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Respectfully, this doesn't have much relevance to the fact that basic necessities like rent and food are significantly more expensive than they were just two ye

by dangus 3y ago

Respectfully, this doesn't have much relevance to the fact that basic necessities like rent and food are significantly more expensive than they were just two years ago. Housing, transportation, and food account for over 60% of all spending. Experienes and goods aren't my problem. My problem is that my dwelling costs $500 a month more than it did in 2021 and I live in the exact same place, and I haven't gotten a raise. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cesan.pdf https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cesan.pdf

lucaspm98 3y ago
On a personal level I feel the same strains, but all sources I’m finding have median wages rising more than median rent since 2020 and certainly since 2021. However, that would not be true for buying a home especially when factoring in borrowing costs. https://ipropertymanagement.com/research/average-rent-by-year https://ipropertymanagement.com/research/average-rent-by-yea...
- yterdy 3y ago
  That's because rents temporarily cratered when people couldn't move due to lockdowns. But that was monthly, during the latter half of 2020 and the early half of 2021. Moving season is early summer, so people were locked into leases until prices rose again. Then, those leases were hiked in a massive price-fixing scheme, I mean raised in observance of inflation.
randomdata 3y ago
> basic necessities like [...] food are significantly more expensive than they were just two years ago. Here on the farm, the price I'm getting when selling food is half of it was two years ago. If I, the farmer, am selling the food for less than two years ago, while you are paying more than two years ago, then it seems experiences are you problem – e.g. you are paying more for the experience of shopping in a grocery store.
- raincole 3y ago
  ... people didn't shop in a grocery store two years ago?
  - randomdata 3y ago
    People seemingly value the experience of shopping in a grocery store more now than two years ago.
    - hattmall 3y ago
      What is the reasonable and less expensive alternative to shopping in a grocery store though?
      - randomdata 3y ago
        If your time is worthless, the least expensive option will be to produce your own food. If your time has value, the least expensive option will be to buy from a commercial kitchen. What is reasonable is subjective and depends on the experience you want to have. If you enjoy cooking as a hobby and are able to afford the high cost of operating your own kitchen, then that will be the only reasonable choice in your mind, and in that case the grocery store will provide a pretty nice experience in simulating wholesale distribution in quantities the hobbyist can manage. A number of reports suggest that commercial kitchen use is on the decline, so, assuming people aren't eating less, it seems that cooking is gaining in interest as a hobby. Thus it stands to reason that the grocery store can charge that elevated interest more than in times past. That's just basic supply and demand.
    - yterdy 3y ago
      I'm upvoting you because your satire is biting. British, Vonnegut-level. (To be clear, obviously that's not the case. Which leaves the alternative, that corporate food suppliers are screwing everyone.)
- musicale 3y ago
  Whose pockets is the money going into? Fuel companies? Shipping companies? Distributors? Retail grocers? The last time I shopped at a farmer's market the quality was great, but the selection was limited and it was still expensive.
thebigman433 3y ago
Not to put any blame on you or anything, because rents are crazy, but median wages have risen pretty significantly over the last few years. You definitely should be looking for a raise, or a new place of work.
- DeathArrow 3y ago
  If both prices and wages have risen than it means you have inflation.
  - thebigman433 3y ago
    Yes? Everyone knows there was more inflation than usual. It has literally dominated headlines for the last year and a half.
- yterdy 3y ago
  If the only way for people to keep apace of rising costs is to get a new job, that's got to be massively disruptive to businesses.
hibikir 3y ago
Housing is an auction, and a bet on how well the area is going to do. If you live in a place that has very high demand, prices are going to go up if there's no building being done. But it's not all rising prices: My house's value hasn't outpaced inflation through the last 20 years, because it's in the wrong part of St Louis. People with blue collar occupations have no problem buying around me: You can buy a 4 bedroom house for under 300k, and their salaries have gone up far more than the price of the houses. So house pricing problems? Just localized regulatory problems. We'd have a much smaller problem if more metro areas were attractive to people, instead of having such a big separation between of winners and losers.
- DeathArrow 3y ago
  Who do you think are the winners, and who do you think are losers. You can buy in the wrong part of a city but you will pay much less. Who wins, people who pay less or people who pay less? I think it depends on what they are after.
- dangus 3y ago
  There is a documented housing supply shortage on a national level. https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/08/homes/housing-shortage/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/08/homes/housing-shortage/index.... Plus, mortgage rates are set at a national level. Your house price went up dramatically in the last two years even though the purchase price didn’t increase because someone new to the neighborhood has to pay a higher monthly payment to buy. I would argue that the amount of homes that lost value enough to fully compensate the rapid increase in interest rates is going to be extremely low, even in towns and neighborhoods facing rapid decline. It’s also the case that more metro areas grew than declined: https://www.businessinsider.com/2020-census-fastest-growing-and-shrinking-metro-areas-2021-8 https://www.businessinsider.com/2020-census-fastest-growing-... In other words, pick any random person in the US and it’s more likely than not that they live somewhere that is growing.
- yterdy 3y ago
  >Housing is an auction Between the recent (nationwide) realtor fee debacle and RealPage et al.'s (multi-state) price-fixing, it's probably more accurate to say that housing is a (national) grift.
DeathArrow 3y ago
That's probably true for Bezos, too. Except that he got a raise.

