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> Asset inflation is inflation. It isn't though for the use of the inflation statistic. It is a measure of if low-income earners are going to need wage hikes
by lamontcg 5y ago
> Asset inflation is inflation.
It isn't though for the use of the inflation statistic.
It is a measure of if low-income earners are going to need wage hikes in order to survive. It is concerned with avoiding wage-price spirals where the cost to businesses of employing your average blue collar worker is increasing or not, and employed to drive those costs to businesses down.
It doesn't work at all for the average HN reader because you're probably in the middle ground where you either own enough assets or want to own enough assets that you're seeing crazy rises in prices in how you actually live, but you're not rich enough to care about inflation as a measure of when your uppity blue collar workers are going to start demanding higher pay (and even if you are rich enough, by virtue of the fact you're reading HN you've probably got fewer blue collar workers).
The inflation statistic is a number that isn't about you, which is why it seems so weird.
- taurath 5y agoMost of my friends are blue collar workers with education being around the national average (“some college”). Practically nobody can afford a place to live without large amounts of roommates as costs have gone up. Housing costs being too high are the #1 economic problem for my generation. Most have decided they will never own a home. Most don’t have much more than a small emergency fund, and many were decimated by covid. Im saying the inflation statistic is used heavily as a catchall for “cost of living” and it values the cost of toilet paper over a roof over people’s heads.
- lamontcg 5y agoEmployers aren't concerned with if their employees are renters or owners. You're certainly right it has nothing to do with "cost of living" though.