Americans Are Realizing NOTHING Is Worth It Anymore... | 2026 Spending Crisis

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]never ever in the history of ever buy anything Samsung. Maybe I'll let you buy the TV and that's about it. Where is the fashion? Where is the excitement with clothing? Everything is just so boring and basic.

[00:00:17]>> Honestly, and I mean full disrespect that I when I say this, Hyundai, I don't care Hyundai, Hyundai, whatever you go by you.

[00:00:24]>> Welcome back to Edwards Economics. My name is Kaitlin and I want to start with the question that's been sitting at the back of people's minds. When did everything just stop being worth it? The dinner that used to feel like a treat is now 90 bucks and a wait. The concert is $600 before you even pay for parking.

[00:00:44]And now even the theme parks are costing a mortgage payment. Everybody agrees that we are mutually cooked, right? Like everybody agrees that so much just isn't worth it anymore. So what in the world is going on in America in 2026? We being way too cheap and nostalgic or did something actually change? Let's find out.

[00:01:08]>> I know. I know you're probably like, "Cia, why is the oven in your sun room?"

[00:01:13]Oh, I'm going to tell you why. I'm going to tell you why. I'm going to tell you two reasons why. One, Samsung sucks. And two, Samsung sucks. Never ever in the history of ever buy anything Samsung. Maybe I'll let you buy the TV and that's about it.

[00:01:32]The ninth appliance that I have had to replace within the last 3 years between a microwave, an oven, a washer, a dryer, a refrigerator, the list goes on.

[00:01:43]>> Ninth.

[00:01:44]>> And you >> Am I missing something? I thought Sam was good. I thought Samsung was good. I >> think that I would have learned my lesson. We had our entire kitchen renovated 9 years ago. I've had to replace every appliance. My $2,000 Samsung oven went 2 years ago after only having it for four. I was cheap and I'm like, I can't keep doing this. So, I got this one. $700. Well, guess what? I almost died tonight. We're lucky that I'm even here to tell you this story.

[00:02:15]Nothing like an oven gas leak to bring in that fresh arctic airflow right into your home. It's as cold as a witch's titten here. Do not buy any Samsung appliances. And Samsung, if you see this, I want my money back. I could be dead right now. Okay? Dead. I don't need you telling me what we were doing wrong.

[00:02:35]You know why? Cuz my husband's father's a fire chief and he's a smart man. And you know what he told us? He said, "Get that stove right out of your house." So, we took it out and it's got to go out on the back deck. The good news is is that I don't have to cook dinner tomorrow night. The bad news is apparently my husband is really worried as to how he's going to make his eggs in the morning.

[00:02:54]Well, don't worry, honey. I'm sure the can of peanuts that are next to your bed will keep you full until we can go to the bagel place.

[00:03:01]>> I I must be missing something. I got to I got to look at these comments to see.

[00:03:06]So, Samsung is good for TVs and phones.

[00:03:10]Nothing else. That's what I know Samsung for. I didn't know that Samsung appliances were so bad. I saw that there was like refrigerators that were super expensive, but I didn't know that Samsung was actually bad. Nana says, "Never buy Samsung or LG. Now LG is in it. None of their appliances. I used to work for Orange Home Improvement. Girl, LG is the way to go." So now we get conflicting information. Who's right?

[00:03:37]Nana or Amy? Who's right? Y'all let me know in the comments section below.

[00:03:41]Would you ever buy Samsung appliances?

[00:03:44]Would you buy LG? Who makes the best appliances? KitchenAid, Whirlpool, Viking.

[00:03:50]>> Honestly, and I mean full disrespect that I when I say this, Hyundai. I don't care. Hyundai, Hyundai, whatever you go by. You you you y'all knew your cars were faulty. Y'all knew it. And And it's still on the market and you're still selling it. And I get it. Maybe it's my fault. I live in Philadelphia, but the amount of times that every time I swear to God, at least once a week, every time I come, there's something wrong with my car. And you know what? Bully bully me.

[00:04:16]Mind you, bully me because know people were saying unbeknown >> only 41,000 miles, too. I mean, that doesn't sound right. You should not be having that many issues at 41,000. Maybe she got a limit. Most to me people were saying not to buy a Lantra, not not to buy Hyundai cars because their cars suck. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. I was just very excited to buy a car.

