February 16, 2026
Charts vs carts
Why Affordability and the Vibecession Are Real Economic Problems
Wallets still screaming: incomes up, vibes down, essentials up
TLDR: Incomes bounced back, but essentials like food and housing rose faster, fueling a real affordability squeeze. Commenters are split between “trust people’s pain” and “blame doom-news,” with fierce debates over inequality, regional differences, and whether any leader can realistically roll prices back.
The article says paychecks recovered beyond 2019, but the community is yelling: “Then why does everything feel so expensive?” The vibe is full-on vibecession—a mood crash where charts say “you’re fine” and grocery receipts say “absolutely not.” One camp, led by t-writescode, is done with the “money illusion” talk and demands we believe people’s pain. Another camp, like ajross, says the doom is driven by nonstop awful headlines, not empty wallets.
The hot trigger: essentials have surged—food, rent, transport, hospital and even vet bills—outrunning overall inflation. Cue jokes about the “DoorDash tax” pushing folks back to groceries and memes like “charts vs carts.” Some readers argue you can’t promise to rewind prices without courting a recession; others clap back that decades of policy tilted the board toward the already-rich.
Nuance enters via alephnerd: it’s not one economy, it’s many—Bay Area vibes look nothing like Chicagoland. Avicebron’s throwback truck tale (1970: $2k; today: $50k) hits like a TikTok reality check. And yes, political currents swirl: several point out that current proposals—like pressure on essentials—aren’t helping the mood. The comment section is basically a group chat asking: who do we trust, the spreadsheet or the supermarket?
Key Points
- •Real median household income recovered after the post‑pandemic inflation surge and is above 2019 levels by 2024–2025, yet consumer sentiment remains near historic lows.
- •Two critiques of affordability politics are outlined: a money‑illusion view and the impracticality of restoring prior price levels without recession.
- •The “vibecession,” coined by Kyla Scanlon in 2022, is often used to suggest sentiment is detached, but the article argues inflation can cause real affordability problems.
- •The article claims President Trump’s current policy agenda worsens sentiment by pressuring affordability channels.
- •An “essentials squeeze” is identified: over six years, overall prices rose 26.1%, core services 27.8%, and essentials like food, shelter, transport, hospitals, and vet services rose faster; food away from home increased more than groceries, prompting shifts toward food at home.