Many respondents believe the US economy is already in dire straits, the poll found

More than four in 10 Americans believe the country is heading toward a complete economic meltdown within the next decade, according to a new poll.

The survey, released by YouGov on Wednesday, shows Americans are more worried about the economy than potential threats to the democratic system or the prospect of civil war.

42% of respondents said it is very or somewhat likely that there will be “a total economic collapse” in the next 10 years, while a smaller share, 38%, described this outcome as unlikely.

Financial anxiety ran much higher among Democrats, 53% of whom feared an economic breakdown, compared with just 28% of Republicans.

  • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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    19 hours ago

    10 years? I’m pretty sure 10 months is 50/50 odds at this point…

    I have insight to a company that does automotive loans, and the number of people getting offers for 30% APR 84 month 0-down loans (and accepting them) is way too fucking high.

    People can’t really afford cars. The US government considers domestic car production so important, that we are practically banned from buying “better” cheaper cars made in China. The auto manufacturers know this and are absolutely chowing down in the captive market. The working class is going to lose reliable transportation, at the same time companies (and the government) are pushing to end Work-from-home options, and there is basically 0 public transportation in the US.

    So a lot of people aren’t going to be able to afford the systemically artificially inflated cars to get to their arbitrarily in-office jobs and they can’t reasonably take the systemically hobbled/non-existent bus or train.

    Oh, did I mention that we’ve pissed off and mistreated and deported all of the migrant labor that made fresh food widely available and cheap in the US? Oh, and we also emptied critical agricultural water reserves in a smooth-brain attempt to fight a fire 200 miles away. Don’t forget, global shipping and fuel prices are fucked because of a war we decided to start to distract from the fact that the president is practically in the Epstein files more than Epstein himself? So come summer, we’re going to have no food because we have no water and no labor, and importing food is going to be even more expensive? And that’s before the capricious 100%+ tarrifs the president is slapping on everything via a fucking tweet.

    Come on… I don’t think I could fuck up running a county this bad if I was actively trying.

      • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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        16 hours ago

        They sell them on the amount someone would pay per payment, tell people for just $400 every other week they too can drive away in their dream functional car/truck.

        Its the same idea of the 15 easy payments of $19.99 shit from long ago. Issue is people need a way to work so they justify the cost the same as rent and food (that are also squeezing people).

        And just like the subprime crisis in 2007 all it takes is one life event and it all goes off the rails.

    • AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      I hate how right you are. And half the country is going to cheer it on without even understanding. And when things do go to shit they’ll find some minority group to blame it on and their base will eat it up.

    • Washedupcynic@lemmy.ca
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      16 hours ago

      They are doing these types of loans with houses too. This is after the bubble popped due to the relaxation of variable rate mortgages. Stop the fucking world, I want to get off.

  • moonshadow@slrpnk.net
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    15 hours ago

    Today’s empires are tomorrow’s ashes. This too shall pass. A better world is possible.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      Today’s empires are tomorrow’s ashes.

      The US goes through recessions roughly every ten years, thanks to credit expansion and contraction. If anything, the next recession has been postponed far longer than expected.

      The idea that we’re going to be “ashes” in another ten years… the fucking doomer juice has blasted basic American history out of everyone’s brains. Go back and live through the Great Recession, then talk to me about End Of Empire. Live through 9/11. Countries don’t just stop existing because of a stock market sell-off, ffs.

      • baller_w@lemmy.zip
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        14 hours ago

        Upvoted and agreed. But I think the US financial collapse has more to do with:

        ∙	Short-term incentives — businesses chasing next quarter while ignoring the long game. CEO tenure averages around 7 years, but comp structures reward short-term predictability over long-term health. Make the number go up, cash out, someone else’s problem.
        ∙	Crushing debt — not “insolvency” in the household sense, since the US prints its own currency, but debt-to-GDP at ~120% and interest payments consuming an increasing share of federal revenue creates real risks: inflation, dollar credibility erosion, and crowding out actual investment.
        ∙	No savings cushion — ~57% of Americans can’t cover a $1,000 emergency. That’s not a recession risk, that’s a detonator.
        

        Empires don’t fall suddenly — they transform. The Roman Empire never really “ended”; the eastern half ran unbroken from Constantinople for nearly a thousand years after Rome’s western collapse. The threat isn’t a single dramatic crash. It’s a long, slow institutional rot that’s already underway.m

        • wavebeam@lemmy.world
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          12 hours ago

          This isn’t your fault, but I’m on mobile in the default web interface and fuck this side-scrolling code block thing.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          13 hours ago

          The threat isn’t a single dramatic crash. It’s a long, slow institutional rot that’s already underway.