[00:04:42]I was very excited to buy a car. I saved up money. I b I bought a car that I thought was good. I guess, you know, I really should have did my research. I'm so tired. Like I I didn't know.

[00:04:52]Apparently, there's like this faulty system and they're very easy to steal.

[00:04:56]The amount of times that my car windows have been smashed. the amount of times that people like my fuse box have been tampered with. It's Halloween weekend.

[00:05:04]It's my niece's birthday and I just want to spend time with my family.

[00:05:09]So to come into my car and see that someone's tampered with my car. I don't even know what they did. And now there's this stupid light blinking. I don't know if there's something that's missing or like what's going on. And like I checked under the hood. I don't even know I'm looking at. And it's just like makes me so angry cuz I was like I was I'm like I was so looking forward to this weekend and now I don't even know if I'm I I can't afford to buy a train ticket. I can't afford to buy a bus ticket. This is my only way to see my family. And look, never. Never. If you're new and you don't really know and you're not experienced, don't ever buy a Hyundai.

[00:05:44]Don't ever buy a Hyundai. And especially don't buy a Hyundai Elantre. And you know, >> I got to see if this is universal, y'all. I got to see if this is universal. What are the comments saying?

[00:05:53]What are the people saying? The people are saying, "Let me tell you something.

[00:05:57]Honda, Toyota, Lexus." That's it. Now, repeat after me. Honda, Toyota, Lexus.

[00:06:02]Y'all, they're saying that these are the best cars. Have I ever had any one of these? No. But I have had family that have had Hondas.

[00:06:11]They can have some problems, but it's super cheap to get fixed. You can find anybody at a gas station or on the side of the road that can fix your Honda.

[00:06:18]Lexus has been a sleeper, at least to me, because I've seen people that have had Lexuses for a very long time. Like, it's not that uncommon to see a Lexus from the early 2000s still running. Same thing for Honda. Obviously, we all already know Toyota's reputation, but people are saying that the Hyundai dealership salespeople never own Hyundai's. That should kind of tell you something. That's a red flag. And then this are other people down here talking about they're researching buying the exact car that she's saying is giving them issues. Let's just say they're probably not going to be buying that anytime soon. But I want to know what you guys think. Do you guys have Hyundai's? Would you ever buy one? I mentioned I had a Jeep and people were getting all on me. It's just keeping people broke, they say. But uh let me know in the comments section what you guys think about these Hyundai cars.

[00:07:05]trying to figure out when you order on Door Dash, how something if I got my big up to go pick it up, it'll be $15, $16 versus if I just want it delivered with a little tip on the side. It's $45 every time I be on the app like let me find something that's a little cheaper, a little It's $45 every single time. If it ain't 45, it's literally 37 and some change. like what is going on the math do not be mapping and it just be like just get up and go get the food your self that's all that's coming to it people who do door do dash for a living like y'all like the money ain't d we is broke we is broke baby we is broke y'all better come up with y'all own Door Dash own delivery something something something find a business and be like what time y'all go on lunch I'll get all y'all lunches just cash at me. Come up with the business.

[00:08:06]Cuz girl, ain't no way.

[00:08:10]>> This is one of those things that I I think I might disagree with the masses on. I was thinking about this the other day, and y'all understand the pressure that we feel when we're out tipping. Uh I love tipping. Good tipper.

[00:08:23]I'm the type that I'm I'mma tip you if you basically do nothing. I'm just going to do it. All right. I'm not fighting the fight or dying on the hill of no tipping. Me, he's a tipper. Okay. I think that Door Dashers, Uber Eats people, all these food delivery people, they earned their tip. Hear me out. Hear me out. If you've ever been at a nice establishment, a restaurant, right, and the waiter or waitress did the bare minimum and you still tipped them because you felt guilty. Don't treat these food delivery drivers any differently. Just because you can take the food from them and then they go on their merry way, you never see them again does not mean you should be undertipping them. I think that the default 15 20% may not even be enough for these food delivery drivers. Hear me out. You might have bought something for 20, $25, but like they really went and picked it up and drove it to you. To me, that is more service than just being at the point of sale at the restaurant and then the person that's the waiter or waitress getting paid more in tips than the food delivery driver. That's just what I've been thinking about lately.

