A new survey has found that Americans are being squeezed by higher prices as they head into the holiday season, forcing them to cut back on gifts and delay purchases because of Donald Trump's faltering economy.
The Associated Press--NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that a vast majority of U.S. adults have noticed increased prices for groceries, electricity, and holiday gifts in recent months. Roughly half say it is harder to afford presents, and similar numbers say they're postponing big purchases or trimming nonessential spending more than usual.
Those bleak findings come as Trump has been downplaying concerns about the state of the economy, while simultaneously urging families to scale back on Christmas presents for their children. At a Pennsylvania event on Tuesday, he told supporters, “You can give up certain products,” citing “pencils” as an example before turning to children’s toys: “You don’t need 37 dolls for your daughter.
80 Comments
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca · 94 pts · 252d
They can just tell their kids that Santa wasn't allowed to enter the Untied States
Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 38 pts · 252d
He got to all the wealthy houses before ICE grabbed him.
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca · 16 pts · 252d
Conveniently
explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 252d
I want to see Santa's social media history over the last 5 years.
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 2 pts · 251d
Mr. Santa, you seem to have posted a lot of "Ho"s..
lennybird@lemmy.world · 55 pts · 252d
All adults in our family agreed to not buy gifts. Just for kids. I'd rather save and not contribute to this already-shitty economy.
ninexe@sh.itjust.works · 16 pts · 252d
Good.
We live in a scam society and the only winning move is not to play.
Arctic_monkey@leminal.space · 1 pts · 251d
Pretty sure that's the move that makes you starve to death or be arrested for vagrancy...
Only winning move I can see is to be born into the exploiter class.
huquad@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 252d
Same here with my family
dditty@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 252d
Yeah my adult siblings and I decided to skip gifts this year. Inflation and tariffs are kicking all of our asses.
FosterMolasses@leminal.space · 42 pts · 252d
It's a shame that 68 didn't vote accordingly. FAFO
D_C@sh.itjust.works · 33 pts · 252d
How were they to know everything would turn to shit under a failed reality TV star, compromised russian stooge, SIX times bankrupt, unregistered paedo and convicted rapist who exhibited continued failing mental health with dementia traits and delusions of tyrannically despotism?
It's not as if he was already voted in a few years before and fucked everything up that time...
JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 251d
JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 251d
Well, it's not as though there was a precedent for all the shitty things he'd do once he took office. Not like he said he'd do all the shitty things in the leadup to his winning the election.
Except that there was. And he did. American voters are some of the dumbest, most idiotic people on the face of the planet. If you voted for the orange turd, or tried to excuse your sitting it out by virtue of something happening outside of your country, all I have to say is FAFO.
ninexe@sh.itjust.works · -8 pts · 252d
I'm sure more people would've shown up to the polls if they didn't have to choose between shit and slightly-less-shit.
JargonWagon@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 252d
"Aw man, my choices are slightly-less-shit and shit? I better not choose at all and then complain very loudly if I get shit instead of slightly-less-shit. At least I didn't make a choice though out of protest about Israel support. Surely both sides are the same."
Kamala: Both sides should cease fire.
Trump: Israel should kill off the rest of the Palestinians. Also here's $80B to Argentina for some fucking reason.
FAFO
ninexe@sh.itjust.works · -10 pts · 252d
Yes, it's a shame innocent people have to suffer so that the moderate white doesn't have to pay more in taxes.
JargonWagon@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 252d
It is a shame. The suffering worsens in Gaza, by a lot.
"Both sides should cease fire" is the start of any sort of recovery in Gaza and prevent furthering suffering. If people just showed up to the polls and voted, Gaza would likely be better off. Good thing those people protested though, it did so much good for Gaza /s
EDIT: In case it isn't clear, I'm commenting on people not voting for Kamala based on their stance that they should protest her not condemning Israel.
ninexe@sh.itjust.works · -7 pts · 252d
More people would've shown up if they didn't have to choose between a shit sandwich and a giant douche.
I'm blaming the useful idiots giving those options, but you keep doing you. I'm sure things will change eventually if you just keep doing the same thing expecting different results.
