this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2024
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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.
The problem is both...
Some inflation is a good thing. It keeps money moving, which is absolutely crucial to the system as it is. Wages do need to rise with or outpace it, though.
But I don't like the system as it is.
The only way to save for retirement (within this system) is by exploiting other workers. I want overall consumption to decrease. I don't like how every business is shortsightedly focused on "this quarter". Inequality since the 1970s has skyrocketed.
This is a bad system.
a lot of important and good things we can do for climate change like consuming less could make the GDP go down, so you know they'll panic and find ways to incentivize more consumption if so.
We need to get comfortable with economic degrowth.
Wages can't really outpace it, well not for a long time. This infinite growth mentality is what got us here, both insane price wise and low wage wise, you have to somehow make number go up
Why?
Hear me out. If a $50k wages is $50k 10 years from now and all things stay the same why is that a problem? People at that wage can pay for a certain lifestyle at that wage forever.
Hear me out if all companies have a profit? Why have more profit next year? You can still grow you have profit.
Even loans still work as loans have profit built into them so what is the problem with stagnation
But how could we possibly survive without eternal economic growth???
I agree that right now we're facing both at the same time, but either one in isolation would still be a huge problem.
Inflation at the current (reported) rate of ~3-4% is healthy for almost any economy, since it promotes spending your money on high quality, long lasting goods, or investing your money to promote growth of businesses. A little depreciation of money each year dissuades people from sitting on their cash. Even without a stock market and capitalism, inflation is an incentive for people to put their long term savings into government savings bonds, which allows for more public development today without more taxes.
BUT if inflation is too high, (even with wages increasing at the same rate, which never happens) it's extremely difficult for people to save cash to make large purchases. Any economy that uses money needs for people to be able to afford to wait a while with their money before deciding what to do with it, otherwise people are forced to settle for lower quality goods or whatever investment opportunities are available on short notice. Less time to make wise choices with money means less productive use of that money, meaning a less productive economy overall. Not what we want.
And of course, if wages don't keep up with inflation, either because inflation is running away or because your government has refused to increase the minimum wage at all since 2009 when the national currency was worth 1.47 times as much as it is today, 15 years later (cough cough), then obviously you're going to run into some problems with people's ability to afford things.
That said, I think some shady manipulation to the consumer price index is going on to make the reported inflation figures look a lot lower than the actual increase in cost of living that the majority of people are facing. The biggest offender is housing costs skyrocketing in the past decade, but not uniformly across the US. The result is that areas where this hasn't been nearly as big of an issue falsely "balance out" critical problem areas, where people are practically being forced to either relocate or become homeless due to how rapidly housing prices have gone up.
There's just so many different things that need to go right for an economy to be prosperous for everyone who contributes to it, and right now the people in charge of steering that economy are getting kickbacks from the people who stand to benefit the most from taking it off the rails.
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
We saw a huge raise in wages during the 15minimum push. Still hear the same complaint about not being paid enough. Hell, billionaires get raises, so while I do think people should get more for the work they do (make a company money, earn more money), it definitely isn't the only thing that has to change.