Millions Are Giving Up on This Economy

The other day I watched this video talking about how millions of people are starting to lose interest in everything. And I can actually kind of relate to this in a way too. Maybe not for some of the same reasons I'm going to talk about in this video and what I read in the comment section of that. But nonetheless, with the way things are now, with the overload of information, with how many things there are to do when it just comes to keeping up with daily life and all the tasks that have to be done, it seems like people are busier than ever. And when you combine that, if you're actually struggling in some way, then you just kind of lose interest in everything. And this is leading to a situation where a lot of people have just stopped trying. And it's basically what it is. It's chronic stress and fatigue is what's happening. And don't worry, this isn't going to be a lifestyle video. This is going to be all about the economy, guys, because this is a big through line with what's going on in our economy right now. I read a bunch of comments in this video and a huge number of comments revolve around the idea of why try harder if it doesn't change anything. Because we're at a point now in 2026 where kind of no matter how hard you try and how hard you grind, if you're working a regular job, picking up a few extra shifts here and there or working a little bit extra might not move the needle for you depending on how big of a hole you're in financially, if you have a lot of debt or you just have a lot of expenses because you have a big family, something like that, or because you just don't make enough. And so working a little bit extra isn't enough to really move the needle. I would push back on that a little bit saying that always a little bit extra always helps. However, a lot of people are feeling like it's not worth it. So people are just working to survive and it's kind of leading people to a point where there's no more excitement left for anything. You know, people are not aspiring as much to own a home or to travel or even to retire because all of that stuff just seems kind of out of reach. And the people who are doing that stuff still and do spending their way there are just kind of helping themselves today and hurting themselves tomorrow. But when I was reading through the comments of this video, what really stood out to me is that people aren't just complaining about prices or their jobs or politics. It's a little bit more involved than that. A lot of people were basically saying in different ways that they just don't really care anymore. People are just tired. They've emotionally checked out. And this is something that's been building up over the past five or six years because first we had to deal with the pandemic, something none of us have really ever had to deal with in our lifetime. It changed a lot of things for everyone. And then afterwards, we all had to deal with soaring home prices and soaring inflation. And that has led us to where we're at today to a point where just basic living and paying for life's necessities has become quite the challenge. And by the way, today I'm walking through North Shore Open Space Park. I'm in the southern half of it. Last time I was here, I walked through the northern half for you guys. Another common theme I noticed reading through the comments is a lot of people have really been trying. They have been trying hard for quite some time and they keep telling themselves that eventually things will get better. And then when they fast forward five or 10 years and they look at their life situation and things really haven't improved, it kind of kills the motivation to keep trying. And that's leading to a lot of people to completely burn out. And what they do instead is they kind of just put in the bare minimum effort they need to survive instead, because they feel like their previous efforts didn't move the needle enough to make it worth trying that hard in the future, which makes sense. And I don't think it's really ever been like this before, guys. Like obviously, you know, I wasn't around during the Great Depression and I don't know anyone who was. And even in my parents' lifetime, I don't think there was ever a situation in the past where people felt this demoralized about the economy and about their financial futures. You know, the American way has always been if you're smart enough and if you're willing to work hard enough, you can find a way to get ahead. And I still believe that to be true, even in 2026. The problem is the way that people are going about it just isn't working anymore, which is usually the conventional route. You know, unfortunately, having just a regular job or even working a couple of jobs at once, which a lot of people have to do now, just isn't enough to cut it. So if you're trying to get ahead using the conventional methods of the past, that doesn't work anymore. So in order to achieve the level of the American dream that a lot of people want to, they're going to have to shift their thinking and behavior into how things work today. Also, another thing to note is that if you're somebody in this situation that you kind of feel like you're checking out, I'm not going to try hard anymore. I've been trying hard for a long time and nothing has really changed. Then I would also ask you to question yourself, why were you doing any of that stuff to begin with? What was the goal that you had in mind? Where did you think you were going to make it to? And what kind of change did you really see happening for your life? What were you doing this for initially? I think part of the other issue is not only do people get demoralized by not seeing the needle move enough, but also people give up because they forget about why they're doing something. Are you doing it for your family? Are you doing it so you can retire one day? Are you doing it so you can have financial freedom and not have a boss anymore or not have to work anymore? What is the reason? I think that's one thing that helps people lose their motivation to continue moving forward when times are tough like now. But then the problem is, this is like a mental issue that spreads to other parts of your life. When you stop trying in your financial life, then it also makes you stop trying in your relationship. It makes you stop doing things you like to do, like your hobbies and social things. People are letting their financial life get in the way so much and take up so much mental energy and worried about how things are that they just can't appreciate the other aspects of their life anymore. I think that's a big problem. Another thing that continually came up in these comments is the distrust of the overall system now, which I completely agree on that one. There's no reason to trust our government leaders or institutions anymore because they have been caught time and time again lying and rigging the system in favor of the elite while everybody else suffers. And that's just not right. And when this happens enough times, people just give up and stop listening altogether. I figured I'd stop out at the beach