A shopper carries several bags in the Magnificent Mile shopping district of Chicago on Dec. 2, 2023.
Taylor Glascock | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The U.S. economy has remained remarkably strong but affordability is worse than it has ever been, some social media users say, even when compared to The Great Depression.
One of TikTok’s latest trends, coined the “silent depression,” aims to explain how key expenses such as housing, transportation and food account for an increasing share of the average American’s take-home pay. It’s harder today to get by than it was during the worst economic period in this country’s history, according to some TikTokers.
But economists strongly disagree.
“Any notion from TikTok that life was better in 1923 than it is now is divorced from reality,” said Columbia Business School economics professor Brett House.
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Compared to 100 years ago, “today, life expectancies are much longer, the quality of lives is much better, the opportunities to realize one’s potential are much greater, human rights are more widely respected and access to information and education is widely expanded,” House said.
Even when just looking at the numbers, the country has continued to expand since the Covid-19 pandemic, sidestepping earlier recessionary forecasts.
Officially, the National Bureau of…
