4 ms·

Your numbers leave out fuel/utilities and rent/housing increases. I can tell you that I kept every receipt, virtual and paper, starting July 1st 2021 and going

Your numbers leave out fuel/utilities and rent/housing increases. I can tell you that I kept every receipt, virtual and paper, starting July 1st 2021 and going through December 31st 2022. Running the numbers in March when I got around to it: My cost of living (with my lifestyle not changing!) went up 20.94% over those 18 months. It's gone up more since then but I don't know exactly how much - say, 5%-10% Our economy is "doing fine" because we've printed and spent 10 trillion dollars. That bill will come due, along with the bill for the other 20 trillion dollars we've printed and spent over the previous 20 years. If you're over 65 and live an average lifespan all this won't matter much to you. If you're under 45 and middle class (or lower down) you'll never retire, but your grand-kids might.

P_I_Staker 3y ago
> If you're under 45 and middle class (or lower down) you'll never retire, but your grand-kids might. This seems like scare mongering. Especially for people under ~35, that would likely be able to ride out economic problems. Not everyone has all their money in cash, lol. On top of investments, lots of middle class people own their house by age 50, and you can retire quite more easily with a paid for house. It also seems to me that these labor shortages aren't going away. There may be an ups and downs, but I'd be very surprised to go another 20 years without a covid-like jobs shortage, where businesses didn't seem fazed to throw money and benefits at the problem. An economic downturn isn't even really needed in the aftermath, or excessive inflation. We've had times where the average joe has prospered. Lots of really wonky things were done in the economy to cause COL increases. We gassed up the real estate market for very little reason. That's a big driver of the inflation, or especially cost of living. Also, it seems that there are market forces that caused the inflation in cost of products. I think cost of living can go down without deflation, but I could be wrong. If companies are overcharging, that could leave room in the market. It's already eroded their position, since many products are now similar in cost to premium products, yet lower quality.

P_I_Staker 3y ago

> If you're under 45 and middle class (or lower down) you'll never retire, but your grand-kids might. This seems like scare mongering. Especially for people under ~35, that would likely be able to ride out economic problems. Not everyone has all their money in cash, lol. On top of investments, lots of middle class people own their house by age 50, and you can retire quite more easily with a paid for house. It also seems to me that these labor shortages aren't going away. There may be an ups and downs, but I'd be very surprised to go another 20 years without a covid-like jobs shortage, where businesses didn't seem fazed to throw money and benefits at the problem. An economic downturn isn't even really needed in the aftermath, or excessive inflation. We've had times where the average joe has prospered. Lots of really wonky things were done in the economy to cause COL increases. We gassed up the real estate market for very little reason. That's a big driver of the inflation, or especially cost of living. Also, it seems that there are market forces that caused the inflation in cost of products. I think cost of living can go down without deflation, but I could be wrong. If companies are overcharging, that could leave room in the market. It's already eroded their position, since many products are now similar in cost to premium products, yet lower quality.