for you guys. Everybody always loves seeing the beach, especially in the middle of winter. I know I do. So this one's a tricky one because it's not that people don't care about all the things that are happening in the economy and in the world, but they just don't trust what they hear anymore. Even a lot of people have accused me of spreading fake information or whatever, which obviously is not the case. Everything I talk about here on this channel is researched and verified. I always have links down below in the description of all the things I talk about on this channel from verified news sources. So it's not like I'm just making things up. And if anything gets reported that ends up being wrong, then it's definitely an honest mistake and rarely ever happens. And you know, here's the thing, guys. I am constantly trying to tell everybody how bad things are with the economy and all the problems that exist and all the financial trouble that people are getting into. So that way, it can help you learn from all of it. You know, if you understand the systemic problems that we have and how to circumvent them and you see all the other financial mistakes that other people are making and you can go ahead and avoid making all of those mistakes, well, you just put yourself 10 steps ahead of most people who never heard any of this stuff. So when people constantly accuse me of making all these bad news videos, yeah, a lot of it is bad news, but it's reality. It's the things that are happening right now. We can all agree that our economy is absolute garbage right now, has been for a couple of years. It's not just, you know, something that happened over the past few months. But in my opinion, the more you understand where the problems are with the economy, as well as the opportunities, that puts you in a unique position to take advantage of the current situation. Because no matter how bad the economy is, there are always ways to do better. Guys, I have talked about this in previous videos. I'm not going to cover that today, but the options are there. So what I have to say to the people who are checking out mentally and are giving up, I will say to you, I think you need to change everything. You need to change the way you look at things. You need to change your method. You know, you can't try the same thing over and again and expect different results. That's the definition of insanity. If what you've been doing doesn't seem to be moving the needle or really creating the life that you wanted, well, I guess it's time to completely change that up and do something totally different. Something outside your comfort zone, learning a new skill, getting into a new business, starting a business. Because here's where it connects back to the economy. When enough people start to give up, it starts to show up in the labor market. People stop taking risks. They stop starting businesses. They stop switching jobs because they're afraid. They stop pushing for growth. And then hiring slows down because people aren't buying as many things. It's kind of where we're at right now. And then it makes the whole system tougher for everybody. But just to be 100% clear, I'm not saying any of this or talking about this to shame anyone. I am, once again, talking about this subject to reinvigorate people. Maybe some people who have mentally checked out will hear this and it will wake them up again and realize, yeah, you know what? You're right, Michael. I think I've just been trying the wrong things for too long. I've been working the same dead-end job for the past 10 years and taking a little bit of extra overtime here and there, but it's not moving the needle. Maybe I need to get a new job. Maybe I need to start a side hustle. Maybe I need to think about what I can do for myself to bring in income. Maybe I can create a couple of new sources of income for myself. Those are the things that I hope people who feel this way start to think. And everyone, for their own sake, should start to think about ways they can independently create income outside of their job anyways, because there's some new information, new data that just came out from the Federal Reserve about the job market. And basically, everyone's worried, guys. Even people who are doing well and earning six figures right now are worried about the trajectory of the job market. People who responded to the Federal Reserve's latest survey of consumer expectations said that the prospect of finding a job if they were unemployed was the worst that it has ever been since the report began back in 2013. And the anxiety was even higher for people who earn less than six figures a year. And going back to what I was saying earlier, the increased anxiety surrounding the job market is leading a lot more people to be worried about voluntarily leaving their job for a different opportunity in fear of not being able to either make it on their own or be able to secure another job that'd be sufficient. Also, along with the job market concerns are increased inflation expectations. The one-year inflation expectations moved up to 3.4% as of the December reading, up from the 3.2% reading in November. So people are continually expecting higher inflation than what we have right now, which is probably a very smart prediction. You know, people aren't stupid. People go to the store, they buy things, and they realize the price on many things is still continuing to go up, not down. And when you look at this chart here, you can see that the short-term inflation expectations, which is the orange line, is starting to creep back up. Although the long-term expectations for inflation are still sitting at around 3%, but that's the three to five-year inflation expectation, guys. We were told that inflation was going to go back down to 2%, but people still believe we're going to be at 3% levels or higher within the next three to five years, which essentially is saying that no one believes the 2% inflation narrative is ever going to come back. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is still cutting interest rates at every single meeting that they've done over the past several months. There's a strong possibility they may continue doing that in 2026, which is going to bring these higher inflation expectations to life, for sure. And the other thing that's helping people be more anxious in general about the economy and their finances is people's expectations of possibly missing a debt payment are the highest level right now that they have been going back to April of 2020. And obviously back then, people were very worried about missing a debt payment because a lot of people were forced to stay home. The stimulus checks and all that stuff hadn't really rolled out yet. And you can see by looking at this chart, on all accounts here, everyone is worried about missing debt payments coming up in the next few months, most notably the lowest of income people who make under 50K a year, which makes the most sense. The less money you make, the more vulnerable you are to not being able to pay the bills. And like I was saying, it's not just low income people who are feeling like