We need to stop talking about inflation and start talking about how WAGES ARE NOT GOING UP! Greedy corporations are not PAYING PEOPLE WHAT THEIR LABOR IS WORTH!
The problem is WAGE STAGNATION, not inflation.
In the US, average hourly wages have increased more since 2019 than consumer prices. But as always, focusing on averages overlooks the impact on the lowest paid workers and anyone relying on social welfare payments. These are the areas where income often falls behind prices and it's why many people still feel like things are getting worse despite the grandstanding from governments about how great their economic management is.
I would argue that averages actually don’t mean dog shit, and that they’re only used to pit the proletariat against each other. There is an absolute minimum someone can make, but there is not absolute maximum. At least not yet.
I just know mine ain't going up
the median household income in America has increased $6,000 since 1990
If this was adjusted for inflation, this increase would be $115,000
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d22/tables/dt22_102.30.asp?current=yes
Scary this has to explained but this is a good eli5.
Yeah many people don’t realize that inflation is “price increase year over year” and think it means “current price.” Like lowering inflation will make their groceries cheaper
Price decreases are actually negative inflation and have all sorts of whacked out effects on an economy. It was a concern during COVID due to the huge drop in consumer spending forcing some prices to start to decrease.
Right, but the messaging doesn’t teach consumers that, it’s just “I’ll lower prices, vote for me!” But regardless, the fact that corporations are so driven towards quarter over quarter growth and immediately fail upon needing to lower prices demonstrates how broken the free market is
In another 20 years business school is going to be SUPER easy.
One class: Number Must Go Up Always.
Lesson 1: Number go down? Fire as many people as possible that aren't executives.
Lesson 2: Number still go down? Cut quality.
Lesson 3: Number stillllllll go down? Buy competition, repeat lesson 1 and lesson 2.
Profit.
Sadly it seems that’s business school now, as that seems to be the playbook of every MBA that moves into a leadership role
Economics 101 has taught the supply/demand curve forever. Really it's the barriers to entry lesson that's much more important.
It's rare that prices are based on costs. We're not Amish. Prices are based on what companies can get you to pay and how easy it is for them to prevent too much competition. (If it's just a little competition, all sides will implicitly agree that higher prices are better for all of them).
As I explained to my boss, you are paying me less if inflation has gone up, and I didn't get a raise to at least match the rise. Bro started to explain to me how any child would run a lemonade stand with this piggy look in his chubby eyes. Business Budda needs a punch to the gut.
To give the original question answer slightly more (probably unfounded) credit, there are a lot of people out there who know the basics of what inflation is, but also seem to have a fundamental assumption that in a "normal" economy, wages will also increase at the same pace as inflation, resulting in a net zero effect on a person's buying power overall. Even though, yes, things are always getting a little more expensive in absolute terms, they don't seem more expensive. So the answer to the question someone with those assumptions might have actually been trying to ask is that even if inflation returns to a "normal" rate, wages have remained stagnant for a long time and aren't keeping pace with inflation like they used to, so now things actually are more expensive in a relative sense.
People really need to know what "rate" means.
Or we should switch to talking about affordability indices rather than inflation. Inflation isn't a particularly informative figure for most people. What people really care about is the purchasing power of their income, not what the change in dollar value is.
I work with statisticians who also struggle to differentiate a decrease from a decrease in rate of increase.
The other issue is inflation isn't consistent across all product prices, some have been in short supply or high demand, and others have prices gouged because there isn't enough competition...
People don't understand this about inflation and it will disappoint them very soon once inflation is fully back to rates we saw pre-pandemic.
Grocery prices aren't coming down. Housing prices aren't going down. Utility costs aren't going down. The best we can hope for is for them to not increase as fast as they have the last four years and for the usual fluctuations in things like gas or electricity costs to fluctuate down more than up.
The best we can hope for is for them to not increase as fast as they have
That's what inflation going down means. Inflation is the rate in which prices increase. Saying "inflation going down" means that the rate prices increase is not as much. "Inflation going down" still means prices are increasing. People are confusing "inflation going down" with deflation, which means prices are decreasing.
Yeah, that's exactly what I mean. I don't think most people understand that, and it will lead to people losing faith in experts when they're told inflation is back to pre-pandemic levels but prices aren't.
Second order derivatives mmmmmmmm
This is why we need to teach people calculus. At the very minimum - derivatives.
wait til they find out that the derivatives market is vastly larger than the stock market itself.
I'm not sure if you're joking, but those are two different types of derivatives.
Not sure how you derived that.
This is one way to own the lbs.
My baby boy was born at 8 lbs 4 oz.
Five years later he weighed 60 lbs.
Five years after that he weighed 110 lbs
Five years after that he weighed 130 lbs
Five years later he weighed 180 lbs.
Five years later he weighed 195 lbs
So his weight gain is down. But now he's a fully grown adult. When does shrink back down to the size of a baby?
old lady deflation:
I think the closest you'll get to that is when he starts a small economy of his own.
Push is down.
Pull (which until the 80s was theoretical) is way up.
Why is this segregated by race?
Replied under the wrong post?
People tweeting stuff. We allow tweets from anyone.
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