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We Canadians used to regularly talk about how cheap the US was, and load up on gas, food, beer, cheese and all the rest when staying in cheap hotels and getting
by grecy 3y ago
We Canadians used to regularly talk about how cheap the US was, and load up on gas, food, beer, cheese and all the rest when staying in cheap hotels and getting cheap meals with cheap entertainment (concerts, sporting events, etc.). If you could be bothered electronics were cheap, cars were cheap, clothes were cheap, etc. etc.
In the last ~12 months I have been floored how expensive life in the US is now. I was just down two weeks ago, and everything was either the same dollar number as Canada or higher, but it's in US dollars.
I don't know how people are doing it.
- rapsey 3y agoThey are doing it with wage growth. Inflation is likely a result of high employment levels. There are more jobs than candidates. Personally I believe it is due to the last of the boomers retiring. Economists/analysts are not used to thinking about demographics and they have a blind spot on this ever more important topic.
- rayiner 3y agoSupermarket prices are up 25% since 2020: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/food-prices-grocery-inflation-biden-economy https://www.cbsnews.com/news/food-prices-grocery-inflation-b.... People’s wages are not 25% higher.
- rapsey 3y agoMore people are employed however.
- iraqmtpizza 3y ago[dead]
- lotsofpulp 3y agoWhat else would be expected after decades of dropping fertility rates?
- exe34 3y agoI suppose this isn't the first time it's happened though.
- alexb_ 3y agoThis does not matter at all because foreign-born people are exactly as much American and exactly as much of a worthwhile person as native-born people
- rayiner 3y agoWhat an absurd notion. As a first generation immigrant, I’m in no way “just as American” as my wife, whose family settled the west coast in the wagon trails. That assertion reduces the concept of nationality to nothing. If my ancestors had shaped the America that exists today it would look very different!
- alexb_ 3y ago> As a first generation immigrant, I’m in no way “just as American” as my wife, whose family settled the west coast in the wagon trails. I don't know who convinced you of this notion, but it's 100% horseshit. You absolutely are just as much of an American as anyone else living here. America as a country is founded on the contributions of all of the people who moved here. The concept of "nationality" meaning you must have roots here, or that you must look like an "American", is just complete garbage. If you're a citizen, you're an American, and that's all there is to it.
- rayiner 3y ago> I don't know who convinced you of this notion, but it's 100% horseshit. Marrying an American and observing the massive cultural differences between our families convinced me of it. > You absolutely are just as much of an American as anyone else living here. Only if you’re using “american” tautologically to refer to “American citizenship.” And even then, the Constitution recognizes that naturalized citizens are less American than native-born ones, since we can’t run for President. > America as a country is founded on the contributions of all of the people who moved here. America is a country founded by British colonists. The country’s legal and political system, and most of its culture, comes from that founding population. Depending on the geography, there’s an overlay of German, Dutch, Italian, or Spanish culture. In specific areas, Americans that are part of the Jewish diaspora have had a significant influence. The influence of almost everyone else is localized or superficial. E.g. you can get Vietnamese or Thai food almost everywhere in the country, but the influence of Vietnamese or Thai language, culture, religion, etc., in American society at large is close to zero. When people in my home country think of an “American” they think of people of British descent. They don’t think of Italian immigrants. Similarly, if you relocated the population of say Bangladesh to the US, and gave everyone US citizenship, they wouldn’t suddenly become “American.” Culture matters, and a population’s culture is extremely durable: https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=35594 https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=35594 (“In The Culture Transplant, Garett Jones documents the cultural foundations of cross-country income differences, showing that immigrants import cultural attitudes from their homelands—toward saving, toward trust, and toward the role of government—that persist for decades, and likely for centuries, in their new national homes. Full assimilation in a generation or two, Jones reports, is a myth.”). The American founders clearly recognized as much when they created a distinction between native-born citizens and naturalized citizens and wrote it into the Constitution.
- renewiltord 3y agoFor the poor, nominal wages are much higher. Bottom quintile saw 20% higher wages. https://www.dallasfed.org/cd/communities/2022/0808 https://www.dallasfed.org/cd/communities/2022/0808 Bottom decile even higher
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- hughesjj 3y agoAwesome, wish they straight up outpaced it though
- nxvk2 3y agoMore like credit growth inspite of high interest rates.
- rapsey 3y agoYou really think this is the primary cause not a side effect?
- dexwiz 3y agoAre boomers retiring? Both of my parents are near the traditional retirement age but are planning on working for another decade. Even boomers who do retire often get part time jobs.
- yabbs 3y agoThey wish they could but they lost their shirts in 08-09 thinking their ATM, I mean houses, would continue to allow them to do nothing and get rich like it had for the prevuois 25 years. Worst. Generation. Ever. ~disgruntled X
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- giantg2 3y ago"They are doing it with wage growth. Inflation is likely a result of high employment levels. There are more jobs than candidates." There is limited real wage growth and it is mostly concentrated at the bottom end. There might be more jobs that "qualified" candidates. Companies are still being very picky. A lot of the jobs/employment numbers we are seeing are including more part-time or low wage positions than in the past. The inflation is mostly because of the increase in money supply in my opinion. The economy is fragile enough that the Fed is talking about a rate drop soon despite inflafion.
- foobiekr 3y agoThis was a very very brief moment when the CAD appreciated. Are you sure you didn’t just end up coming of age at a particular moment, specifically 2006-2012? Because otherwise the exchange rate has been about where it is now to substantially worse for the rest of the data set.
- jessekv 3y agoI read their comment differently than you did. I think the point they are making about exchange rates goes like this: The dollar amount in CAD was normally higher than the equivalent in USD. For example, next to the bar code on the back of a paperback, it would list the prices as $15 USD or $20 CAD. Many other goods have similar price differences. Lately in the US it seems like a lot of prices are increasing to the same number value, despite the exchange rate.
- grecy 3y ago> Are you sure you didn’t just end up coming of age at a particular moment, specifically 2006-2012? I'm 42, so, ah, no. What I mean is that basically since forever things were cheaper in the US than in Canada. Gas? 25%-50% cheaper. Cheese (of course) 50% cheaper. Electronics, cars, clothes, hotels, beer, food at restaurants, etc. etc. Now, everything is more expensive in the US than Canada.