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New business idea for transportation: HeliHelp. HeliHelp flies in low skilled workers via helicopter, quicker than commutes and allows you to keep paying "mark

New business idea for transportation: HeliHelp. HeliHelp flies in low skilled workers via helicopter, quicker than commutes and allows you to keep paying "market wages" that don't allow employees for retail/restaurants/etc to live anywhere near the place of upscale upperclass community where you need your employees to be during work. Fly them in, then fly them out, way out. HeliHelp is not only an expense, but it can be part of your employees "real compensation" to further not give any sort of wage increase. "HeliHelp: Better to buy a helicopter than to pay above market wages" /s On a serious note: Workers share of GDP has been in constant decline since the 70s [1]. Velocity of money is at all time lows and off a cliff [2]. Household income has been normalized, sideways [3]. Middle class is not getting richer but flat. Those are signs that wages are not growing as fast as they could or should. A better economy comes when more people have consumer spending supply and that increases demand across the board. Demand brings investment. Wage increases have essentially been efficiently worked out of the system, and at a certain point that is a more stagnant economy than we could have which affects lower, middle and upper classes. Wealth does not spend enough to fuel an economy, you need the middle and lower to be consumers that have demand, with money in their pockets before the rich will invest. Middle class is still getting pummeled and nothing has changed. [1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/W270RE1A156NBEA https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/W270RE1A156NBEA [2] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2V https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2V [3] https://fredblog.stlouisfed.org/2016/12/the-puzzle-of-real-median-household-income https://fredblog.stlouisfed.org/2016/12/the-puzzle-of-real-m...

seizethecheese 8y ago
Should middle class wages keep increasing relative to everyone else forever? That’s clearly an absurd scenario. Middle class wages increased substantially comprared to upper class in the 50s and 60s. “Stagnating” could also be seen as “holding on to gains”.
- drawkbox 8y ago
  > Should middle class wages keep increasing relative to everyone else forever? Yes if you want to keep a middle class. In a consumer economy that requires growth, demand has to be there for investment. One way to achieve demand is people have more money to buy things in a consumer economy and their earning outstepping household inflation which is higher than macro inflation. Ultimately the middle class has been on a downward trend if flat due to higher household inflation. Inflation is a macro level number. Household/family inflation is more than the macro inflation number on the whole economy i.e. housing/rent, food, gas, tuition/education, healthcare, etc are all higher inflationary items than other indicators which pull it down across the economy but not for many groups [1], especially middle class that gets the weight on their backs on healthcare, tuition and more due to no subsidies or higher pricing because they make more. Just because inflation on the macro economy didn't go up too much, doesn't mean family/household/individual inflation isn't higher and too much at the same time of wage stagnation [2][3]. Flat since 2000... Middle class is shrinking because wages are not outstepping inflation relative to their needs. That isn't relative to everyone but an overall downward trend for middle class. While lower and upper classes are up they will also stagnate if that trend continues. Middle class wages and breaks need more help than ever right now due to inequality and very little policy or the market helping middle class handle the weight that the lower and upper class put on their backs. Middle class consumers support local economies and return most of their money back to the market/economy, wealth does not. Middle class is also mostly the longs of the public stock markets in terms of investments and retirement accounts. The trend of a middle class disappearing cannot continue or the system breaks and the public markets will also probably break, that affects everyone including the wealthy. More people can buy your product and invest in your company if they have cash money to do so. [1] https://ritholtz.com/2016/08/inflation-look-right-places/ https://ritholtz.com/2016/08/inflation-look-right-places/ [2] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?graph_id=195323# https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?graph_id=195323# [3] https://seekingalpha.com/article/4111556-august-2017-median-household-income https://seekingalpha.com/article/4111556-august-2017-median-...
bb101 8y ago
Bloomberg do this with the staff in their Paris office, or at least used to a few years ago. Not on helicopters, but on trains from London. Labour rules can become flexible when your staff arrive from another country on Monday mornings.

seizethecheese 8y ago

Should middle class wages keep increasing relative to everyone else forever? That’s clearly an absurd scenario. Middle class wages increased substantially comprared to upper class in the 50s and 60s. “Stagnating” could also be seen as “holding on to gains”.

drawkbox 8y ago
> Should middle class wages keep increasing relative to everyone else forever? Yes if you want to keep a middle class. In a consumer economy that requires growth, demand has to be there for investment. One way to achieve demand is people have more money to buy things in a consumer economy and their earning outstepping household inflation which is higher than macro inflation. Ultimately the middle class has been on a downward trend if flat due to higher household inflation. Inflation is a macro level number. Household/family inflation is more than the macro inflation number on the whole economy i.e. housing/rent, food, gas, tuition/education, healthcare, etc are all higher inflationary items than other indicators which pull it down across the economy but not for many groups [1], especially middle class that gets the weight on their backs on healthcare, tuition and more due to no subsidies or higher pricing because they make more. Just because inflation on the macro economy didn't go up too much, doesn't mean family/household/individual inflation isn't higher and too much at the same time of wage stagnation [2][3]. Flat since 2000... Middle class is shrinking because wages are not outstepping inflation relative to their needs. That isn't relative to everyone but an overall downward trend for middle class. While lower and upper classes are up they will also stagnate if that trend continues. Middle class wages and breaks need more help than ever right now due to inequality and very little policy or the market helping middle class handle the weight that the lower and upper class put on their backs. Middle class consumers support local economies and return most of their money back to the market/economy, wealth does not. Middle class is also mostly the longs of the public stock markets in terms of investments and retirement accounts. The trend of a middle class disappearing cannot continue or the system breaks and the public markets will also probably break, that affects everyone including the wealthy. More people can buy your product and invest in your company if they have cash money to do so. [1] https://ritholtz.com/2016/08/inflation-look-right-places/ https://ritholtz.com/2016/08/inflation-look-right-places/ [2] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?graph_id=195323# https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?graph_id=195323# [3] https://seekingalpha.com/article/4111556-august-2017-median-household-income https://seekingalpha.com/article/4111556-august-2017-median-...

bb101 8y ago

Bloomberg do this with the staff in their Paris office, or at least used to a few years ago. Not on helicopters, but on trains from London. Labour rules can become flexible when your staff arrive from another country on Monday mornings.