The economy team has been waiting for furniture for a long time.
Half of us bought new couches for our new pads after moving in the last year. We have been waiting for them to arrive for 45 weeks. After a three-month wait, one editor's couch arrived and she had to return it because it was the wrong size. The wait is going to get longer.
Most Americans aren't taking couch shortages sitting down. Many Americans won't be reclining in the new couches they ordered for their Pandemic digs anytime soon.
This isn't just a delivery breakdown. It's a sign of how the American Dream is going to break down in 2021.
James Truslow Adams defined the American Dream as the opportunity for a better life for all. The house, white picket fence, and other consumerist trappings of the suburban llidy were introduced during the postwar boom of the 1950s. The global health crisis of 70 years ago is changing everything again.
The housing shortage, the labor shortage, and the supply shortage are all going to challenge the American Dream in the year 2021. Americans are at a fork in the road and what will the next dream be?
You can choose your own adventure with housing.
The American Dream home became a quasi-gameshow during the Pandemic.
Workers snapped up nearly every suburban home when they were freed from the chains of office life. The dream of suburbia was stronger than the market's ability to support it, as the housing shortage left America short millions of homes. It made it difficult for first-time homeowners to get into the market.
The American Dream was splintered into four different versions as housing prices continued to rise. Larry Samuel, the founder of Age Friendly consulting and author of "The American Dream: A Cultural", said that many people are realizing that there are other valid interpretations of the American Dream.
The post-World War II vision of being a homeowner is still alive and well. Suburbanite is more accessible to the wealthy than to the majority of young people who want to own a home.
The housing shortage has made it hard for many to find a home.
Newsday and spencer images.
The market for first-time buyers is very discouraging, according to a person who has spent 14 months house-hunting and put in five rejected bids.
In May and June alone, some 40,000 Americans turned to more affordable housing in the exurbs, a rural community that is distantly commutable to a big city, or even further out to areas that urbanist Richard Florida has deemed "the rural fringe."
A boom in sales of tiny houses and vans, both of which saw a boom in sales since the beginning of the Pandemic, is one of the reasons why others are finding alternative options in a life on the go.
It doesn't mean that cities are dead. The skyrocketing rents and the 60% of wealthy young people who plan to buy a home in a big city within the next year shows that city life still holds an appeal. Urbanites are living in cities because they want to, not because they need to, and it's changing the way cities are viewed.
The new white picket fence can be said to be the freedom and peace of mind that comes with not having to keep the fence.
Power is slowly shifting from employers to workers.
The American Dream has valued the ideal of wealth through meaningful work because you want to accumulate enough wealth to buy all the things you want, like a house, a TV, or a car.
The economic reality for many workers hasn't kept pace with the important items. Wages have been declining for five decades and the student debt meant to finance the educations that supply the American Dream has skyrocketed, trapping many in untenable cycles of debt. The opportunities for workers are low.
billionaires made trillions in gains as low- wage workers were forced to leave their jobs.
The post-vaccine labor market is hot. Americans have been quitting in record numbers for the past six months. Thousands of workers went on strike to demand better conditions. Many of the workers that have joined "the Great Resignation" are on strike, expressing a new philosophy of "antiwork" where they document quitting over exploitative conditions and contemplate a future where work is not a necessity.
The pilots are on strike.
Joe Raedle is a photographer.
Kade, a Gen Z antiworker in Kansas, told Insider that it has a lot to do with Gen Z. He quit his job when his boss said they would take phones if they caught workers on them. Kade said that Gen Z doesn't like abuse and low pay.
We're getting tired of it.
The labor movement is weakened and stagnant and these are still drops in the bucket. Employers have gone from continually complaining about labor shortages to raising wages and offering better benefits as a result of trends like antiwork.
Retail Warzone, a show about retail workers' "horror stories", is hosted by Steve Rowland, who told Insider that businesses shifting from being customer-focused to employee-focused could start a lot of healing.
Customers are important, but your employee base is what keeps you going. The first company to do that will change the way people view the company.
Supply chain shortages force a rethink of consumption.
There's a shortage for every kind of thing.
The US-China trade war, bad weather, and factory shutdowns have led to long wait times for many Americans who used to be in a "just-in-time economy" in the 2000s.
Part of the problem is a snarled supply chain and part is that Americans are buying more stuff. Americans had more use for gym equipment and new TVs as the economy changed to prioritize remote work and a spread-out populace. At the same time that the supply has broken down, the demand has outpaced the supply.
The labor shortage could be worsened by the runaway spending because angry customers could prompt workers to throw their hands up in the air and walk out the door. They're not going to take it.
The Port of Los Angeles is congested in September of 2021.
Mike Blake is in this picture.
Canadian political scientist Krzysztof Pelc argued in the Financial Times that the key to happiness is buying less stuff and more experiences. A shift toward service spending is a hallmark of developed economies.
High growth is spurred by goods consumption, not progress, but a necessary stage of it. The challenge is to know when the time is right for a shift in social purpose.
Gen Z is saving and investing more than it spends, and now has $360 billion in disposable income, according to research by Gen Z Planet.
The greatest economic catastrophe in 100 years could shape their economic behavior for decades to come, and early signs show they're anti-spending and pro-thrift, too. Companies might have to appeal to their thrifty ways and higher standards in order to survive the era of shortages.
Gen Z may be saying they're thrifty just as much as older generations. The new American Dream may be coming into view.
