Feeling Stuck.

Some call this "The Languishing Era."

Here’s a good, semi-old-ish article from The Wall Street Journal.

It’s basically about how the intersection of once-low mortgage rates, once-high job offers (pandemic), and reduced-price gym memberships and meal kits — all of which are now faded out — have kept Americans stuck in their existence because of the cost of doing something else being too high, as exemplified in this paragraph:

Pessimistic Americans are driving from the same old homes to the same old jobs in the same old cars. The average age of cars and light trucks in the U.S. is at a record 12½ years, according to S&P Global Mobility. Kelley Blue Book reports new-vehicle prices have plateaued at 25% above prepandemic levels and inventory shortages persist for certain models, stalling some trade-ins.

The most interesting paragraph, re: job hopping, is a few notes down the article:

Jumping ship is usually the best way to earn more money, but job switchers’ wage-growth advantage over those who hang around is the smallest in three years at 0.4 percentage points, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Wage hikes are harder to come by in many industries. Across 20,000 job titles on ZipRecruiter, the average advertised salary for most roles is less than it was last year.

I could see this. I browse Indeed periodically and all those jobs seem like hourly wage work or commission-only sales jobs.

When I saw this WSJ article, I thought of a popular 2021 column by Adam Grant of Wharton and Sheryl Sandberg fame, about how the word of the moment is “languishing.”

We’re all feeling a little stuck, to be honest. That might be because we can’t buy a home — the damn Boomers want too much for their 1977 grab that they haven’t updated aside from one HVAC unit purchase in 1991. Or we have a home, but we can’t trade up because we’re at a 2.7% rate and don’t want to get a new, more expensive house at 8%. We can’t get a better car either. Some of us live with our parents. Are we failing to launch?

I think this is the generalized malaise of modern America: we know we have it good, and things are comfortable and convenient, but we also feel like maybe … this is it.

America also, generally speaking, has a problem with “looking up.” So if you are doing conventionally well, you’re still trapped in a prison of your own making, because the guy down the street is doing conventionally better, and you can’t escape thinking about it. I’d blame that on Instagram, but the problem way pre-dates IG.

I can tell you personally that in late 2023, I bartended and I looked at commission jobs selling insurance and whatever. I maybe make $225/week if I get two shifts, and if I get one, I make about $115. I ain’t raking it in. I ain’t conventionally successful by any means. And my pee pee doesn’t do what pee pees are supposed to do, so I’m chasing the drain on many fronts. It can feel exhausting, broke, and — yes — stuck.

And honestly, if I made $200K right now — which oddly I have in a few freelance years of mine — I’d still feel broke and stuck. The guy in front of me at Costco last Sunday rang a $725 bill on maybe 18 items in his cart. Shit is really expensive, and people feel locked and trapped as a result of that. America works best when free money is flowing, naw mean?

American mobility thus has grinded to a halt.

Now, all that said, six homes recently sold in my neighborhood. One of them I believe was a military discount, which means you don’t do a down payment or something like that. But everyone else had to pay a 7% or higher rate, I’d imagine. I don’t live in a fancy neighborhood, so we’re talking $300–400K homes here. Not million-dollar homes. Still, people are willing to move and be mobile in specific situations, I guess. I’m personally still terrified of debt, which is why I’m probably not pursuing this nursing idea I once had.

Do you think Americans, or yourself, feel “stuck?”