Here's an interesting chart from Brian Schaffner. It's a little hard to parse, so take a look and I'll explain it below:
Take a look at the left panel, for Democrats. Then, at the bottom, move over to the right to the line for people whose incomes increased $40K or more. It shows that about 10% of these people said their income had gone down (magenta line) while 50% said it had gone up (green line). It's surprising that so many people could be off when their actual incomes had increased so much, but at least it's directionally right. Way more people know their incomes went up than think it went down.
Now look at the same spot on the right panel, for Republicans. Even among people whose income had increased $40K, only about 22% said it had gone up compared to 27% who said it went down.
This is crazytown. $40,000 is a lot of money. How is it that among Republicans who had gained that much income, more said their incomes were down than up?
For what it's worth, the accuracy of self-reported income was no great shakes for anyone. Democrats who had lost income were more optimistic than they should have been. Still, this is yet another indication of just how resistant Republicans are to economic good news in the Biden era. Even when things are going great, they just can't bring themselves to believe it. Is it any wonder that when you average everyone together opinions about the economy seem so sour?
The one rule that I follow is: never trust a republican to argue in good faith about politics or in this case the economy which they believed was a winning argument against Biden.
I'm not sure this is specific to the Biden era. I think I'd expect to see the same patterns in the chat no matter what - for a substantial portion of Republicans, playing the victim is important to them. Without being aggrieved, they can't claim special powers.
I think the green line having a left-side upward tail is related to money-as-status: nobody wants to admit that they're doing worse now than they were 2 years ago, and some of them will lie about it. That seems to be a nonpartisan phenomenon, judging by the shape of the two green lines on the left side of "no change."
Dow Hits All Time High; No Sign of Recession: Why this is bad news for Joe Biden
-- The New York Times tomorrow, probably
The repulsives would complain even if it was a beautiful sunny day at the beach with free beer.
Economic attitudes are different depending on party and they completely switch depending on who is President. Here is the U Michigan consumer expectations:
https://www.skeptometrics.org/ConsumerExpect.png
If Schaffner's graph had been done for say, 2018-2020 the Republicans would probably have been reporting huge increases in income, whatever the reality. When there is this much disparity the responses are just not rational - it is futile to keep trying to find real reasons for the current overall attitude.
we're living in a lib apocalypse; only george wallace can save us now
(said every conservative in the last 50 years)
This may have to do with the kind of income involved. If you only asked people who got a paycheck twice or four times a month they would be much more aware of the trend.
Now that I’m retired and living on a combination of savings, 401k and social security I’m much less clear about what my actual income is till the end of the year. The market goes up or down and changes my 401k. Interest rates go up or down and the costs of my loans change. Depending on the previous year’s income SS changes the cost of Medicare which is deducted from my monthly SS payments.
I’m not super rich but the point is that since I don’t get a paycheck I’m not real clear what my income is. Also, I’m not really into money as a passion so I don’t track it. If someone’s income was changing by $40k that means they had wealth on the order of tens of millions or more. If anyone was living paycheck to paycheck they would absolutely know if their income changed.
I wonder how they measured actual income? Did they have access to tax returns?
Weird, I'm retired too. We get two SS checks a month. Three pension checks a month so I know what that part of my monthly income is. RE: our 401k's and savings, we're all in on CD's so I get monthly and semi-annual interest income. Which is also easy to keep track of. The one thing we don't have much of is mutual funds or stocks. Just not interested in the uncertainty of them.
I've long maintained that a key attribute of modern Republicans is stupidity. That and a total lack of empathy for anyone they do not personally know.
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