40-year-old homeowner says economy doesn’t add up: ‘I’m making the most money I’ve ever made, and I’m still living paycheck to paycheck’
40-year-old homeowner says economy doesn’t add up: ‘I’m making the most money I’ve ever made, and I’m still living paycheck to paycheck’
'I’m making the most money I've ever made, and I’m still living paycheck to paycheck'
“There's this wild disconnect between what people are experiencing and what economists are experiencing,” says Nikki Cimino, a recruiter in Denver.
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Hey, somebody's gotta pay for the highest corporate profits in 70 years.
Important to note:
Companies aren't just raising prices enough to cover costs, they're padding their margins on top.
Just saying that their profit is higher means nothing because of inflation. Inflation will mean that their profits are more often than not the highest they have ever been every year. But the highest margins? That shows they are price gouging.
If you want to know how bad we're being fucked, search for the PPI, the producer price index. CPI, the one we always hear about, is the measure of inflation to us, the consumer. The PPI is the measure of inflation to producers, what they pay for goods and services to produce the goods and services we buy.
The PPI has been back to "normal" for a while now. Pretty much as soon as the post COVID logistics issues were mostly ironed out. The difference between PPI and CPI changes is almost all profit.
We don't get daily articles on the PPI though, I wonder why.
Tell people about PPI whenever you can, online or off, the more people know, the better. It's easy enough to say inflation is just down to greed but being able to back it up by comparing two simple charts will help people really understand.
I couldn't find a comparable historical CPI chart on the BLS website, just a 12 month average and historical data by region. Are you able to find something to compare that chart to? It's kind of difficult to grasp intuitively (without a comparison, that is).
I edited the links to try to get more apples to apples. For the PPI just deselect the blue line and compare red lines between the two. Those should give 12 month change numbers for all goods and services unless I screwed it up.
Edit: I edited the links again, I accidentally used final demand instead of intermediate demand for PPI. No need to deselect anything now. I linked the chart for processed goods, other categories are available in the drop-down list.
Thank you! And thank you for finding and linking all that, it is very informative!
My favorite part was how PPI reversed inflation every month from Feb 2023 onward, but CPI only continued to show positive inflation. 😃
Exactly that. On average the economy is doing fine but it's skewed very heavily towards the top and nothing much for the 90%. The median income is actually decreasing.
That's not true. The bottom 10% are actually doing better than the wealthy, you just don't have any of those people in your social circles.Rephrasing for the literal autists that make up this site:
The bottom 10% has seen more wage growth than the wealthy relative to inflation, which has actually started closing the wealth gap.
I would LOVE to see a source on this, but I have a feeling I already know where it is coming from.
Would you prefer the Economic Policy Institute, Politico, or CNBC?
I think the wording in your original comment is pretty misguided. Nowhere does it say the poor are "doing better than" the wealthy. They just had the strongest short-term wage growth since covid. This does not equate to prosperity. Perhaps it is you that has the restrictive social circle.
The wording was obvious. If someone though OP meant "the bottom 10% can afford more yachts than the wealthy" that's a logic problem.
I disagree. The connotation and literal meaning of the phrase "doing better than", combined with the comment on social circles indicates that they're trying to suggest the poor are somehow doing well, whatever that means.
That's how I read it, anyway. And I think that's why they're getting down voted as well.
Doing well... proportionately. The talk was about growth/lack thereof.
Proportionally, having a penny is infinitely more than having nothing, but I still can't buy shit with a penny.
Take your "proportionately" logic and shove it. Shit is bad. And it's bad because capitalism has consolidated wealth at the top. Capitalism has run its course and has failed. It's time to move on.
I can shove it all you want, but statistics show otherwise.
And blaming you own failures on capitalism won't solve shit. Plenty of people are successful under capitalism, no matter what a dozen geniuses on a fringe site cry about.
Communism has been tried and failed, either through revolution (eastern Europe), evolution to market economies (China, Vietnam) or famine and slavery (North Korea).
Take your logic and shove it
Ah, Leftists. The screaming children of the modern age.
Also - Horseshoe Theory in action. Guess who else hates logic but loves being angry?
they’re trying to suggest the poor are somehow doing well, whatever that means.
Which is nonsensical, which should suggest you're misinterpreting.
The wording is obvious to anyone with a brain. So given that this is lemmy, you're absolutely right and I'll dumb it down. My apologies.
I think it's unfortunate that you're being so hostile. It was an interesting point and very good sources that you brought to the discussion. But you've decided to play the "you're all 'autists' " card.
It was an interesting point and very good sources that you brought to the discussion.
The fact that this doesn't matter is why I'm being hostile. Bunch of idiots in here. If you're interested in discussing it I'm absolutely open to that. It's the ones who fail basic reading comprehension that have my scorn.
None of this matters when low income people have been getting screwed for 30 years. 3 years of growth means almost nothing when you put it in proper context. It's just a way for the upper class to gaslight people.
There are people out there still getting paid $9 an hour which wasn't liveable 15 years ago when that was my wage. If this trend continues, calling it wage slavery won't be hyperbole anymore.
Plus none of these articles talk about the middle 80% who have not seen their pay keep up with inflation over the last 5 years, or the fact that the price of many goods has exceeded inflation on top of that. Not to mention the housing crisis.
It's not hard to figure out why people think the economy sucks.
There are people out there still getting paid $9 an hour
There are now fewer people out there still getting paid $9 an hour. Why are you against progress?
"Things are better but still not perfect therefore this is meaningless" is a terrible take.
Yes, bottom 10% are doing better and the top 10%. That means the middle is getting hollowed out and the whole thing turns into a very divided society. That's not a good thing.
It's not a good thing, but it's better than the blatant "rich get richer, everyone else gets fucked" economy we've had for the past few decades.
And doesn't it make sense that we improve the situation of the poorest first?
blatant “rich get richer, everyone else gets fucked”
and now you have a rich get richer, almost everyone else gets fucked economy. Yay, progress.
Looking at history, it feels more like an attempt to make sure the poorest don't fall into the "nothing left to lose" category that can cause so much trouble.
Looking at history, it feels more like an attempt to make sure the poorest don't fall into the "nothing left to lose" category that can cause so much trouble.
That's because it is. That's the point of welfare, give the poorest something to lose and they won't revolt. Even if it's the most meager, unfair, dehumanizing scraps.
Oh no, what a...terrible...thing...?
and now you have a rich get richer, almost everyone else gets fucked economy. Yay, progress.
Yes. Things were more bad, and now they are less bad. Vote in more Democrats, and things will continue to get less bad. Eventually, things will be good. That's how progress works.