3 ms·

> Wage stagnation leading to quality-of-life declines is the first of these - people can notice this immediately in their life. Despite popular graphs making r

by xyzzyz 8y ago

> Wage stagnation leading to quality-of-life declines is the first of these - people can notice this immediately in their life. Despite popular graphs making rounds, there has been little if any wage stagnation. Moreover, people are also really bad at noticing it: a median and an average Americans now have better housing situation than 50 years ago, in terms of actual living space available for them, fewer roommates, better quality of housing, and yet the sentiment is the opposite.

lotsofpulp 8y ago
Source? Every piece of data I see shows that the top quintile is running away with almost all of the income and wealth growth (especially the top decile), and that economic opportunities are being concentrated in certain urban areas resulting in higher rents and property prices, all the while home ownership and stable careers are in decline. Having a bigger room and smart phone does little in the face of higher variance of one’s future security. The compounding nature of the game’s fruits are clearly evident now, and people rightfully are afraid of permanently falling behind.
rossdavidh 8y ago
I would say the best analysis of this is by Peter Turchin: http://peterturchin.com/cliodynamica/population-immiseration-in-america/ http://peterturchin.com/cliodynamica/population-immiseration...
- kbutler 8y ago
  Notice Turchin's exclusions and his analysis: Wage stagnation primarily for unskilled men (women's wages have risen a lot, skilled labor has risen as well). The reason? "The TL;DR answer is that it was a combination of immigration, loss of manufacturing jobs overseas, massive entry of women into the labor force" So a drastically increased supply of labor depresses prices of labor. He also avoids "household income" because households are smaller (fewer children, divorce) and because of two earners, but those very things increase economic "quality of life" measurements for individuals in those households ($ per capita). He also focuses on pre-tax/pre-transfer income, avoiding the net effect of our progressive taxation/transfer regime. If we include those effects, we get a different picture: https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/the-trend-toward-inequality-has-slowed-but-so-has-income-growth/ https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/the-trend-toward-inequali...

by xyzzyz 8y ago

lotsofpulp 8y ago

Source? Every piece of data I see shows that the top quintile is running away with almost all of the income and wealth growth (especially the top decile), and that economic opportunities are being concentrated in certain urban areas resulting in higher rents and property prices, all the while home ownership and stable careers are in decline. Having a bigger room and smart phone does little in the face of higher variance of one’s future security. The compounding nature of the game’s fruits are clearly evident now, and people rightfully are afraid of permanently falling behind.

rossdavidh 8y ago

I would say the best analysis of this is by Peter Turchin: http://peterturchin.com/cliodynamica/population-immiseration-in-america/ http://peterturchin.com/cliodynamica/population-immiseration...

kbutler 8y ago
Notice Turchin's exclusions and his analysis: Wage stagnation primarily for unskilled men (women's wages have risen a lot, skilled labor has risen as well). The reason? "The TL;DR answer is that it was a combination of immigration, loss of manufacturing jobs overseas, massive entry of women into the labor force" So a drastically increased supply of labor depresses prices of labor. He also avoids "household income" because households are smaller (fewer children, divorce) and because of two earners, but those very things increase economic "quality of life" measurements for individuals in those households ($ per capita). He also focuses on pre-tax/pre-transfer income, avoiding the net effect of our progressive taxation/transfer regime. If we include those effects, we get a different picture: https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/the-trend-toward-inequality-has-slowed-but-so-has-income-growth/ https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/the-trend-toward-inequali...