These memes illustrate some of the most important monetary questions that we ask ourselves on a regular basis: Are you better or worse off financially than you were a year ago? Do you think you’ll be better off a year from now? And where do you see the country headed in the next five years?
The University of Michigan also raises them (and other similar ones) to calculate the Consumer Sentiment Index, an economic indicator measuring how people feel about the economy.
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"It's a measure that we can compare over time and get a pulse on the attitudes of consumers," says Joanne Hsu, director of the Surveys of Consumers at the University of Michigan. “Which is important given that consumer spending is over two-thirds of GDP."
That survey and others demonstrate there is a pervasive sense of disconnect between the overall economic picture and how people feel about the economy.
Despite slowing inflation, a healthy labor market with record-low unemployment, and stocks that remain in a bull market, consumer sentiment remains below pre-pandemic levels.
The University of Michigan's preliminary reading on the overall index of consumer sentiment came in at 65.6 this month, compared to 69.1 in May.
(Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a preliminary reading of 72.0.)
Before the coronavirus pandemic, the index stood at 101.
In 2024, the Pew Research Center also asked Americans to share their views of the nation's economy, and about three-in-ten (28%) rated them as excellent or good, while a similar share (31%) said they are poor and about four-in-ten (41%) view them as "only fair."
However, people usually see their country's economy through their personal financial circumstances — and those can vary widely.
The top tenth of households by wealth are worth $7 million on average, while the bottom half hover around $51,000 on average, according to the Institute for Economic Equity at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
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A recent Brookings Institution analysis suggested the tone of news coverage can also have a strong influence on the disconnect between actual economic performance and how individuals perceive it.
Since 2018 — including during and after the recession sparked by COVID-19 — economic reporting has taken on an increasingly negative tone, despite economic fundamentals strengthening in recent years, the analysis found.
