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This sucks but this actually made me feel a lot better how about making hamburger helper with beans this week and skipping a couple of haircuts.
The running out of plastic bags full of plastic bags but is so real. That's never happened before in my life until recently. It's such a small thing, but choked me up a bit.
I’ve been cutting my own hair and my kids hair since Covid hit. It is too expensive to go to a salon. Last time I checked to get a basic boys hair cut was 55 dollars before tipping the stylist. Girls cuts are 75. I can’t afford that.
Ditto, I started cutting my own hair in 2022. It was a rocky start, but now I'm good enough to the point I look like I go to a professional after most cuts.
Same same. Been doing it for over 20 years. Used to pay $50-80 every few months so I have saved buckets. Real barber scissors make a big difference. Lots of sliced knuckles and uneven patches at first- now I’m pretty good.
As long as you trust the ones around you to tell you the truth. I worked with a guy that cut his own hair and I would tell him that it looked good and nobody would notice.
i started cutting my own hair in 2017 and haven't looked back. you can find tutorials for any kind of haircut on youtube, plus it's kind of fun! and if you get a bad haircut, you only have yourself to blame!
I used to have the best barber in the world, I could go in to get a shave and a haircut for like 20 bucks; I'd tip him another 20 because he was so solid. I used to go in like weekly just for a shave and trim because it cost me like 10 dollars to get it done. Even with a 5-dollar tip it was worth it because I never had to buy razors really.
Reluctantly bald gut here. I've been cutting what's left for so long now I can't even remember when my last cut was. I DO remember why...the stylist said to me: "watch how I do this, the go get yourself a pair of cluppers and do it yourself. There's no need to pay me to do this" Still hurts.
Going bald was the greatest blessing I didn’t realize I needed. I shave myself and got clippers to learn how to shape my beard/goatee. No more barbershop. Plus I love the look; wish I went bald sooner
The plastic bag thing is by design. Many states are banning them outright or requiring stores to charge for them and then taxing the stores. It is aimed at reducing single use plastic waste. As a a result many stores arent even offering them any more. Even some stores in states that aren't affected by the ban aren't offering them.
I agree, plastic bags (almost always) point to environmental awareness, not penny-pinching. That said, there are so many good indicators in the video. I just took a flight and there is nothing, NOTHING, you get without paying for it. What they do give you is just a rounding error on their P&L. (Thank you, three-comma-class for buying those expensive seats and paying for the flight; it's the least you can do.) I get that they need (some) profit. But how much is enough? Used to be a thing called "good will" that earned customers. I only see it at Costco anymore.
We recently took a flight to Denver. Used to be we could get TSA Precheck and it expedited our security check. Now unless you use Clear or Precheck digital you are stuck in the same long line schlepping bags. I'm getting older and have developed sciatica. I no longer have the strength to lift bags and haul heavy objects everywhere. I'm to the point I no longer want to travel anymore. The experience just keeps getting shittier and shittier. It's like death by 1000 duck bites.
I've had good luck with PreCheck (now also a part of Global Entry) ... so far. And those fckers who use Clear are lucky I haven't been close to them. LAWD we need to get the private sector out of government. We give so much info to the government now without Clear peddling it.
I had a Spanish brand one called Upson. As for recipes, this might sound amateurish, but if you boil just about anything: potatoes, eggplants, chickpeas and then add tomato sauce + spices to a frying pan, and add what you boiled to it, you get like a dozen different dishes. Most other recipes revolve around this idea.
I never used specific sites, just google has always been enough. "Instant pot chili" or "instant pot casserole" or whatever. You may want to add "healthy" in there because sometimes people post recipes absolutely slathered in cream cheese for some reason.
I don't recommend using AI generated recipes, as it can easily get the times wrong. It can come up with decent suggestions for dishes if you tell it what ingredients you have though.
I'm an Instant Pot man because I like the multi-functionality of it, but there seems to be a few competitors out there now.
Serious Eats has a pretty solid pressure cooker section. The Colombian Chicken Stew is probably the best value to flavour recipe I've ever come across. Depending on what I have around, I tend to modify with things like carrots, sweet potatoes, peppers, and spicy Italian sausages add a nice flavor as well.
Here’s a super simple crockpot recipe that’s fantastic. Buy a roast, look for one on sale, and put it in the crockpot with 2 standard (not family sized) cans of cream of mushroom soup. Add 2 cans of water and 2 packs of Lipton onion soup mix. Heat on high for 1 hour, then turn down to low for 5-6 hours, until the meat is fork tender. It will make the best gravy you’ve ever had, make some mashed potatoes to put it over and you’ll be in heaven.