[00:09:37]Now, there is an argument to make though. I just picked up some Chinese food last night. I went to go pick it up, right? What do you tip? What do you tip if nobody comes and brings it to you? If if they don't drive it to you, if they're not a waiter waitress, what do you tip?

[00:09:55]The same thing. Probably the same thing.

[00:09:57]Let me know in the comments section. A lot of people agree with her. They say that uh they also mark up the prices of the items on Door Dash. So, if you think you're paying more for the same thing, you are. You're not only paying for convenience, you're paying more for that specific item. $45 for McDonald's. It's insane. And they say the driver is only getting $3. Just like I was just saying, I don't think that that's fair. Other people are saying to use GrubHub because it's cheaper. But I don't think any of these food delivery services are going to be cheap once in a blue moon, if ever. If you're going to use them, it's just not worth it.

[00:10:32]>> I am coming to TikTok to complain. I have traveled to four different stores to find an outfit to wear. Where is the fashion? Where is the excitement with clothing? Everything is just so boring and basic. Nothing excites me to want to buy it. Who's wearing a curtain? Huh?

[00:10:58]Who's wearing I'm I'm so annoyed cuz I cannot find anything. Everything is either poor quality, awful design, super expensive for polyester, or it's hella hella basic.

[00:11:16]What is the world coming to?

[00:11:19]>> I mean, it's it came to fast fashion. It came to Fashion Nova. it came to Alibaba stuff that's just drop shipped and sent.

[00:11:28]You know, I know this is subjective.

[00:11:30]Fashion is it. It goes so quick. I don't even know how much y'all are invested in your wardrobes. Y'all see I be wearing the same thing every video. You know, it's just timeless. You know, it's timeless. But, um, I can't keep up. I can't keep up. Things just aren't worth it. like you can't really get quality items, artisan items, fair trade items, unless you're paying a premium. And that is so backwards. But that is just what you have to pay in order to get unique quality items. So here's the honest version of people that are saying that we're just being way too cheap and nostalgic and that nothing ever changed and that's always been this way. The argument that these types of people are going to make kind of goes like this.

[00:12:13]They say that nothing is broken and you're just getting older. Every generation thinks that things were better and cheaper back when they were young. They'd say that prices always go up and that's just inflation doing what inflation does. And the people that are complaining online are the exact same people that are spending $40 on iced coffee and Door Dash every week. And by that logic, this isn't a spending crisis. They'd say they'd say that this is a discipline problem. And on that point, they're not actually wrong. I very much do agree with them. A lot of people genuinely are absolutely terrible with their money. So saying it's just too expensive now is actually just code for I didn't budget for what I'm trying to purchase and I don't have the money for it and I'm already broke. So yes, I hear the merit of that argument and there's a lot of good there. The problem is it has a critical flaw and that critical flaw as we always say on Edward's economics are the numbers. Cuz the numbers don't care about your feelings. They don't care about what generation you grew up in, what decade.

[00:13:16]Nah, y'all. The numbers don't lie. So, check this out. The price of simply eating out is up around 30%. Just since 2020. I know some of y'all were thinking I was going to say, "Oh, in the past 30 years, no. In like the past 3 years, everything has exploded in price. Live event admissions, theme parks, the whole experience economy has climbed faster than almost anything else in the basket.

[00:13:41]Meanwhile, the thing that's supposed to keep pace so that you can splurge on all these goods didn't, your paycheck. So, people aren't imagining that the trade actually got worse. The trade objectively did get worse. People are getting paid less and things are actually more money. And then there's that thing that nobody priced in, the opposite of what I just said, the people that are actually getting paid more, but they're just getting less. Skimpflation, shrinkflation, whatever you want to call it, is actually a thing. Economists have a name for it now and they're calling it skimpflation. I've heard regular people call it shrinkflation, but you know, they want to be all academic and change the names of things. It's the same price or a higher price for a worse version of the thing that you're used to getting.

