Man compares today's economy with 'The Great Depression' revealing astonishing results

Economies around the world continue to make lives more difficult for the common man. Prices continue to increase and wages refuse to keep up, putting a lot of individuals in financially difficult situations. Average Joe—who goes by @averagejoegam3 on TikTok—put up a video sometime back where he compared the economic situation in the United States in 2023 with the Great Depression that lasted from 1929 to 1941. The video captioned "2023 vs the Great Depression" has gained 2.1 million likes and 35.3K comments.

The man prefaces the video by saying that he wanted to raise awareness about the current economic conditions and did not want to hurt anybody. He says, "Americans are being gaslit into thinking we're just getting lazier and we're too entitled and we're expecting too much." Joe explains how the Great Depression was considered to be one of the worst economic periods in American history. He then tells viewers that he wanted to highlight the average income of an individual during the Great Depression. 

The video cuts to reveal a short write-up about the Great Depression. The man explains that he looked at every single year within this period to find out the "worst year." He shares, "The worst year was 1930 economically for American households." During this year, the average income for an individual in America was $4880. To get a better idea of what the same amount of money was in today's world, Joe uses an inflation calculator.

He puts down the information in the calculator and finds out that $4881 amounted to $88,888.86 in 2023, which is a huge amount for a single person. Joe then highlights how the average income for people in the United States during 2019 was $31,133. He also calculates the inflation rate from 2019 to 2023 using the same amount, only to find out that it had increased by 19%. Seeing these figures, he remarks, "We are in a Great Depression."

Joe talks about how, in the current situation, Americans have the lowest purchasing power ever in American history. He comments about how people would accuse him of lying despite the fact that he was simply sharing the reality of the economic crisis. The man says that he has one more thing to say and shares that he doesn't want to end on a negative note. He says, "If you're working full-time and you found a way to pay your bills. You're never hungry, you got clothes on your back a car that you can drive. You deserve massive applause for that."

He concludes by saying how it was a commendable effort to have one's basic needs met in today's world. People on the site shared their own insights in the comments section. @budtheclyde said, "The difference is, in the Great Depression, the rich lost everything, too. Now, the rich are fine, so it doesn't need recognizing." @sillygoosegal94 commented, "This does the opposite of making me feel bad—it helps me know I'm not alone or crazy in thinking life is very, very hard right now."

You can follow @averagejoegam3 on TikTok for more videos.

This article originally appeared 10 months ago.