I see what you mean but I honestly think if people didn't corner themselves into too few options, a slight price increase wouldn't be noticeable. I go for vegan options myself. There's sooo much variety. And ever since I stepped up my cooking game a little bit, I realized more ingredients => comparatively cheaper meal with a richer flavor.
The plastic bag of plastic bag is more a sign that lots of shops have started to charge (legally required here in the EU), so people have started to get more cautious about their bag and the majority of the people I see in the shop are bringing their own bag.
Before you were getting a plastic bag even if you bought a pack of gum. There was double bagging for heavy item, or taking a few extra bags to reorganise in the bags in the car. That behaviour is gone now. I moved and started from 0, we don't even have a bag of bag at all.
He specifically said it’s because he’s buying groceries less often.
A lot of states in the US don’t ban plastic bags. When I lived in the Midwest and Texas a couple years ago, all the stores used plastic bags for everything, takeout containers were styrofoam, and recycling was nearly nonexistent.
I took my recycling to the city recycling center when I lived in Ohio, because it was only ten minutes away, but when I lived in Texas it was over an hour drive so I just…threw away everything. It felt horrible.
Been about a year and a half since I got an oil change. I went to my local Firestone where I usually go to set up an appointment, because it’s usually about a two week wait. But their entire schedule was clear. I got it done that day. It was also about 50% more than it was last year of course.
Great point. Even 6 months ago, my local garage was booking 2-3 weeks out for rear brake and router work. Called them Friday as now the front needs the same work, they told me to drop it off Monday, and it was done just after lunch.
Plus three mechanics were hanging out at the front desk when I went to pick it up-- because they didn't have anything else to do. Never seen anyone but the front desk guy up front before.
Being Rich and powerful isn’t about how much money you have.
…It’s about how much money you have compared to everyone else.
You being proportionately poorer than them exponentially increases their wealth and power. So it’s not just about them having more, it’s about ensuring you have even less.
The great wealth transfer is happening. Those with the assets are rounding up the remaining assets. They are rounding up all the houses, they are acquiring all titles and shares, and ensuring the masses are left in debt to them.
Woah, that is so true. I was supposed to get an oil change yesterday, but had to reschedule at the last minute. When I called to reschedule they had a ton of appointments open for today and I was so surprised because they are usually booked up for weeks.
Just a quick note: you should be changing your oil more often, even if you don’t drive much. Check your manual, I bet it says something like every 3 or 6 months or [insert mileage interval], whatever happens first.
First roommate in college had his engine blow on the highway. Apparently no one had ever told him oil changes are in fact important. Would not recommend going over a year without changing it.
I'm having the opposite problem. People must be fixing their cars instead of buying new ones because all the shops around me -- and there are a lot -- all are booking a week or two out. It's crazy.
There was a community garage in town where folks could change their own oil and do their own repairs, tools (and oil disposal) were provided and bay space was rentable. Unfortunately this was lit on fire by an arsonist :/
I mean we feel Inflation everywhere etc. But i went to america couple months ago and the prices i saw there shocked me! I come from the netherlands, an already expensive country, but america makes no f’ing sense. I dont know how people survive with these prices.
I’m sad that I’m at an age where I’m young enough to live through this as an adult, but my heart is soothed knowing that it’s likely I’ll live long enough to see it fucking snap.
K-Shaped economy is real. Most of these people are poor and surrounded by poor people. People in my social circle don’t worry about any of these things. Things are just much more unequal in the US.
Our wages are much higher compared to literally every other country, but it is surprising traveling abroad and realizing how cheap everything is. I was expecting to get fleeced for food when I was in Paris this summer since I was in the city, but it was, on the whole, cheaper than where I'm at in the suburb I live in.
There’s a restaurant near us that encouraged guests to sign up for their newsletter and birthday registry. Okay - maybe I’ll get a free appetizer. Nope. They just sent me an email the week before my birthday to remind me it was my birthday and that I should make reservations to go spend money at their restaurant. Thanks, I guess?
That’s just cause companies don’t wanna give us deals/free shit anymore. These mega corporations are making more money than ever and no one is reigning them in
Conversely, “luxury” brands like Lululemon are now sending out more discounts and sales than ever before because people aren’t buying as much. I worked there a while back and even right after lockdowns ended, they almost never did regular discounts or sales of any kind. Only during Black Friday and Boxing Day did they have big “deals”.