[00:14:25]The restaurant that raised their prices and cut their staff is now giving you, you lucky person, the opportunity to wait for longer and then get less than what you're used to getting. That's the actual feeling that people are describing when they go to these restaurants. It's not that things just cost more. It's the value has collapsed on both ends at once. Then you layer on the quiet drain that nobody notices. The average household is bleeding around 60 bucks a month just on streaming and subscriptions. And most people can't even name everything that they're paying for. It's death by a,000 not cuts, but auto renewals. And now we have this generation that is so dead set on all these experiences and the the cost to get to these places. is the cost to get into these places is more than they've ever been for a population that is more unemployed, more undermployed than people have probably been in the past few decades. They don't even have the money to do the things that they want to do. And the worst part is they're going to do them and they're not even going to have fun doing them. And then they're going to be coping and trying to post on social media trying to convince everybody else that they're having fun when they're really not. This is one of the only points of unification I think going on in the whole country. And we can see this populist movement that is happening where everybody kind of agrees. The internet did the math collectively and they gave everyone permission to say the quiet parts out loud, which is nothing is worth it anymore. So, we didn't just watch this video to just watch it and be all despondent. We watched this so we can get some advice on what we can actually do because frankly, being mad at the menu isn't really a plan that's going to change anything. So, I think we should run everything through an honest filter that I like to call the worth it test.

[00:16:07]And the worth it test just simply works like this. Would I pay this price in cash today with no financing and no points? Am I buying the thing or am I buying the status of having done the thing? A year from now, will I remember this or will I just see the charge on a statement? If the answer is no, that's not deprivation. That's you refusing a bad deal. Scripture said this plainly a long time before anyone of us ever saw a checkout screen. In Luke 14:28, it says, "Suppose that one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?" Counting the cost was never about being cheap.

[00:16:47]That's not the point. It was about being free. So, you go ahead and tell me in the comment section right now, what's one thing that you completely written off lately in your life that you used to do all the time, but you just stopped doing it because it's just not worth the money anymore. Let me know in the comment section below. And while you're at it, you might as well just like this video, subscribe to this channel, and then share it with somebody who you think is experiencing the same emotions that you are.

[00:17:11]>> One out of 10. Let me know what you think about how well the builder did here.

[00:17:18]I've come to find that the shower drain is the new trash can.

[00:17:22]>> Wow.

[00:17:23]>> Like, what is that? Am I just being picky or what?

[00:17:29]Check it out. The baseboard is warped and there is some type of moisture that I am picking up here in the closet.

[00:17:38]Dad gum, dude.

[00:17:40]So, the builder apparently didn't want me to inspect this electrical panel, but uh I came prepared.

[00:17:49]Let's do this.

[00:17:50]>> Oh, no. Oh, no. I I was not prepared for this.

[00:17:53]>> Condensation should not be happening here at your suction line. That's going to need repair. And this is your emergency condensate drain line. Tell me what's going on here, guys. What's up?

[00:18:05]That's not right.

[00:18:07]Well, that's a little loosey goosey here. Same with the trim and the cook top.

[00:18:17]I mean, this stuff just sticks out to me. Dang.

[00:18:22]>> This is part for the course, though, with new construction. Um, I bought a new construction house in 2018 and you know after you get past the new insulation, the dual pane windows, the new feel, it's kind of crap. Like the quality is not that great. It's not that great.

[00:18:41]Like I'm not even sure where this person is, but I feel like I had these exact same finishes in my old home and it wasn't very great. Like they have this woodlike tile that they tell you, "Oh, is this going to be more durable and better than wood?" No, it ain't. No, it ain't. I mean, I'm not saying that it looks bad, but the problem is it's the landlord special. The problem is it's so hollow. It has no nothing to it. Like the doors are like paper thin. The walls are paper thin, but they're very efficient. I'm not sure if we're talking about energy efficiency, if we're talking about price that the builder is paying to construct it efficiency, but one way or another, they're efficient.

[00:19:19]They advertise it as efficient. But, um, yeah, these new constructions home, I don't I don't think I would buy one.

[00:19:25]Next house that we bought for our personal residence was a a home that's almost older than me. And let me tell you, it just it hits different. The doors are different, the baseboards, the crown mold, everything is just different. They built it different brick or cooked.

[00:19:44]>> Disney is not this magical place that you need to take your child. It's not this place that you dream of and they just if there's one place that you can go, it has to be Disney. Disney sucks.

