If you want to know why Americans are bummed out about their purchasing power, just look at this chart about how wages abruptly stopped increasing with productivity 45 years ago. People are accomplishing more than ever before in history and being left with less buying power. In many cases wages don't even keep pace with inflation because companies pay based on what they can get away with, not what the work is worth.
this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2024
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I could work two hours a day and still get all my tasks done. I could do that, go to my next job, and do another two hours of work and double my income. But because I have to have my butt in a chair in an office eight hours a day on the off chance my boss thinks of something additional for me to do, I'm stuck being four times more inefficient than I need to be.
This is the answer. For 50 years now wages have remained stagnant while productivity has gone up through the roof. We are being robbed decade after decade, and by now claims of “strongest economy” feel like slaps in the face. Many of us are earning more than ever before, yes, but also have less purchasing power than ever before.
Remember that in the 1950s a high school grad could support a family of 4 with a house and car on a single income. That’s how much has been taken from us by the rich and corporations.
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Alternate headline: “Why Humans Dislike Being Poor”
Americans are right now at some of the best economic times, so that's surprising
I'm so tired of repeatedly posting this but you fucknuggets just refuse to learn.
America has a ridiculous growth in the number of millionaires these last 10 years.
And nearly ALL of them are children from wealthy families.
They skew the median income bracket making it look like most Americans are making 65k+ a year.
This isn't the case, and 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.
And people like you are actively trying to hide this.
Look, if the median is 70K it means 50% of households are making this much
That's what median means
Median as you're using it doesn't tell us much beyond a very general bit of information.
For example both of these data sets have 5 as a median. But in the second one you would not say 5 is representative of half the country.
[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
[1,1,1,1,5,5,6,8,9]
Yes, but the average is HIGHER than the median so it's more like [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 12, 15, 22]
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70k is not enough in many states anymore.
I'm a Europoor, and 70k USD wouldn't be "comfortable" even here. Maybe in Eastern Europe, but rents and house prices are soaring there as well, so I'm not sure.
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I think you are mistaking median and mean.
The median household income is 70K+, not the mean
There is a disconnect between the statistics and reality. I am not sure where, but I suspect inflation is not being calculated correctly. It may be that lower cost items rose at a higher rate, so even though it averages out, it's harder to reduce spending. 17% doesn't seem to match the numbers I've seen for take out and home prices for example.
At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what's on a chart it matters how many things people had to choose to not buy or do because they couldn't afford it.
Didn't they just adjust the whole inflation index again to not count a bunch of significant things? It's a joke.
Same with unemployment. It only counts "able individuals who are actively searching for a job". A lot of people aren't included in those numbers when they should be.
The inflation index is and has always been a metric for the rich.
The reason that most of the excluded things are not goods or services the wealthy use is so that those companies can profit more from the already economically burdened all while shaming those same burdened people by saying 'You can't be struggling, inflation has ONLY been 6%!
Sure for yachts and luxury cars the prices have barely changed but generic meat and fresh vegetables have literally doubled in price in 4 years while the high end offerings have gone up less than 20%.
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Food goes up 20%, Consumer electronics go down 20% and they'll call it zero inflation. Not an exact example but an illustration of why things dont feel right. The things you have to buy most often are rising faster than the luxuries. Education, Healthcare, Housing it's a similar story there.
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Corporate price gouging
Ding ding ding. I have no idea where they're pulling these numbers from when my grocery bill has doubled since the pandemic. I wish it was only 26% higher.
Yeah I agree, anecdotally my wife and I spend roughly $200 a trip when we used to spend about $100. It may not be exactly double but it's very close.
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Middle class is the new poor. Shit broke in the 70s and it ain’t likely to get fixed. Get used to it.
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I'm not a R but the Democrats seriously need to stop pushing this shitty "economy is awesome" narrative. Because everytime someone hears it who isn't feeling the economy, it makes them hate the Democrats a little more. Staying home and not voting because your candidate has pissed you off, is just as bad.
For anyone who hasn't recieved a 20% pay increase, the economy is not good. In fact you'd need about a 35% to 50% pay increase to be feeling the same as you did pre pandemic. If you job hopped during the super awesome fun times of Covid hiring and got a boost in salary, then yeah you're new salary offset by new higher prices makes the economy feel better than it was.
But if you're the majority of people who did not get 50% adjustments, you are having a bad time. You are factually worse off financially than you were.
The idea of blaming who or what made the bad economy is a lost game. Bush tanked the economy, Obama got the blame. Trump tanked the economy, Biden got the blame. But just because Biden didn't tank it, doesn't mean it isn't tanked.
There is nobody, not a single person, I know of that is doing better today than 2020.
It's the gaslighting that's pissing people off. "The economy is great!" ... "For who?!"
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Yeah, y'know, just kinda bummed out.
Bit mitted about it.
My rent is 93% higher than it was in 2019
Yea, most of these estimates I've seen are wildly understanding the increased costs of everything.
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the average basket of goods and services that most Americans buy in any given month is 17% more expensive than four years ago.
That’s 4% per year
This was at my grocery store the other day in the LA area.
It's literally just wheat meal with honey, it costs literally 12 cents a box to make.
The packaging is more expensive.
But capitalism says 'lol it's ok to charge whatever!'.
And 1/3 of the internet will defend them for 'reasons'.
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And now much has pay gone up?
They claim it's gone up more than that, but I'm very curious where they're getting these numbers.
Here's US bureau of labor statistics:
Pay went up faster than inflation compared to before the pandemic
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bummed out just seems like a wildly inappropriate phrase for this topic
Well that 1% guy wasn't joking when he said "You will own nothing and be happy." Except for the "you will be happy" part. They're doing this to us on purpose and they have their reasons.
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