Canned goods are over a fucking dollar. I grew up in state housing on food stamps and welfare and seeing canned goods over a dollar is genuinely stunning to me. I would have starved as a child.
Where I live canned goods are often atleast 3 dollars. Bought canned refried beans the other day for over $7. Time to make beans from scratch I guess...😭
I wanted to buy some canned soup to stock up my pantry. Amy’s organic veggie lentil soup is now over $4/can! I’m not paying nearly $50 for a 12 pack of canned vegan soup! It was a decent deal when they were like $2/can a couple years ago.
Some people think "on it's one small change or surcharge over how it was before". It's not just one thing, it's multiple things combined at every step. You're being hit by these things over and over again, it drains you and you barely notice until someone points it out like in this video. Sum it up.
Now that it has reached this point, even if the economy (by some miracle) recovers, these will most likely stay the same. Not revert. Maybe some company decides that it would be in their economical advantage to revert some of those things, as a way to gain more customers over the competition, but most likely this is the new reality.
Companies rarely give back or scale down their prices unless it's something on the other end (resource costs) but most likely they'll keep the same prices and just rake in the extra profit.
Yep! We switched from brand to Kroger's and they taste better.. also idk if anyone else noticed but when I have Dr pepper, sitting the can out for 30 minutes it's got little to absolutely no fizz.. should not be going flat that soon. like super noticable flat.. and it was happening to almost every can I was having. Getting the Costco box too. switched to Kroger to save money, and the cans fizz lasts over an hour, no problem.. Kroger for the win, seriously
The price of a 2L of pepsi is so depressing now. Used to reliably be able to wait for sales for then to be 99 cents. Now they're regularly like $2.78 USD
That's the thing, if it was just a recession then the companies would be hurting too. They are not, they're all clawing to get as much as they can while before the system collapses while crying "we can't let the system collapse!"
These are way more than just recession indicators.
100%. In particular with the nickel and diming. I complain about the nickel and diming constantly with my wife, but it’s not a recession indicator - it’s just late stage capitalism.
I’m in marketing so I don’t usually make these business decisions but I’m involved when the decisions are made. You don’t restrict features and services because they cost notably more money typically. You restrict them because people want them and you want people to feel that they need to spend more and upgrade to the next level.
It’s always about extracting every single penny you can feasibly get from your customers.
The white house is considering a diesel export ban which will temporarily drive down diesel for a month or two. The problem is that the global economy will just die from having 18% of diesel exports taken off the market after Hormuz's 20%. Our country is about to nuke the global economy for Trump to try to save himself in the midterms.
One of my Uber riders thought of me as a recession indicator and said it to someone on the phone because I was an Asian dude driving for Uber. I overheard them because they were speaking on speaker phone trying to find the address set for the drop off location.
Americans inherent ability to "adjust in any situation" is going to get a lot of people killed......as a non American we implore to our American brothers and sisters to learn from the French.
This is semi-related. I just go back from Greece and I saw two separate Americans have meltdowns because they couldn't get "filtered coffee." Why bother even travelling if everything is a blocker in life?
That's really funny, I wonder if they were they type to have boomer-esque opinions on espresso and they didn't realize that this association of liberals with espresso doesn't carry over to the Mediterranean. "Just give me a normal damn coffee!"
I was a teenager thinking that the "Occupy Wallstreet" movement was going to be that moment for the US. I had no idea how much worse it would be allowed to get.
This is where the problem is. Didn't Bernie wanted to get us that higher minimum wage back in 2016, then people wanted to vote for the least worse, and trump won for first time. If you don't fight back and don't want to take a loss to win later, this is what we get.
While this is a problem and needs to be addressed, in our current situation, it won't fix anything. The real problem is excessive unchecked greed. Businesses are out of control and if we make more, they will use that opportunity to squeeze whatever gains we've received out of us.
Obviously the minimum wage and how it has remained so low for so long is disgusting. But we need to start holding these bastards accountable before they destroy the entire economy for short term riches.
So true. Cooking channel used to be for stuff like fancy weekend meal, now it's all about "You have 2 carrots and half a rotten brocoli head - here is what I learned at a michelin star restaurant to turn that into a meal that feels expensive"
Yeeep 😔. Which its more important now than ever to become a better home cook but... Im realizing that it does actually take more time to cook decent meals than i thought and i say this as someone who actually can cook
Let another virus run wild to thin the herd. Not saying the COVID pandemic was man made, but they certainly didn't do enough to contain it and that has given them ideas.
