Fed survey shows 40 percent of adults still can't cover $400 emergency expense

No. I am correct on both counts.
We measure economic health by meauring consumption because ceterus paribus consumption indicates health.

But the decision to choose consumption as an indicator is arbitrary. We could just as easily choose savings, mattress money, % of people employed, % of people retired, # of dogs owned, or the amount of rib-eye steak consumed by lefthanders etc…

IF all other things are equal,
THEN the economy scoring the highest in any of the above measurements is healthiest.

Consumerism is not an indicator of the economy, it’s the main driver of the economy. Without people buying expensive trucks and other things they sometimes can’t strictly afford the economy collapses.

I gtg
will post again later

Gives me more reason to be frugal and save.

That is at best a tautology. (circular logic.)
Given the overextended way our govt tends to intervene to im"improve’ the economy that logic has led us down many a stray path.

I’ll explain shortly.

There is no one number that IS the economy. GDP, (sales if final goods and services) us used so frequently it is often used as a synonym for “the economy,” but actually it is just another number.

t works like this: pick (almost) any 6 economic measurements you like such as 1. GDP (consumption),
2. inflation,
3. unemployment,
4. interest rates,
5. aggregate net worth (savings less debt), and
6. annual income earned by the lowest quintile.

Of course those numbers interact" but uf you hold any five of them in place, and improve the other one you can be said to have grown the economy.

No, we don’t.

Yes, that is how the size of the economy is counted. If you or the Pentagon used to pay $40 for a toilet seat, but now you pat $400 ecomomists will cheer and say you are growing the economy.

You went from “economic health” to “size of the economy.” Stay in one lane.

fair enough.