by dangus 3y ago

lucaspm98 3y ago

On a personal level I feel the same strains, but all sources I’m finding have median wages rising more than median rent since 2020 and certainly since 2021. However, that would not be true for buying a home especially when factoring in borrowing costs. https://ipropertymanagement.com/research/average-rent-by-year https://ipropertymanagement.com/research/average-rent-by-yea...

yterdy 3y ago
That's because rents temporarily cratered when people couldn't move due to lockdowns. But that was monthly, during the latter half of 2020 and the early half of 2021. Moving season is early summer, so people were locked into leases until prices rose again. Then, those leases were hiked in a massive price-fixing scheme, I mean raised in observance of inflation.

randomdata 3y ago

> basic necessities like [...] food are significantly more expensive than they were just two years ago. Here on the farm, the price I'm getting when selling food is half of it was two years ago. If I, the farmer, am selling the food for less than two years ago, while you are paying more than two years ago, then it seems experiences are you problem – e.g. you are paying more for the experience of shopping in a grocery store.

raincole 3y ago
... people didn't shop in a grocery store two years ago?
- randomdata 3y ago
  People seemingly value the experience of shopping in a grocery store more now than two years ago.
  - hattmall 3y ago
    What is the reasonable and less expensive alternative to shopping in a grocery store though?
    - randomdata 3y ago
      If your time is worthless, the least expensive option will be to produce your own food. If your time has value, the least expensive option will be to buy from a commercial kitchen. What is reasonable is subjective and depends on the experience you want to have. If you enjoy cooking as a hobby and are able to afford the high cost of operating your own kitchen, then that will be the only reasonable choice in your mind, and in that case the grocery store will provide a pretty nice experience in simulating wholesale distribution in quantities the hobbyist can manage. A number of reports suggest that commercial kitchen use is on the decline, so, assuming people aren't eating less, it seems that cooking is gaining in interest as a hobby. Thus it stands to reason that the grocery store can charge that elevated interest more than in times past. That's just basic supply and demand.
  - yterdy 3y ago
    I'm upvoting you because your satire is biting. British, Vonnegut-level. (To be clear, obviously that's not the case. Which leaves the alternative, that corporate food suppliers are screwing everyone.)
musicale 3y ago
Whose pockets is the money going into? Fuel companies? Shipping companies? Distributors? Retail grocers? The last time I shopped at a farmer's market the quality was great, but the selection was limited and it was still expensive.

thebigman433 3y ago

Not to put any blame on you or anything, because rents are crazy, but median wages have risen pretty significantly over the last few years. You definitely should be looking for a raise, or a new place of work.

DeathArrow 3y ago
If both prices and wages have risen than it means you have inflation.
- thebigman433 3y ago
  Yes? Everyone knows there was more inflation than usual. It has literally dominated headlines for the last year and a half.
yterdy 3y ago
If the only way for people to keep apace of rising costs is to get a new job, that's got to be massively disruptive to businesses.

hibikir 3y ago

Housing is an auction, and a bet on how well the area is going to do. If you live in a place that has very high demand, prices are going to go up if there's no building being done. But it's not all rising prices: My house's value hasn't outpaced inflation through the last 20 years, because it's in the wrong part of St Louis. People with blue collar occupations have no problem buying around me: You can buy a 4 bedroom house for under 300k, and their salaries have gone up far more than the price of the houses. So house pricing problems? Just localized regulatory problems. We'd have a much smaller problem if more metro areas were attractive to people, instead of having such a big separation between of winners and losers.

DeathArrow 3y ago
Who do you think are the winners, and who do you think are losers. You can buy in the wrong part of a city but you will pay much less. Who wins, people who pay less or people who pay less? I think it depends on what they are after.
dangus 3y ago
There is a documented housing supply shortage on a national level. https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/08/homes/housing-shortage/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/08/homes/housing-shortage/index.... Plus, mortgage rates are set at a national level. Your house price went up dramatically in the last two years even though the purchase price didn’t increase because someone new to the neighborhood has to pay a higher monthly payment to buy. I would argue that the amount of homes that lost value enough to fully compensate the rapid increase in interest rates is going to be extremely low, even in towns and neighborhoods facing rapid decline. It’s also the case that more metro areas grew than declined: https://www.businessinsider.com/2020-census-fastest-growing-and-shrinking-metro-areas-2021-8 https://www.businessinsider.com/2020-census-fastest-growing-... In other words, pick any random person in the US and it’s more likely than not that they live somewhere that is growing.
yterdy 3y ago
>Housing is an auction Between the recent (nationwide) realtor fee debacle and RealPage et al.'s (multi-state) price-fixing, it's probably more accurate to say that housing is a (national) grift.

DeathArrow 3y ago

That's probably true for Bezos, too. Except that he got a raise.