this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
428 points (98.4% liked)

No Stupid Questions

42195 readers
625 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here. This includes using AI responses and summaries.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] swordgeek@lemmy.ca 21 points 3 days ago

It depends on who "we" are.

If you're in the US, then bad news buttercup - you're already under the thumb of a ruthless insane dictator, and the economy is the last of your worries.

[–] MrMakabar@slrpnk.net 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

We are heading into a feudal system of a sort. The wealth gap is absolutly massive and the only way to end up in the upper class is to inherit. As per usual the population feels that the system is unfair, but is unable to see the real problem. Media is really pushing far right talking points, as the upper class realizes that the system is broken and a real revolution is a problem. Thats how the US ended up with a de facto monarchy. The UK is moving towards that pretty quickly too.

The good news is that Labour might make some really usefull changes. Mainly end first past the post to prevent Reform from taking over. That might very well allow left wing parties like the LibDems and Greens to win more seats and change the narrative.

[–] JustARaccoon@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

What makes you think Labour are looking to change that?

[–] MrMakabar@slrpnk.net 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Labour had a bit more then a third of the votes, which is pretty close to were Reform is polling today. However Labour won a massive majority with those votes. If Labour wants to prevent a Reform victory they need to change the election system. It is even worse for the Tories. So long term Tory supporters will cheer them on.

[–] FuckFascism@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

We're headed for a revolution, of the French variety.

[–] Brickhead92@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago
[–] ballgoat@lemmy.zip 21 points 3 days ago

We are always headed for a crash. That’s the cycle of capitalism without strong regulatory mechanisms to mitigate it. I believe it is every 4-7 years that a crash has happened in the last 300 years.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 249 points 4 days ago (30 children)

We're already there. The only reason we aren't calling this a depression is that the stock market hasn't been affected much.

But when 25% of Americans are functionally unemployed, it's hard to argue we aren't already largely 'crashed'.

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 112 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

The biggest issue is the need for families to have two incomes to support a houshold. Unemployment would plummet if single incomes for the working class were feasible again,since unemployment is based on looking for employment.

Basically if jobs had living wages and we had universal healthcare we wouldn't be in this mess.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 84 points 4 days ago (5 children)

That ship sailed under Reagan, and it's never getting back to port, sadly. Thanks to him, families now needed two incomes.

Then, Bush and Clinton came along, and you needed not only two incomes, but two college degrees. Now, with Dubya, Obama, and Trump, not even that's enough, and they're capping student loans instead of regulating student loan interest, so your only real shot at being a doctor now is being born in the right zip code.

America, baby. Dig it.

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 44 points 4 days ago (25 children)

it's never getting back to port

In the event of an actual crash, a lot of these "nevers" will get re-evaluated. The New Deal consisted of a lot of "nevers" that all got passed because people didn't want a repeat of the first Great Depression; I'd expect a similar snap-back after the second Gilded Age finally burns itself out.

load more comments (25 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] lemmy_outta_here@lemmy.world 56 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Yeah, I don’t know if OP is in the USA, but having someone like Donald Trump elected to high office is 100% part of a crash already in progress. Inequality got so bad that democracy is not functioning. In a healthy society, Trump would be an unelectable laughing stock.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 28 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Yeah. I consider Trump the "blow everything up" candidate, he got a lot of support from people who were just so generically desperate that they wanted to vote for whoever seemed like they were going to majorly change something, somehow. It almost didn't matter what Trump did as long as he smashed the existing order while doing it.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 45 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Also, not so fun fact, but this got me curious so I looked up the unemployment rate during The Great Depression: apparently then it was around 20% to 25% as well, so I feel like that reinforces the point I'm making a bit.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Scotty_Trees@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago

I stopped working a year ago. Burnt out, broken down, and various physical ailments just broke and depressed me. Moved back in with family to help support my useless ass. Shit sucks and it ain't going to get any better. But I'll turn up to every local protest I can cuz this GOP shit is bullshit.

load more comments (26 replies)
[–] Hikermick@lemmy.world 24 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Don't worry. Trump is making sure you can get a job picking crops. You'll be living in a tent. No rent, not utilities. You're welcome!

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] BeatTakeshi@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

It's in the making since 1971

[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 20 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Slapping on tariffs at a time with inflation, high consumer anxiety, and wage stagnation is going to be looked on as one of the worst moves a president has made.

[–] Colonel_Panic_@eviltoast.org 16 points 3 days ago (1 children)

He is, without a doubt, the worst and second worst president in the country's entire history.

Trump: "Ah, but you have heard of me!"

[–] nick_99@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 days ago (4 children)

FAKE NEWS TDS, TRUMP IS OUR LAWD N SAVIOR, HE HAS RISEN AND REPLACED JESUS CHRIST. /s

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] EightBitBlood@lemmy.world 60 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Yes. We are heading towards a crash. We are very much already in one, and have absolutley no way out.

Trump killed all US international commerce with his TACO tariffs and is currently propping up a failing stock market by converting medicaid dollars into ICE / TECH BRO MILITARY funding. The stock market keeps doing great because our tax dollars are propping up companies like Google, Plantir, and Amazon through government grants instead of providing us a safety net. That money will run out eventually, but likely not before more CEOs are killed over it.

Literally we are living through the gilded 1920's again but with an American Hitler.