[00:19:54]Okay? Take it from somebody that has been there three times. Twice in Florida, once in California. They all suck. You are going to pay a year salary to go down there with your children. You are going to pay to wait in line. That is all you do. You wait in line to ride.

[00:20:11]You wait in line to pee. You wait in line to get food. You wait. You pay thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars to wait. The crowds are insane.

[00:20:22]The heat in Florida is insane. You will die from heat and sweating and exhaustion. It is terrible. It is no fun. I don't know why. It's so much fun.

[00:20:32]You wait in line all day long. You may ride three, four, five rides if you're lucky. And that's if you don't get Fastpass. Now, if you get Fastpass or this, you're gonna be on your phone the entire time. Look at any of the Disney groups. The moms in all of the photos when they do like the picture on the ride, they're all on their phones getting their Lightning Lane for the next ride because that's all you can do is just focus on the ride and getting the lane and getting the time.

[00:20:56]>> That's like the only way to have a great time at Disney, I fear. Unless you go in with the expectation that you're not going to ride anything or maybe you even in addition to that bring your own meals so that you're not spending an arm and a leg or if you're okay spending an arm and a leg on food or you're just going to have to spend an arm and leg in general on food and on fast passes. I don't think that you can have a great time without spending some money.

[00:21:19]>> It's stupid. And then if you want to pay even more money then you don't have to wait in line but you're paying like 500 extra per person to not wait in line.

[00:21:27]You pay to park. You got to walk all the way to the It is a waste of money. You can do so much more and make so much better memories going literally anywhere else. The beach, the pier in Santa Monica, Kennywood, any amusement park that is not Disney because it is so overcrowded. So >> she I hope she don't think the pier in Santa Monica is cheap.

[00:21:50]No, they going to get your money too.

[00:21:52]Not Disney, but they going to get your money.

[00:21:54]>> Overpopulated and it is not even worth it. The rides are anything that you would ride at any place ever. There's a couple cool things here and there, but other than that, it's not worth it. If you're not going to Coachella and you feel really left out, let me tell you why you shouldn't. As someone who went as a normal person and not as an influencer, it was one of the worst concert experiences I've ever had. If you're not going as an influencer, you don't have your entire trip paid for.

[00:22:18]And Coachella costs like thousands of dollars. The accommodation, the Ubers, the actual festival itself are all so freaking expensive. like super insanely expensive, like thousands of dollars.

[00:22:29]And the accommodations you find will be overpriced and they're not even that good. Getting >> that was part of the experience, though, you know, like now that the event's over, people are coming out and kind of talking about it. They're getting some buyers remorse or maybe some experiential remorse and they're like, you know what, maybe I shouldn't have done that. Maybe I shouldn't have spent $6,000 to breathe in dust and be around sweaty people. You know, we're not going to make fun of them because we love the truth finally coming out, but some of us saw the truth before it happened. And we were trying to warn y'all, do not go.

[00:22:58]Rat alert, rat alert, do not go.

[00:23:02]But y'all went anyway. But I thought that there was like an understanding, an agreement that you're going to overspend for a bad experience, and that's kind of in a weird psychological way going to make it worth it.

[00:23:17]Y'all can try and make that make sense, but I think I thought that was how it worked. The >> nightmare. Firstly, there's no place for you to be dropped off at. Festival's like really disorganized. So, I remember we asked like 20 different people, "Where do we go?" And they were like, "Oh, we don't know." And they actually worked for the event. So, you'll end up sitting in traffic for most of the time before you can find a spot and get dropped off. You think that's the end of it, right? But no, you have another what feels like an hour long walk to actually get into the festival. walk you have to do is on this super dusty, bumpy, like unpaved road, which was really hard for my friend because they were in a wheelchair. So, I was trying to pull them and then I felt bad because they kept getting knocked over and falling out of their wheelchair. So, it was not like wheelchair accessible friendly.

[00:23:58]Blazing sun is so hot, but there's no places to sit. There's no shade. So, you end up just sitting on the ground and it can get really really dirty and people just >> Where did she think this event was?

