Journalism’s negativity on display:

The Great Recession ended a decade ago, but many Americans have not seen their financial situation improve.

Source: Many Americans are still struggling from the Great Recession

Here is the reporter’s negative spin:

• More than half of Americans who were adults amid the Great Recession said they endured some type of negative financial impact, Bankrate found. And half of those people say they’re doing worse now than before the crisis.

• More than half of U.S. households have no emergency savings

• Fewer than half (46%) of those who were adults at the time of the recession say they’ve seen their paychecks grow since before it began. More than a third of those who say they, or their partner, lost a job during the recession say their pay has actually dropped from before the recession.

• The median family income, after accounting for inflation, was $60,336 in 2017, little different than it was in 2000 ($58,544)

• Twenty-seven percent of women say their overall financial situation is worse today than it was before the recession, compared with 19% of men.

Rewritten in a positive way yet providing the same information:

• About half are doing better now than before the crisis.
• Almost half of U.S. households now have emergency savings
• Almost half have seen their paychecks grow
• 2/3ds of those whose households lost a job during the recession 10 years ago have seen an increase or kept their income stable
• Median family income was up by 3%.
• 73% of women say their overall financial situation is as good or better than before the recession. 81% of men say their financial situation is as good or better than before the recession.
• (It is not clear how 73% and 81% of adults say their financial situation is better among all the other reported negatives!)

The only positive items in the story are to note that unemployment is 3.6% today and that GDP continues to rise at a healthy rate. But then says that these numbers do not capture the negatives on individuals… thus, even good news is spun into a negative.

If you wonder why you feel anxious, scared and generally upset all the time, much of it is due to media fueled outrage culture that turns even good news into negativity.