It is literally explicitly addressing the situation where these indicators claim everything's okay even though no one feels like it is - the idea that just because economic health metrics are up, doesn't mean anything for the average American.
it's claims is that everything really is better, but the "vibe" is to complain. it's a counter to the "silent majority" suffering in red states. it's a inane political spin that did not take on.
I just don’t even know where you’re getting this from. I have to wonder if you’ve read the original article. If that’s what you got from the wikipedia page, it’s wrong - I have Scanlon’s book in my hand and here’s a quote straight from the vibecession chapter
> “Of course, as I have talked about throughout the book, there are many real problems with the economy. We have a structural affordability crisis. A housing crisis. A healthcare crisis. A childcare crisis. The list is endless and nothing can hide anymore. The things to be anxious about are numerous. The geopolitical warfare. The walls of any sense of economic safety caving in. The endless political theatrics.”
And here’s a quote from the source document that coined the term vibecession, from her Substack:
> Markets are a profit-maximizing system. That is the point of All of This - the reason that people feel bad, the reason that the vibes are off, part of the reason that people get fired, companies go under, that McKinsey incentivized the opioid crisis - they knew it would kill people, but it would make money.
Money is not a moral compass.
How is this claiming that everything’s actually okay and that it’s just that we’re sad about stuff? If the claim was “the vibe is to complain” why did she give at least ten real problems that influence consumer sentiment there.
I'm going exclusively from the wikipedia article, which have things like
"When polled, most Americans had a negative perception of the economy, with some saying that it had even entered a period of recession, while data showed that inflation was going down and GDP growing. This pessimism about the overall economy heavily contrasted with Americans' perception of their own financial situation, which they said was mostly positive.[5]"
that is at most an attempt to control the narrative, and throw the growing inequality under the rug as some sort of mass hysteria. lame.