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People aren’t poorer than they were 20 years ago, they just have an expectation of more things in their life. 20 years ago we barely had mobile phones let alone

People aren’t poorer than they were 20 years ago, they just have an expectation of more things in their life. 20 years ago we barely had mobile phones let alone smartphones. Far fewer people had internet access. Many people didn’t even have a computer of any type. We’re probably drinking more coffee, buying and consuming more passive entertainment, games, flat screen TVs, and disposable everything.

Spooky23 8y ago
The real per capita income in my area is $60k, up 1.6% from 10 years earlier. Inflation is about 1.6% per year
- sokoloff 8y ago
  Right, so people have more money than before just as sjwright said. Real income is, by definition, after inflation.
  - vkou 8y ago
    How much has the cost of healthcare, rent, and college tuition gone up on the past 10 years? It's great that I can get a decent laptop for $400, instead of $1,600, but that's barely a blip on my spending.
    - sokoloff 8y ago
      Housing and food seem to have inflated about the rate of overall inflation. Tuition and healthcare more, while most consumer goods, software, white goods, home furnishings, and cars significantly less. It should be no surprise that some categories have increased more than the average and others less. Reference: http://2oqz471sa19h3vbwa53m33yj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/price-changes-1996-2016.jpg http://2oqz471sa19h3vbwa53m33yj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-c...
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - chipotle_coyote 8y ago
    There's an inordinate amount of data at this point demonstrating that real average wages in America have been flat -- actually, falling slightly -- for decades. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us-workers-real-wages-have-barely-budged-for-decades/ http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us-... https://www.epi.org/publication/charting-wage-stagnation/ https://www.epi.org/publication/charting-wage-stagnation/ https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/22/the-uncomfortable-truth-about-american-wages/?mtrref=duckduckgo.com&gwh=05C2AF31070297FE6BE480070CF86255&gwt=pay https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/22/the-uncomforta... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/15/for-the-biggest-group-of-american-workers-wages-arent-just-flat-theyre-falling/?utm_term=.4a7d3ea1fbe2 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/15/for-t... I'm honestly a little dumbfounded this is even a subject that people seem to be debating here. It's not a matter of "people in 2019 just have so much more darn stuff to buy than people in 1979 did."
    - sokoloff 8y ago
      There's debate because depending on how you slice the data, you get different views, many(most?) of which show very small gains in real wages. As an example, the first link you provided shows generally increasing real wages over the last two decades despite your claim of falling slightly. Your second link shows cohorts other than the bottom 10th percentile showing real wage gains as well (see figure 3 both charted series and figure 4 2 out of 3 of the series). Spooky23 introduced data to show a modest increase in real wages in the last 10 years.
sjwright 8y ago
And my apologies for forgetting to mention the single largest increase in expenditure—health care. We can cure more diseases and fix more injuries than ever before, which means that there's more health services worth paying for than ever before. In summary, if you want to live like someone in the 1920s, with 1920s technology, 1920s mobility, 1920s education and 1920s health care, all while defending your country with a 1920s military, you'd probably struggle to know how to spend your inordinate wealth.

Spooky23 8y ago

The real per capita income in my area is $60k, up 1.6% from 10 years earlier. Inflation is about 1.6% per year

sokoloff 8y ago
Right, so people have more money than before just as sjwright said. Real income is, by definition, after inflation.
- vkou 8y ago
  How much has the cost of healthcare, rent, and college tuition gone up on the past 10 years? It's great that I can get a decent laptop for $400, instead of $1,600, but that's barely a blip on my spending.
  - sokoloff 8y ago
    Housing and food seem to have inflated about the rate of overall inflation. Tuition and healthcare more, while most consumer goods, software, white goods, home furnishings, and cars significantly less. It should be no surprise that some categories have increased more than the average and others less. Reference: http://2oqz471sa19h3vbwa53m33yj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/price-changes-1996-2016.jpg http://2oqz471sa19h3vbwa53m33yj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-c...
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- chipotle_coyote 8y ago
  There's an inordinate amount of data at this point demonstrating that real average wages in America have been flat -- actually, falling slightly -- for decades. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us-workers-real-wages-have-barely-budged-for-decades/ http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us-... https://www.epi.org/publication/charting-wage-stagnation/ https://www.epi.org/publication/charting-wage-stagnation/ https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/22/the-uncomfortable-truth-about-american-wages/?mtrref=duckduckgo.com&gwh=05C2AF31070297FE6BE480070CF86255&gwt=pay https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/22/the-uncomforta... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/15/for-the-biggest-group-of-american-workers-wages-arent-just-flat-theyre-falling/?utm_term=.4a7d3ea1fbe2 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/15/for-t... I'm honestly a little dumbfounded this is even a subject that people seem to be debating here. It's not a matter of "people in 2019 just have so much more darn stuff to buy than people in 1979 did."
  - sokoloff 8y ago
    There's debate because depending on how you slice the data, you get different views, many(most?) of which show very small gains in real wages. As an example, the first link you provided shows generally increasing real wages over the last two decades despite your claim of falling slightly. Your second link shows cohorts other than the bottom 10th percentile showing real wage gains as well (see figure 3 both charted series and figure 4 2 out of 3 of the series). Spooky23 introduced data to show a modest increase in real wages in the last 10 years.

sjwright 8y ago

And my apologies for forgetting to mention the single largest increase in expenditure—health care. We can cure more diseases and fix more injuries than ever before, which means that there's more health services worth paying for than ever before. In summary, if you want to live like someone in the 1920s, with 1920s technology, 1920s mobility, 1920s education and 1920s health care, all while defending your country with a 1920s military, you'd probably struggle to know how to spend your inordinate wealth.