[00:24:10]Like it's not it's in the desert. There ain't about to be no accessibility out there. You in the wild. They can't control. There's no climate control on the desert in California. I wonder if she's from there. I wonder if she's from there. I'm just going to go ahead and sum this up, right? Don't go to Coachella. Don't go to Coachella. It's not worth it. Unless you're invited as an influencer or whatever. Don't go. It ain't worth it.

[00:24:35]>> All right. So, here's some insider information for you. the cost of items, they're going to end up going up, but you're not getting the same thing. Your dollar is not getting the same thing.

[00:24:46]Before, you used to be able to get some nice vanilla syrup, nice and creamy, right? Everyone loves an ice coffee. And in lattes, too. Now, you get that in a box of six. For approximately $4 less, McDonald's can now order this, a nice clear syrup. most likely might be a little bit more diluted. Now you're thinking, "Oh, okay. Wages are going up.

[00:25:14]Dollar is going to remain the same." No, it's not. No, it's not. They got to put that onto someone, and that's going to be us. It's going to be you. That burden comes onto you. So, you think about it like this. You won't be able to get the same item as you used to, and you're paying more. Does that make you hurt a little bit? It hurts me for sure. And I'm see >> I'm done being hurt. This is just what I expect at this point. Nothing's worth it anymore. Nothing's worth it. Could absolutely blow your mind how cheap these new cars are. Example, this is a 2025 Mazda CX50 hybrid. And take into account this is a $43,000 car. This is their premium plus. So this is like their fully loaded. This comp this is comparable to a RAV 4 or Honda CRV. And literally has the drivetrain of a RAV 4 hybrid. And I know manufacturers are cutting costs while raising the price, which is like kind of a like funny how they do that, but the body color from here to here is a different color. Like again, they're saving money on paint. I I understand that. I 100% get that. Who cares about the, you know, inside of the car right there. What I noticed earlier is when I went to open the door, like the fender there, it's hard to see here, but it's like they forgot to paint. And you could see this a lot more like on the outside, but all this is just missing paint. Like look at that. Like it's more noticeable like right there.

[00:26:34]Like you could just hard to see because of the shadow. It's I know people like to think that Jeeps are cheap, but at least Jeep actually paints everything.

[00:26:42]All this is painted. All that's painted.

[00:26:45]You got to love it. The prices are going up and the quality is going down.

[00:26:47]>> This can't be a quality control item that we're checking now as we buy new cars.

[00:26:52]I'm not advocating be being irresponsible, but all I'm saying is for the longest time, everybody just assumed, their car has been painted. What are we talking about here? What are we talking about? That's like going up and saying, "Let me just make sure there's airs air in these tires." Huh? Let's just make sure this thing actually drives. You got to check paint now. The paint colors are Come on, man. Come on. So, here's the thought that I want you to leave with.

[00:27:23]We started off by asking if people are just being cheap, if we're just being nostalgic, or if something actually changed. We came to the conclusion that a lot of us are experiencing the same things anecdotally, and somebody's tripping and it's probably not us. And people that are talking about this are being honest. When a whole country looks at the price tag of modern life and quietly says, "No thank you. I'm going to pass. Y'all got it." That's not a crisis of discipline. That's a market getting a long overdue review. The savings rate tells you that people feel it in their bones. Money's tight and the value just isn't there anymore. The good news is the power was never with the menu or the ticket booth. It's with the person deciding whether to hand the card over or to just walk away. Start saying no to bad deals. We have to reset the market. Reset this with all the vendors, all the people that are trying to sell you things. Let them know that you will simply walk away if it's a bad deal.

[00:28:20]You'll be shocked at how fast things can change. But you won't be shocked because some of you already know this because you go to places like edwards economics.com and you subscribe there because that's where you hear me go way deeper with my unfiltered thoughts and biblical application that I don't always get the chance to do here. If you know somebody who's been feeling broke, even though they make a decent amount of money, send them this video because this is a conversation that we all need to be having collectively. And then while you're at it, go ahead and drop your worst not worth it purchase below in the comment section. I promise you, I won't judge. I just want to see I'm a little nosy. Thank you guys for watching this video. I pray that the Lord blesses you, that he keeps you, that he lifts his face towards you, that he turns his countenance towards you, that he gives you favor, that he gives you peace.