We now have years of uncontrolled inflation well above target rates, a corrupt government, wealth inequality worse than the French revolution, and rampant unintelligent Tariffs hurting all international trade at the cost of every small business in America. These are the same factors that caused the great depression, and if you think it's not going to happen again, you are wrong.

We are a country being lead into disaster by the least competent people imaginable.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 24 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

We are heading towards a crash. We are very much already in one, and have absolutley no way out.

I think this is what folks lose track of when they talk about "the crash". We're all waiting with baited breath for the financial system to topple over. But the financial system is increasingly just a dozen private equity firms bidding up one another's baseball cards. They can't "crash" in the traditional sense until a sufficient number of them refuse to contribute more to the pot, and so long as everyone has easy credit there's no real reason to do that.

Incidentally, JPow and Trump (and every Fed Chair/President going back to Bernenke/Obama) have both been militant in keeping Fed Interest Rates at historic lows going on nearly two decades.

Literally we are living through the gilded 1920’s again but with an American Hitler.

I mean, the parallels between Trump and Coolidge Eras are in abundance. War on Immigration. A finance/tech sector that's eating the industrial economy. Massive spike in white nationalism paired with a full blown Red Scare. Deficit hawkery that never touches the national security state. Global ecological crises compounding into massive famines and agricultural failures.

We are a country being lead into disaster by the least competent people imaginable.

Part of the problem is that we've lost track of a consensus on what "competent" looks like. I see plenty of people (rightly) insist guys like Trump and Speaker Johnson and governors like DeSantis and Abbott are criminally incompetent. But then these same people get fully behind Gavin Newsom and Pete Buttigieg and Kamala Harris, seemingly without recognizing that they're pushing the backside of the same privatization / national security state coin.

What do you do when blue state bastions like California and New Mexico are turning out Crypto Shills as quickly as any captured conservative enclave like Wyoming or South Carolina? What does competency look like in the wake of Biden's squandered four years or Obama's or Clinton's corporately compromised time in office, for that matter?

How do you talk about climate change or even scratch the surface of our US-backed genocides in Gaza and Yemen and Afghanistan or talk about housing policy or college debts or union organization when half the elected liberal contingent is just a commodity that's traded on the stock market?

We're all waiting for the dream to end in a sudden shocking economic turn. I don't know if that's necessarily what will happen. What if we've just pivoted our economy towards a monetization of human suffering? What if this system is stable and enduring? There is no crash because there's nothing left to be broken into and fleeced.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 26 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (12 children)

And I just found out I need a new job as we are being ordered into the office after they moved it 50 miles away.

Things are not looking good. I think they will hit us with another round of redundancies after some people leave too.

load more comments (12 replies)
[–] asg101@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 3 days ago (2 children)

You will own nothing, live in the company town, owe your soul to the company store, and be grateful.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] burgerpocalyse@lemmy.world 64 points 4 days ago

ye best start believin in economic depression, yer in one!

[–] Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 17 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

The US could poke along forever, North Korea style because our entire country is full of cowards who will just take oppression without any fight.

...the climate, tho. 😬

[–] bradorsomething@ttrpg.network 22 points 3 days ago (3 children)

More of a slow collapse than a crash. Ever seen a dilapidated house on a country road, parts of the roof caving in, paint chipped, vines covering the yard? We’re working on being that house by slowly letting social and physical infrastructure in the US collapse over time.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I remember during the big housing bubble in the early 2000s people were telling me "Oh you better buy now" even though down payments were insanely high and I kept thinking "The cost of housing is totally out of whack with incomes. There is no way this can keep going up." Surprise, surprise the whole thing blew up and lots of people were then left with mortgages that cost more than their homes so they were stuck. On top of that the prices were still out of whack with incomes and I still couldn't afford a house unless it was a wreck. I eventually just moved out of the state.

I was just reading how the normal "escape cities", like Miami, for people fleeing high cost areas like San Francisco and Boston/NYC are now almost as expensive. Guess people will have to go to St Louis and Des Moines.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] sobchak@programming.dev 22 points 4 days ago (6 children)

What you're describing is basically stagflation. It doesn't necessarily mean a crash. It's possible for the majority of people to keep on earning less and less real income for a long time without a crash.

I do wonder what the effect of all the layoffs from tech and the public sector and all the cuts in federal funding will do though. Dunno if that's enough to flood the housing market and crash it or not. I think I've read that banks are in a good position to absorb housing market losses, so it won't be like 2008.

AFAIK, most current economic indicators are OK. Not necessarily great, but not dire either.

The stock market makes no sense to me. It doesn't appear most stocks move on the fundamentals of the companies or anything like that. It all appears to be driven by hype/gambling, and propped up from sustained lows by 401ks on auto-pilot and people trained to "buy the dip" by the quick Covid recovery.

The USD appears to be rapidly losing a lot of value compared to other currencies like the EUR. But, that fits well into the plan to reduce imports and boost US exports. Inflation with stagnant wages makes US exports more attractive/cheaper.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] sircac@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Headed? I would say that we are a looney toon several meters in the air beyond the cliff border after traverse a mountaing through a tunnel painted in the wall with an ACME parachute... and I think that I fell short in the hyperbole

[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

A crash? I'd say we're in a plane from which the pilot decided to press the "eject wings" button.

[–] towerful@programming.dev 3 points 2 days ago

Why do we even have that lever?

[–] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 36 points 4 days ago (26 children)

Yes, it's gonna get bad. Jobs in both the private sector, and public sector, universities, etc, we are all feeling the heat right now.

load more comments (26 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›