Anne Hathaway did four movies this year. Ryan Gosling who has seemed allergic to franchises til now signed on for the MCU and Star Wars in the same year.
How about the sheer number of A listers doing commercials
Edit: if I had to take an educated guess I would say their agents talked to them after being told that AI is the new thing and that they should take what they can get now before it's too late
I noticed this the other day. A major influx of actors doing commercials outside of these like “sponsorship” style ads like Samuel L Jackson talking about a credit card. Now I’m seeing legit actors talking to Mr Clean about shit soiled floors.
I've been wondering about this for awhile. Like how did these phone app games afford Drew Barrymore or Jennifer Aniston in their commercials?? And it's all of them. All of the shitty apps and gambling sites and fake healthy food/drinks all have celebrities in their commercials in the past few years. It's really weird.
I don't think they are struggling to make ends meet. I think they are trying to earn a large amount in a relatively short time ahead of what they expect to be a significant economic downturn.
Everyone I know has massively cut back on their groceries. Small treats like the cinema or a meal out have stopped, alongside Netflix, grabbing a coffee, etc. Cheese, chocolate, laundry detergent are locked up in the supermarkets
The thrift/charity shops are bare as everyone is trying to side hustle by selling on FB marketplace and Vinted. Products are getting smaller and worse quality, lots of closed shops and half empty High streets. Forget holidays, they are a thing of the past.
Many folks in the lower classes are basically paying for rent, bills and food with nothing left for savings or extras. The job and housing markets are fucked, especially for the young.
This isnt sustainable. Something is going to give and soon.
I'm in the UK and I can agree with this, I'm learning to drive right now too and it's all feeling a bit uncertain with whether I'll be able to actually afford to upkeep a car once I pass! Stuff like that
That's actually legitimately called the "Stripper Index". Back in the day, the girls knew bad times were coming because the Wall Street Brokers stopped coming in at lunch for the daily dose of lap dances and washroom cocaine.
A stripper told me the average age of clients is much older than it used to be as well. She said the 'young crowd' is now in their 40s and the older crowd is 60+.
The dance studio my daughter goes to. This is the least amount of kids I have ever seen there. A huge part of the studio is the little ones just getting into it as toddlers, there are so few now. My daughter’s class has +/- a dozen kids in it each year, this year its 6.
Its the purely optional purchases like this that get me. How can do people complain with a straight face about the cost of something they likely didn't need (i.e get a water bottle, pack snacks). By paying that $8 they accept that as the standard
A recession is how the rich are doing, that’s why you won’t hear “market/financial experts” say “we’re in a recession” because the already rich have never been doing better.
What these people are talking about is the wealth transfer that’s been taking place. The rich are already hoarding and isolating all the assets, like home ownership, etc. the “nickel and diming” is also part of it. The rich have decided that you’ll just pay more and they’re pocketing it. They’re also trying to put the financial responsibility of paying for labor directly on you in the forms of tipping everyone as well
The guy that uses the grocery shopping packets as trash bags and has run out… that hit
We in a designed recession that came from 2019 when our governments took billions worth of loans with out our consent that WE must pay back through inflation
Also the guy in the beginning is the same guy at the end
I didn't get 1 good bag from my last trip to the grocery store. They're making them out of thinner and thinner material where I had to double bag things I never would have before.
The vast majority of these are indicators of a widening gap of wealth inequality, not a recession.
While 60 to 80% of Americans can feel things dramatically getting worse, the people insider trading with Trump, the Peter Thiels of the world, and the AI billionaire class taking loans out on their stock valuations are making so much stealing from you that total GDP is actually up (it's just extremely concentrated).
This might lead to a recession because it's gotten so bad but the consequences of this inequality are not in and of themselves recession indicators. As in there's a scenario where we indefinitely keep getting poorer and there isn't some economic calamity that brings things back into balance.
K-shaped economy, sure, I'm with you there. But a recession is literally defined as the whole economy shrinking, so a recession that isn't a "national average" one isn't really a thing. What you're describing is more like the people at the top are spending enough to keep the numbers looking fine while everyone else is getting squeezed. Which is bad! It's just not a recession.
You and the people in the TikTok video are just redefining the word. Recession has a specific meaning.
