Is the US in a recession or not? That’s the big question that’s obsessed Washington this past week. But here’s maybe a better question: Who cares?

We should, of course, care deeply about the very real, rising economic hardship ordinary Americans are enduring right now. But in the face of this suffering, meta-debates about whether these conditions technically count as a recession or not seem exceedingly trifling. The fact is that whether or not there’s strong job growth, or however little the economy contracted in this or that quarter, Americans are having a tough time in an economy they keep being told is actually really strong.

In reality, poverty is on the rise. With inflation going up and federal support ending, households are suddenly finding it much harder to make ends meet. Since the wildly successful Child Tax Credit expired in December, nearly half of the parents who benefited from the program have reported struggling to afford to feed their families, and more than 60 percent say they can’t pay for basic necessities. Child poverty shot up just under 5 percentage points between December 2021 and January 2022, meaning 3.7 million more kids were suddenly thrown below the poverty line.