          You could have made the same critiques under Bush in 2007 or Reagan in 1987 or Nixon in 1971.

          These aren’t new problems or new forms of rot. I think you’re underestimating the forces keeping the gears turning. This isn’t our first rodeo with a shit President. Go back and read about Bush 41, LBJ, or Truman. Go read about Cleveland and McKinley and Wilson and Hoover. These people were shit. But they weren’t the end of the nation. They certainly weren’t the end of the system.

  • SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    At least trans people can’t use a public john, and dangerous books are being kept out of libraries. That’s the important thing. /s

      • VitoRobles@lemmy.today
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        22 hours ago

        Of course he did.

        The evidence of Musk knowing the results way before the actual people in charge did clearly is foul play. They even found Musk manipulating votes and the South African immigrant is STILL not behind bars.

        They’re dismantling voting systems. Not just the machines, but the actual “systems”. The people counting, how its counted, what’s valid or not, where you can vote, when you can vote, who can vote.

        They’re sowing doubt at a rapid pace. Every election that they lose is fraud. Every election that they win is not.

        They threatened everybody who was honest. They threatened the counters. They threatened judges. They did Jan 6 and killed two cops and harmed many others.

        Let’s not beat around the bush. Trump cheated. Period.

      • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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        22 hours ago

        If he didn’t actually cheat he absolutely openly tried. Fake electors, calling State governors looking for “a few more votes,” the insurrection at the Capitol, etc.

      • JustKeepStretching@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        Trump supporters used 2020 election lawsuits to gain access to vote counting machines and leaked software online.

        The Mueller investigation absolutely proved that Trump’s 2016 campaign gave private polling data to Russian agents, discussed them dropping dirt on Hillary, and proved than Kushner had convos about setting up a private line between the Trump admin and the Kremlin by routing communications through the Russian embassy

  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    19 hours ago

    Next 10 years?

    Motherfucker, it is currently ongoing.

    Fucking goddamn, Americans are propogandized as fuck.

    • ramenshaman@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      I think we’re in the process of collapsing, not collapsed yet. Bad timing for me, I just landed the best job I’ve ever had by a wide margin. I’ve been approaching fight-or-flight mode for a while. Fortunately I’m in California and I haven’t been personally affected that much, yet, other than the psychological damage from reading/watching the news.

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        16 hours ago

        Hope you have a plan for increasing wildfires, inusrance costs going to the moon, being able to get around town and get to work with $150+ a barrel oil, and when Lake Mead and Lake Powell’s water levels get lower, and lower, and lower.

        They get low enough, Hoover Dam stops generating power.

        That happens, the US SouthWest powergrid starts to look worse than Texas’, real fast.

        • ramenshaman@lemmy.world
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          15 hours ago

          I think I’m somewhat ready for everything you listed except a water shortage. Not too worried about that at this point, we periodically get large amounts of rain and my drinking water comes from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir. If/when I can get my hands on an Aptera that’ll be reassuring as well.

    • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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      15 hours ago

      In 2024, in this very group, I told people voting for Trump is voting for more genocide over there AND genocide over here…

      • Prove_your_argument@piefed.social
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        16 hours ago

        Signs point to no, but it depends what the outcome is in 5-10 years. Each time it swings one way too far, the result is the other way going even further. If this swings super hard left we could see an end to the GOP functionally… which I can’t imagine happening but anything is possible if the left resurgence is strong enough.

        The fallout for this to happen though really requires the administration to fall even further, which everything points to.

    • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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      15 hours ago

      Which is about how often conservatives get full government power. I wonder if the two are related…

  • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
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    21 hours ago

    Financial anxiety ran much higher among Democrats, 53% of whom feared an economic breakdown, compared with just 28% of Republicans.

    That’s because a hard requirement to be a Republican in 2026 is to maintain a complete disregard for obvious facts and an utter disdain for realities that do not match a fantasy of their own greatness.

  • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works
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    21 hours ago

    Must be infuriating to do a survey on the American public. No matter what you are trying to find out around 50-60% are just going to drool on your survey and maybe draw a phallic symbol with a giant crayon.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      I once did a workstudy job where we did data entry of the results of surveys.

      The survey clearly said just fill out these bubbles, etc., and that it was basically a multiple choice thing. No comments would end up in the results. Something you would think any idiot would understand.

      And yet, you’d sometimes get entire manifestos written in the white spaces between questions, and the margins. I think at the time, OBE (outcome based education) was something that had the conservatives all outraged for whatever reason, because there were several screeds about it.

      My coworkers and I got a good laugh out of some of this, that’s for sure. The best was when they wrote their screed, mailed it in, and didn’t fill out any of the questions. LOL!

      And yeah, for all that did, they might as well as got out the crayons and drew a dong on it…