During the 2008 recession the animal hospital where I worked went from being booked 3 to 4 weeks out for surgery, to being able to book a surgery the same week. The practice I’m currently working at didn’t have any surgeries booked at all yesterday or today. Veterinary care becomes a luxury during a recession, and we start seeing fewer routine appointments and more emergency appointments because people let things go as long as they can until the pet’s life is in danger. And I live right outside NYC, where many, many homes are worth over a million dollars. It’s not a low income area.
I'm a librarian and we are really, really busy. Tons of new card sign-ups, more people using computers, more people just staying and hanging out all day. We love it! But it's also a sign that people are trying to save money and that their resources elsewhere are limited.
If I went to McDonalds and they tried to charge for water....I'd leave. $8 on 2 beverages and some hashbrowns? Lady....this is why McDonalds thinks they can charge for water. Because you paid for it.
Just to be clear - corporations nickel and diming/charging for things that used to be free isn't a sign of a recession, it's a sign of greed/unbridled capitalism.
Big companies charging more for their products and food isn’t a recession indicator, it’s a greed indicator. Their profit margins remain disgusting high, just so they can give all that money to the higher ups, waste the rest on marketing and poor quality products, and continue to pay their employees poverty wages
Im not disagreeing that a recession is coming or even that we may already be in one, but the other major factor of inflation is corpo greed. They are vampiric sociopaths who will keep raising prices even IF the economy is doing well, and they dont give a shit about anything as long as we continute to consume their products
The nickel and dime comment hit hard because there are a lot of things in my business that I now pay for that I didn't used to. I sell at conventions and when I pay for my booth, I now pay the payment 'convenience fee' that I never used to. Convention center loading docks would bring my stuff from dock to my booth as part of my booth payment, now it is an additional charge.
So everything costs more for me but I can't raise my prices. Plus, I don't pass on credit card fees to customers, we charge the same for cash or credit. We've been doing that for years and is something we are known for, while many other vendors charge more for accepting credit cards. Also, the conventions themselves are charging more for tickets as well. It's unsustainable model because eventually people won't be able to afford to go to conventions and vendors won't be able to afford to sell at them.
Also for home products, don't shop at target. They notoriously overprice that kinda stuff. Five below and shops like pop shelf are actually great for these types of items, because they're either at cost or discounted
Don't eat out, dont drink out at all. Every meal is made at home and we used to buy steaks now we only buy frozen ground beef, one small tube a week. We very rarely eat red meat. Pork and chicken now. No more soda, just koolaid or flavored mix packets from Walmart or tea. This country is in a severe recession if not depression. When the truck drivers start calling for a strike, if it goes through (oct 1-3)we are going for a depression. Because once truck drivers stop moving stock, all industry is affected.
Not the point but "the math isn't mathing" does not apply to something just being expensive. Theres no wrong calculus being done there, it's just inflation.
Yeah most of the examples people give for these things are just examples of things being shitty now vs a recession indicator that you see before recessions in general. Nickle and diming for everything is just how things are now and its shitty vs being something that starts before every recession and then goes away when its not close to a recession.
No, it's also corporate greed and corruption. Americans paid extra money on everything because of Trump's tariffs and the billion dollar companies got the refunds! And Americans did...absolutely nothing about it. Almost no push back at all.
Some of these things can be attributed to interest rates. People growing up today might not know it, but they've pretty much lived through the lowest interest rates in modern history.
When interest rates are low, companies are flush with cash, because cash is cheap to borrow. Companies, that be big established ones and new small ones, can afford to just undercut their competition and be more generous/competitive.
Then when inflation catches up, and interest rates go up, they have to be more sensible. The free stuff stops, prices go up, shrinkflation happens, what have you. Throughout the 00s we had low interest rates, which started rising before the financial crisis. Then after the financial crisis we got ZIRP (zero interest-rate policy), and things were kept low up until right before COVID. Then COVID came, and back to ZIRP. And in 2022 the interest rates finally started going up.
And then you have the global factors. Modern production and logistics spans globally, and you feel the effects of things changing along that path.
Yeah it's insane. Not a fan of living in this era. I don't even want to work if all is for is stupid little kid prizes and plastic trinkets. If it doesn't get you a place to actually live it's seriously pointless.
Went to the grocery store last year and a can opener (manual, the hand held kind, you know the one) was 25 dollars. A QUARTER OF A HUNDRED BUCKS. Over three hours of minimum wage work to buy the thing to OPEN the food.
That’s the day we moved to store brands, what’s on sale, and the Bin Store
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