Zexks@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 252d
The world isnt a fairy tale. Sometimes a piece of shit and douche are your only options. Things have changed if you havent noticed and uou will continue to live with those changes whether you participate or not. Yoy may not care today but when your door is kicked in you will.
JargonWagon@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 252d
Viable alternative options will come when ranked voting is implemeted, which is expanding more and more through different states. Focus on getting that if you truly want to implement change. Until then, we have two choices, and those two choices can be changed during the outcomes of the primaries which you can participate in.
Simply not voting for the slightly-less-shit just gives the shit option more of a chance of winning. This is what secured a victory for the worst president in USA history.
Hopefully we see an absolutely huge swing in the opposite direction after this current shitshow is over with, though they may be too busy trying to patch up everything this administration completely bulldozed through instead of implementing more positive solutions like ranked voting, and by then voters will be tricked again into not voting out of protest over something else.
bilb@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 252d
People really don't like acknowledging that the dems had a role to play in their own failure. It's so disheartening.
ninexe@sh.itjust.works · 38 pts · 252d
Trump has a lot to do with it, but it's not just him.
This is the result of the working class not getting a fair return on its labor for decades. It's only going to get worse until they fight back.
DrDickHandler@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 252d
There won't be enough substantial resistance. Things WILL continue to get worse.
kent_eh@lemmy.ca · 11 pts · 252d
It's also the oligarchs who support him as well as the various puppeteers who control him.
Buffalox@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 251d
And the majority of people who supported him, and the majority of voters who voted for him. Trump freaking won the popular vote!!!
kent_eh@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 249d
Assuming the claims of voter fraud (from both sides) are not true.
Historically, the majority of election fraud that has been discovered has been in favor of the Republicans, so it's reasonable to assume that if there was fraud in the recent election, it was similarly inflating Trump's numbers.
Buffalox@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 249d
That's pearl clutching, because you want him to not have won by a majority vote.
From the evidence we have he did, the rest is useless speculation.
phoenixz@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 252d
He's in part a symptom of a problem that is making the problem worse
Buffalox@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 251d
LOL Fight back, they've fucking supported this for 40 years...
FIGHT BACK 🤣🤣🤣
OK if at some point an American majority realize the stupidity of their ways for 40 years, I will absolutely celebrate.
Of course some are very much aware and hate what has been going on, but unfortunately they are not the majority.
Word of advice though, fighting back starts small, you can't wait for the majority to fight, the momentum needs to be build by those who realize the problem.
AcidiclyBasicGlitch@sh.itjust.works · 35 pts · 252d
Trying not to think about the fact that Christmas is somehow 10 days away, my bare minimum student loan payment is 5 days away, but I don't get paid again for another 15 days. Then rent is due the day after that, and it's most of my paycheck, which pretty much immediately puts me back to where I am now, and groceries are somehow more and more expensive every time, and I get to ring in 2026 knowing best case scenario for the new year is that this neverending cycle continues once I get paid again at the end of January and repeat the same thing until 2027.
But I also know how privileged we are just to have a few small things under the tree for my kid, not to mention having a roof over our heads, and not having to worry about Nazis trying to kidnap my family members and split us apart every time we risk stepping outside, or being murdered in drone strikes that suddenly rain down from above from out of nowhere for absolutely no fucking reason.
Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday, Jesus! Are we great again?
TheTurner@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 252d
NABDad@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 252d
I don't think there's really any chance, but I've reached the point where I want things to get so bad that we actually elect enough progressive politicians to actually fix what's wrong.
I truly believe in democracy, even though it has been fucking up lately. I think having a bloodless revolution every 2-4 years via elections is infinitely superior to having to actually build guillotines. At the same time I also think there's a point where interfering with the process for bloodless revolutions makes bloody revolutions inevitable.
The current administration is both homicidally incompetent, and completely out of touch, so there's a chance that the pressure will keep increasing until a fault forms and the ensuing catastrophe shakes the electorate out of their current stupidity enough to elect progressive people who will actually run the country for the people.
The alternative is the slow sleepwalk into slavery that we've been doing for decades.
