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Each time people start asking pointed questions about wealth distribution and the economic system you can almost count down the hours until one of these newspap
by sgift 3y ago
Each time people start asking pointed questions about wealth distribution and the economic system you can almost count down the hours until one of these newspapers makes a "oh, look how much more of x you can get now than before". And I get it.
It's great that everyone can have a TV for 1/100 of what it cost in 1950 or whatever, but it does not solve the very obvious issues. People have problems paying rent, they have problems paying groceries. They see that they have to work more and more just to make the next month. And no cheap TV will help them do that, no matter how many "oh, but all is so much better now" articles are written.
- colpabar 3y agoMy favorite is when fox news puts out pieces about how not-so-bad it is to be poor because some large percentage of poor people have refrigerators or some other home appliance.
- pipes 3y agoUntil the very recent inflation increase, food has been cheaper than ever. It's been making up less and less of household budgets for decades. https://seekingalpha.com/article/92689-over-the-past-100-years-food-prices-have-fallen-by-82-percent https://seekingalpha.com/article/92689-over-the-past-100-yea...
- redblacktree 3y agoNow do housing.
- jjoonathan 3y agoJust buy 3 fewer iPhones every month, problem solved!
- HWR_14 3y agoThe basket of goods doesn't look random, and I wonder if it was chosen specifically and wrongly to make that point.
- tourmalinetaco 3y agoWhat would comparing random food prices prove? There is literally no benefit to comparing the price of let’s say dragonfruit when the average American doesn’t eat dragonfruit. Using common ingredients that’s always in demand sets a strong baseline.
- HWR_14 3y ago"Random" was probably the wrong word to use. "Properly representative of average food costs" is probably a better phrase.