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Inflation is very rarely linear. When inflation hits, prices don't rise uniformly. Some industries have pricing power; others don't. Some professions have ne
by nostrademons 5y ago
Inflation is very rarely linear. When inflation hits, prices don't rise uniformly. Some industries have pricing power; others don't. Some professions have negotiating leverage, others don't. Those with the most negotiating leverage have the biggest ability to raise prices, while those in purely commodity businesses often get stuck with small nominal raises.
Poor people are disproportionately in competitive jobs without a lot of negotiating leverage, because if they were in a differentiated job with a lot of negotiating leverage, they'd be rich.
- xapata 5y ago> competitive jobs Isn't the big news of the day that there's a labor "shortage" and wages are rising?
- nostrademons 5y agoYes. Professions where you can walk off the job and find a dozen other ones that have openings (say, software engineer) get much higher wage increases than ones where if you walk off the job you have a very limited set of other employers (say, geologist or elementary school teacher). That's why you have a very bifurcated set of anecdotes, where some people are like "my COLA was still a measly 3% this year" and others are like "I switched jobs for a 20% raise."
- xapata 5y agoI've been hearing about significant wage increases for many jobs, especially at the lower end of the spectrum.