy feels terrible overall. living prices are rising heavily while wages are stagnant.

Sketchy, UK, Southern, think below London and on the Sea.

I'm a carpenter and have someone with a masters in environmental science working for me as a labourer.

Many of my construction friends are being called by there office friends for jobs.

Good news! The Wall Street types have started using this brand new, never-been-used-before thing called a credit default swap to hedge their bets against AI companies. Good thing none of those words have ever been used before in the financial industry or associated with any financial collapses.

I live in rural northern Japan so... not great? Everything keeps concentrating to Tokyo. We were promised "work from anywhere in Japan" and "remote-first", but the company tried to revoke that. A couple of us joined a union and are fighting it, but most people just rolled over and took it. Still don't know what things will look like come next year.

There are very few remote backend software engineering jobs in Japan now. The situation is pretty dire. No US or Canadian company wants me in this time zone (even if it allowed them to have people available around the clock). No one wants to sponsor a visa in another country.

I have a small farm, but it's not profitable. Most of the other jobs around here are forestry, fishery, and factory and pay less than half of what I make now which my family cannot survive on. Things are rusty and falling apart all over in the countryside.

What's weird to me is that economist are observing the official numbers and concluding that things aren't that bad and the public is suffering some kind of mass psychosis, when the reality is just worse than reflected in their numbers completely escapes them.

Good. I'm in a mining town, so the demand for minerals is moving things along. House prices are comparatively low. Northern Canada

I am skipping meals, and a lot of my clients’ budgets have gone down the drain.

Recently moved 700 miles from everything I ever knew and loved because there was no work to be found... I still can't find work. Couple interviews but no luck. My only consolation is that I'm saving my buddy a fortune on child care by being a free sitter.

Send good vibes and luck pls.

U.S. There’s no jobs. I’m willing to bet it’s 95% ghost listings that keep getting reposted until covid loans get waived.

My spouse’s health insurance plan is actually pretty good with coverage and relatively lower in cost, but it’s still way too expensive and gets more expensive and worse every year. If it wasn’t for the (decreasingly) decent coverage, we’d be rationing meds and care, let alone meals.

But yeah, every single paycheck completely evaporates. There’s nothing left to cut back on. There’s nothing left to save. It’s a fucking delight.

Fucking 2008 bad. Tourism's been on the decline since 2020, and the only other industry is servicing gentrification.

It's going to be much worse than 2008 when the AI bubble pops. Most of the economy is in a recession that's getting worse every day. But spending on AI is propping up the rest of the economy. Once that house of cards crashes down we're going to be in a world of shit.

I guess we're doing OK in Sweden. We're used to high grocery and fuel prices. I'm driving a diesel and filling up at almost $10 per gallon.

Energy prices are hurting. Mostly because we're on the same shared market as Germany.. and Germany has dismantled their nuclear energy. Wind and solar is great when it's windy or sunny. But it leaves us wanting on cold still nights.

The state has been subsidizing both fuel and electricity, but it's not really going to the right pockets.

I'm in Canada but the situation isn't much different. We are still feeling the effects of the pandemic economic bubble bursting as the cost of essentials were steadily raised through early COVID and have not dropped, still dealing with the homelessness issue, I'm not being political but Trump has caused a lot of economic strain on the entire world, people who got low interest mortgages during COVID aren't willing to let go of their house which causes further housing scarcity, there's so many factors. At least weed is legal though.

I'll tell you after tonight. Last year's Halloween was more subdued than previous 2 years under Biden. Lots of candy left on shelves, not as many lights in our area. I don't expect as many trick-or-treaters but we'll see. Of course this isn't the only recession indicator.

As for where I'm from originally and which has voted Trump loyally every election cycle, they are just increasingly going down the shitter. Rust, bible belt, etc. The pain a lot of these people feel is genuine -- they're just too "poorly educated" to know who's screwing them over the most.

I can't tell. I've always been dirt poor.

Grocery prices are up about %15. And discounts are stingier.

In the last 10 years the costs of houses in the area for sale have tripled, so that's something, but that is expected to come down soon. Renting is pretty overpriced.

It's slower than usual at work but not by a terrible amount. The company renting some of our warehouse space just laid off their entire staff and halted operations. They were kind of jank, though, so no big surprise.

Other than that things seem to be sluggishly grinding along. Nobody seems particularly happy about anything, as if there's a malaise drifting in the air, but nobody I know is skipping meals or getting evicted.

Vancouver, Canada: People are of course worried about the US having returned to it trying to conquer and subjugate us again, and global warming casts an increasingly looming shadow. But the US utterly failed to split off Alberta, Quebec is showing no interest in it either and Carney is mostly doing a good job so there is still increasing hope.

Gas prices are still punitive in Vancouver, but that has been the case since we stood up for ourselves against having a pipeline to nowhere shoved up our ass, so we're used to that now. We havent seen the crazy increase other places have other than in diesel because China is buying it all to keep their prices down.

Food prices are only bad if you shop at the big supermarkets. If you shop at farmers markets or small locals, prices have stayed relatively steady.

Job wise market is looking very strong. A few years back, most of the posts I saw were international or fraud reposts, but more and more in the last 18 months have been local growth, with larger compensation as well for the most part.

Rural US South with no chance of escaping.

Every day I curse the fact I didn't die in my sleep.