When people talk of the economy being strong, they don't seem to feel that they, too, are better off.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the disconnect between national economic indicators and individual economic well-being.
Daniel Kahneman points out that while discussions about a strong economy may be prevalent, many individuals do not perceive an improvement in their own financial situation. This suggests that economic strength as measured by statistics does not necessarily align with the personal economic experiences of the average person, highlighting a disparity in perception and reality.
In practice
During a lecture on economic indicators, one might quote Kahneman to illustrate the gap between statistics and personal experience.
We think, each of us, that we're much more rational than we are. And we think that we make our decisions because we have good reasons to make them. Even when it's the other way around. We believe in the reasons, because we've already made the decision.
The average investor's return is significantly lower than market indices due primarily to market timing.
Banks are run by executives, and executives protect themselves, and that does not always mean that banks are going to behave rationally.
Laziness is built deep into our nature.
Through some combination of culture and biology, our minds are intuitively receptive to religion.
You are more likely to learn something by finding surprises in your own behavior than by hearing surprising facts about people in general.
To restore confidence in our markets and our financial institutions so they can fuel continued growth and prosperity, we must address the underlying problem. The federal government must implement a program to remove these illiquid assets that are weighing down our financial institutions and threatening our economy.
Capital is money, capital is commodities. By virtue of it being value, it has acquired the occult ability to add value to itself. It brings forth living offspring, or, at the least, lays golden eggs.
It's important that we invest in America - literally. The terrorists wanted to destroy our economy, and we can't let our system fall apart. We also have to invest in one another.
People who live in poor countries have to be entrepreneurial even just to survive.
You could not possibly maintain the current level of government taxation without the taxes being hidden, and they are hidden in two very different ways. They are hidden through withholding, but they are also hidden by being imposed on business, supposedly on business, when really, of course, business can't pay taxes, only people can pay taxes.
There can be economy only where there is efficiency.
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