The effort to gerrymander the shit out of everything is actually a positive sign: it shows that even the sociopaths running things understand that elections still matter. If elections still matter, the people are still in control.
Unfortunately, most of the people are mouth-breathing morons.
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 252d
But did they stick to only 1 or 2 pencils? What about the dolls? Did people stop buying 37 dolls?
1995ToyotaCorolla@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 252d
Hey, I just had a thought. Do you think people buying only one or two dolls instead of 37 might be bad for an economy designed to grow forever?
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 252d
There are a whole lot of thoughts that are bad for something that requires delusional thinking like infinite growth. This is why the conservatives work to dismantle (real) education in this country.
Vandals_handle@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 251d
Does a No. 2 pencil count as one or two?
Copythis@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 252d
Calm down people, just buy less pencils and we'll all be fine
InvalidName2@lemmy.zip · 11 pts · 252d
No need to be sarcastic about it. Nobody thinks buying fewer pencils is going to have a significant impact on your household budget. You also need to stop buying all those dolls, mocha-matcha holiday spice non-dairy iced triple espresso coffees, avocados including avocado-based food items, college educations, health care, iphones, child care, refrigerators, computer memory, and beef. Also, the point of Christmas isn't gifts, so you should also be buying fewer of those. The right to Christmas gifts isn't in the constitution anyway.
BanMe@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 252d
Hey also could you please have more kids, we need you to be having more kids
InvalidName2@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 252d
As a gay couple, my partner and I are doing our best to make that happen. Fingers crossed!
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 252d
...all this has a lot more respectability if you say it between drafting up and bragging about plans for a ridiculously gaudy ballroom, scheming over some crypto grift, and throwing a little Gatsby-style party for the upper crust.
Gates9@sh.itjust.works · 21 pts · 252d
Soon there will be a critical mass of people who have nothing left to lose
kent_eh@lemmy.ca · 13 pts · 252d
I hope they realize that, while Trump is the figurehead, he isn't the only one who has intentionally put them in that position.
Gates9@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 252d
“You can't build a revolution with no education. Jomo Kenyatta did this in Africa, and because the people were not educated, he became as much an oppressor as the people he overthrew.”
https://youtu.be/DviCUygm3eM
Rekorse@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 252d
We are close to the point where trump has no chance to win another election, but pretty far from the point where people start dragging politicians out of their homes and hanging them.
AbidanYre@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 252d
Trump can't run again. If he's still in charge after Jan 20, 2029 the US is dead.
Prior_Industry@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 252d
I thought affordability was a democrat hoax!?
velindora@lemmy.cafe · 15 pts · 252d
A+++++++
nimble@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 15 pts · 252d
skozzii@lemmy.ca · 14 pts · 252d
I just hope he keeps gaslighting everyone and telling them how great everything is while he literally loots and destroys the country. Atleast we have some economic prosperity to look forward to once he is gone, and his policies reversed.
explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 252d
Unless you're in East America.
TronBronson@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 252d
I work seasonal in retail and it’s a pretty mixed bag this Christmas. The haves and have nots are easy to spot. I agree about half my customers are hurting.
jasonweiser@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 252d
*self-proclaimed billionaire Trump
MajorasTerribleFate@lemmy.zip · 14 pts · 252d
Oh, he's grifted enough from his marks in the last decade that I easily believe he's a billionaire now. Crypto and stuff especially.
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 252d
That, and Russians helped him dig out of the 8 billion debt he had in the 90s.
minorkeys@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 252d
But still wont group up and do anything to improve the situation.
tym@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 252d
minorkeys@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 252d
Hey maybe try and save your country?
Ruzzian trolls bot farm propaganda!
This is why America is fucked.
tym@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 251d
cheeseburger@piefed.ca · 8 pts · 252d
When will Americans realize that trump is a cunt?
7U5K3N@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 16 pts · 252d
When he dies ..and folks start saying... Oh I never liked or supported him .
You know while the maga flag burns in their fire pit
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 252d
They are going to be building lifeboats just like they did after W.