this or experiencing problems. Even high income Americans are starting to feel this economic slowdown. The latest survey is showing that higher income Americans are now feeling pressure from the weakening labor market. The reason why that's such a big problem is because the higher income you are, the more money you spend in the economy and the more high income individuals that lose jobs, then the slower the economy gets because less of those people are able to spend like before. Also, consumer sentiment is plummeting extremely fast. Among adults earning over $100,000 a year, consumer sentiment plunged 10.5 points, showing us that the anxiety is finally moving up the income ladder, guys. So this is not something that's just affecting people who are working minimum wage jobs, who are earning the median household income. This is going all the way up the chain right now, pretty much until you get to very high income earners. And the problem is when people's wages go down relative to inflation, like we're seeing right now, what happens is it triggers recession-like behavior. And it basically is just confirming the recession that we have been in now for basically the last three and a half years. And the data is increasingly leaning into the richest Americans supporting the vast majority of the economy, guys. The latest figures show us that over 60% of the total US monthly consumer spending comes from households who are earning more than $170,000 a year. So you're essentially in the top 10% of Americans if you fit into that category. And they now make up 60% of the spending. I remember when I first reported on this a couple of years ago, it was 50%. Now it's 60%. How long can the richest Americans uphold the entire economy? But this also means that the economy is extremely vulnerable because if there's a pullback in spending in any category, whether it's retail, travel, housing, or car sales, or service-based businesses, that's going to have a major impact on the economy. It's going to increase unemployment pretty quickly. But even people in this income category are starting to be squeezed, especially if they have a regular job, because these big companies that they work for that pay them big salaries are letting people go. These big tech companies have been notorious for massive amounts of layoffs over the past few years. Also, if you are still employed, there are fewer bonuses going out, fewer promotions happening. And when you do get a raise, they are smaller than before. And at the same time, inflation is still going nowhere but up. So you can see how that is problematic. And then once people in the upper tier of income start feeling like they're treading water like everybody else, you better believe that the spending goes down from there. Unless people just don't want to admit that reality and they just continue to doomspend and continue to take on debt and basically live paycheck to paycheck, even though you're making over 200K a year, which a growing number of people are choosing that route as well. And the last part of this problem of why so many people are checking out and giving up is because a record amount of Americans now have to work multiple jobs just to be able to make ends meet. According to the latest data from the BLS, which hasn't been the most reliable and is probably severely underreported, but that's what we have to go by here. They're telling us that 9.3 million Americans are working multiple jobs as of November 2025, which is the highest number ever recorded going all the way back to 1994, guys. I mean, how else are people supposed to feel besides burnt out and feeling like they're on a hamster wheel if you have more people than ever working multiple jobs and it doesn't feel like it's helping? That means 5.7% of Americans who are employed are now working more than one job. So that's the highest share in 25 years. And back in 1996, it was 6.5% of people working multiple jobs. But the kicker is the workforce back in 1996 was a whole lot smaller. So 6.5% of a much smaller population is a lower amount of people working multiple jobs than 5.7% of a much higher population. So you see why this is more of an issue now. And the other major shift between the mid-90s and now is that back in 1996, two-thirds of the people who held multiple jobs were not college educated. But now fast forward to today, half of the people who have more than one job do have a college degree, which shows you not only has the college degree become a lot more worthless over the past couple of decades, but it also shows you how bad the job market is. People thought they were going to go to school and get these great jobs and have great salaries after they graduated. But now the way the economy is going and how fast things are shifting, especially with the implementation of AI, it's kind of unknown. If you thought you were going to have a good job when you started school six years ago, things have changed dramatically since then, and that job might be obsolete by now. Or it might not be obsolete, but the pay might have gone down if AI can take over a good chunk of that role and your services just aren't as needed as before. But if you take a look at this chart here that shows us the breakdown, you have more people than ever who work two full-time jobs, which is just insane. You have more people than ever who work one full-time job and one part-time job. You have more people than ever who work two part-time jobs, probably because it's hard to find a good full-time job. So all of this is moving in the wrong direction for American prosperity. And that goes back to what I was saying earlier in the video, is that you have to rethink your method of getting ahead, guys. Clearly, the traditional job market is not it. I am not sitting here telling you exactly what you should do and laying out the blueprint for your whole future and your life, where you should take things. But the best thing about having YouTube and access to the internet is you have access to every single piece of information that has ever been talked about or discovered for anything. And that includes creating opportunities for yourself. So use it to your advantage. Stop doom scrolling, stop watching mindless content. Every time you come on to YouTube, for example, you should be watching a piece of content that helps you learn something. If it's my channel, you should be learning something about the job market or the economy or real estate, if it's something you're trying to get into. If you're watching other channels, you should be learning how to make a side income. Some of the easiest ways, either using the internet or different side hustle gigs related to your passions in life, doing things that other people have proven to work over the years. It's actually really not that hard, but it just takes a certain level of effort and implementation if you want it to happen. So I hope this information helps you. And if it did, make sure you subscribe to the channel. And if you don't want to wait for my next video to come out, check out this one on the screen right over here. And I'll see you in the next one.