Paul Krugman: What people say versus what they do, part 10,000

What people say versus what they do, part 10,000

Respondent: I just can't afford to travel. Surveyor: But you said earlier that you plan to see your mother on the other side of the country. Resp: Oh, that's not travel, that's a family get together.

People who answer unknown phone calls are staying home, people who decline unknown phone calls are traveling.

30-40% of poll respondents are inveterate liars (Republicans/leaning Republican)

What’s a normal number of people to have traveling during the summer? These numbers could be reconciled if e.g. it was normal for 45% of people to stay home in the summer: “lots of people staying home” but also less people than usual staying home—it’s a big country!

My family is not planning to travel this summer, largely because it’s expensive, but in a totally normal way that doesn’t indicate anything about The Economy—traveling with two kids is a large resource commitment and is only worth it sometimes!

Florence, Italy, is overflooded with USAmerican tourists

For all you know, more Americans decided to go to Florence and fewer to Paris though.

Possible that the people clogging the TSA gates are among the 37% who feel better about their vacation financial situation this year? I don't know how much the TSA numbers are up. From the same Deloitte report: www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/...

The questions should always be: how many people are being pulled up out of poverty; how many children are living in poverty; what are the education levels coming out of school in poorer areas (etc).

All good questions. I think, in this specific example, it's quite possible that some people are doing better and other people are doing worse. That seems a more likely explanation than assuming that people are lying to pollsters about being broke.

- Credit card debt was recorded at record breaking levels in the US in Feb, by the looks of this Itvs going down slightly (I think?! It's confusing wording), but it's still astonishingly massive. www.forbes.com/advisor/cred...

Average Credit Card Debt Study 2024www.forbes.com Across the country, many Americans are struggling with mounting credit card debt. The most recent data from the Federal Reserve reveals that credit card debt sits at $1.12 trillion—yes, that’s trillio...

I don't think they lie, I think their assumptions earlier in the year are probably override by feelings of "Screw it, let's go and enjoy ourselves, we can put off paying for X" *or* credit carding it, which I think Dr Krugman may be ignoring? And yes, the extremes of economic status are stretching -

I'm staying put this summer too. Because I don't have kids and I take my vacations in September as soon as they go back to school.

Do 6 in 10 Americans typically travel in summer? Missing context here…

I guess money has been tight for decades.

Even accepting the data I don’t see why that is that bad of a headline. Travel is a luxury. It stinks we can’t all do it as much as we’d like but…? And it looks like 2 out of 3 are taking a trip

They won’t be satisfied until every American is in Italy and vice versa

But the vibecession!

This phenomenon makes so many things difficult (or impossible). From planning important actions to deciding on where to hold monthly lunch get-together.

Yeah but what if the problem is that the 60% who were planning to travel all scheduled it for the same day?

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