Remember the sudden appearance of people saying they were in this non-existent party called the "tea party" (well, originally, they called themselves the teabaggers until they got sick of liberals like Maddow pointing and laughing at them until their sides hurt. The people that came up with that name thought they'd be pulling a fast one on the libs and find another way to own them, but when it made them look GAY they pulled the ripcord on that) and a huge influx of all these "independents" that never even heard of this W guy and gosh, they don't want to talk politics or nothing, because both sides, ya'll.
tym@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 252d
tootoughtoremember@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 252d
The evidence has been laid bare for quite some time.
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 252d
The networks are going to have to blur that at some point here. Unless he gets a merkin or grows a neckbeard to make it more 70s style.
Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk · 5 pts · 252d
Over half of them have always known this.
Blame voter apathy.
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 1 pts · 251d
You do realize that most Americans hate Trump, right?
Plurrbear@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 252d
Where’s my $2k check? Why aren’t egg prices down? Clearly, this administration doesn’t give a fuck about the people! They only care about themselves and how to line their pockets! Time to CLEAN FUCKING HOUSE! Worst 4 years of our lives!!!!
Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 251d
Want even more fun? Look at when the next government shutdown is scheduled (funding runs out) and look at when the IRS is set to start accepting returns.
🤡🤡🤡🤡
TheTurner@lemmy.zip · -1 pts · 252d
quick_snail@feddit.nl · -2 pts · 251d
Stop eating eggs asshole
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 250d
Or what?
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 0 pts · 250d
Millions of people will die due to the climate catastrophe
Plurrbear@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 248d
Wake up and realize that was his whole damn platform…. Lower prices on everything but didn’t inflicting tariffs, checks for everyone but only he only is helping his billionaire homies, didn’t help farmers but hurt them, cut jobs and jobs still down in the worst history! Get off FAUX news and RESEARCH and use whatever critical thinking skills you have, if any…
“Stop driving your gas guzzler car, asshole” Or else “climate catastrophe”.
You sound ignorant, do you know how tariffs work? He needs to stop blaming Biden for EVERYTHING while a year later, he’s one of the worst to our economy by far in our 21st century by also being a pedo, and causing an insurrection that lead to NOTHING but a stain on America!
He’s an embarrassment, hands down!
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 0 pts · 248d
What are you going on about? If you want to stop the climate catastrophe, you have to stop rich countries from polluting. That means banning carbon extraction, carbon burning, and factory farms.
Plurrbear@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 234d
I am only one damn person just like you so….
I use my electric scooter to go to work and use the solar panel electric for it! And I live in a state with zero temps… WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?! Back off and do something more!
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 0 pts · 232d
XR. We have to shut it down with direct action.
SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 252d
You MAGAs got what you voted for, puh-raise JEE-zuz-ah!
ninexe@sh.itjust.works · -1 pts · 252d
Dems got what they voted for, too.
They'd rather have a fascist than a progressive.
switcheroo@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 252d
Despite all the "news" articles and clickbaits telling me how great everyone's doing surprisingly this year, yeah, this is what I am going to believe. The bought-and-paid for media is shoving flowers at us to try and mask the scent of shit.
No one can buy shit this year. Thankfully I'm doing okay enough that I can send what little family I have left a gift cert for two hundred each. It's not great but it's better than so so many can do. 🙁
ABetterTomorrow@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 252d
Family made a deal this year. Socks only.
SethTaylor@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 251d
That socks
EDIT: I sincerely apologize to anyone who has read my comment and I will now be leaving.
BanMe@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 252d
My first-two-weeks-of-January paycheck hits next week, early because the university shuts down totally during the break. So technically I can afford some meager gifts, and to be current on my mortgage and utilities, but next month half my income will be gone already.
And I know a garnishment judgment for a bill I just cannot pay will hit soon, so that's 25% of my pay gone.
Basically I'm OK now but 2026 is already shaping up to be a flaming financial disaster.
stoy@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 252d
It would be funny to give MAGA people affected by Trumps policies some new bootstraps, so they can pull themselves up.
DylanMc6@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 252d
can we use the opportunity to educate these families on socialism and such?
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 252d
He only cares if they're buying gifts for him. From his businesses.