forget these fucking graphs, start asking people again about what they'd think happen to their lives if they missed two paychecks or if some medical emergency happened to them right now. i think it'd be pretty revealing about why people feel the way they do right now!

it just blows my fucking mind that this pandemic and its massive, widespread, and still ongoing effects is just sort of waved off in how it might impact people's feelings and relation to the economy and everyone just keeps going 'but why THESE numbers now and not THESE numbers then????'

2. the entire time, people are antsy, wondering 'will this get taken away? what'll i do if it gets taken away? do i have any reason to believe it'll last?'

and it doesn't! you can blame republicans for killing it, but dem response on it wasn't fire and brimstone, it's 'ah, well, thems the breaks'.

a good example here is the childcare subsidies. good stuff! but, it has twin effects.

1. it raises people's expectations. 'oh, shit, the government actually CAN do stuff for us, how about that'. sorry, you can't take that away with no negative reaction, expecting people to go 'ah, well, s'alright'.