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Opinion | Why Biden Should Talk Up Economic Success
(www.nytimes.com)
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this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2024
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Maybe people don't give a shit about how "the economy" is doing when wages are so disconnected with the cost of living?
Wages seem to be rising relative to prices now that the big shifts caused by disproportionately laying off lower-wage workers during the pandemic are over.
Via FRED
Wages have had the best couple of years on record. Yes they still lag behind productivity in a disappointing way (thx Reagan). But we haven’t had a run like this in my lifetime.
The country is divided into two groups on “the economy” one group chased a new job in the last 4 yrs and is making way more money than they were in 2019. And one group stood still while prices shot up out of their reach.
You will never convince someone in that second group that economic times are very good. In their shoes it sucks ass. And to see it otherwise would require they admit to a huge mistake. If you waited patiently for your bosses to offer you a cost of living adjustment, you fucked up, bad.
"The economy" is a code word for "rich people's money." I'm in the first group you described and do not give a shit about "the economy" when everything is significantly more expensive than it needs to be because some assholes in a board room want their bank account to be even bigger
There's a side group of people (you, it seems) who can't fathom that millions of people don't have the ability to job hop like that and judge them for it. The inflation we've been experiencing is largely artificial and in many cases was created by the very people controlling their wages.
Job hopping is one thing. Moving on when the market rate for your work is 50% over your salary is another. Showing up for work to make 10$/hr when fast food restaurants are paying 17 to new hires is wild to me.
Does it feel good when the new guy gets 1.5x your pay on their first day? Why put up with that bullshit? So you don’t make your boss uncomfortable? Fuck them, get paid.
The fastest period of wage growth this country has experienced since the 50s. The UAW negotiated a monster contract last year, after decades of getting fucked. Baristas are forming unions successfully right now. There has not been a better time to be a working person in my lifetime. There probably never will be again.
The party is going to end someday soon and if you are still making a 2019 wage, you are getting fucked. You could be angry at me and write a response, but, my brother I promise we are on the same side and I am begging you: go polish your resume and make some moves, time might be running out. The vibes might be bad, but the job market is very good.
That doesn't address that those $17/hr jobs aren't available for a lot of people. It's hard to give praise to the recent wage growth when it's been stagnant for years. Like if the cost of living is the same as a full time $20/hr position, it's not a bragging point to say that were at $17.
You missed the part where I said I did switch jobs because I'm not in the category without options. I'm looking out for those people - not defending my own situation. Minimum wage should be enough to live on and nobody should have to work two jobs to get by
I showed you a graph of production and nonsupervisory wages compared with inflation. That's not "rich peoples' money" — it's just regular pay.
Your personal situation might be different, say because you haven't changed jobs and your boss thinks you won't do so to get better wages.
Inflation is apparently a bad indicator of actual cost of living because wages have not kept up with housing and food prices. Wages need to far exceed inflation to catch up to 90s
Inflation is based on a broad measure of all the things people buy.
Food and housing are a big part of it.
Right, but it's not all of it. Inflation includes a ton of things that don't affect people in the same capacity Last year inflation was like 7% but grocery prices were up 30%. Housing also far exceeded that, too
No one thing is all of it because people don't buy Only One Thing. Food prices did rise a lot, but people don't buy only food. So the overall cost of living didn't rise nearly so much.
Right. But people buy a lot more of One Thing than the Other Thing so when the One Thing is 30% more expensive and the Other Thing is down in price, the average of the two doesn't tell the whole story
My expenses are mostly food and housing and I know for millions of people, it's ONLY food and housing.