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One of the common misdirections propagated by these articles is arguing that inflation dropped from 10% to 4%, so things must be better, why aren't people happy
by DataDive 2y ago
One of the common misdirections propagated by these articles is arguing that inflation dropped from 10% to 4%, so things must be better, why aren't people happy about that?
but wait that 4% is on top of the 10%,
the thing that matters is whether the income went up 10% before hitting the 4% inflation, only then would the 4% be a positive number.
the inflation does indeed slow when people run out of money, but that's not going to make put them in good mood
- floxy 2y agoYes, the word "inflation" is pretty much propaganda. Especially when you start talking about rates of change of rates of change. People are concerned when they discover that they are now poorer than they were just a handful of years ago and now a box of Cheerios costs $7.
- maxerickson 2y agoThe statistics say that wage growth has outpaced inflation.
- floxy 2y agoAny sources that you can provide which integrate both of those measures (so that we are comparing prices to salary)? (and of course even if inflation and wage growth were always identical, people would be worse off as they get pushed in to higher tax brackets)
- maxerickson 2y agoThis is full time only, but it sort of clearly shows earnings outpacing CPI. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q
- floxy 2y agoQ4 2019: 362 Q1 2020: 367 Q1 2024: 365
- laidoffamazon 2y agoCorrect, it's higher than 2019. Do you think Q1 2020 was a time of mass affluence? You remember the food lines and 15% unemployment, right? It's composition effects.
- maxerickson 2y agoOnly go up? The existential dread is all about how it's worse than it's ever been before, not about how wage growth has been a little soft for a few years.
- floxy 2y agoCall it a draw? Seems flat for the past 4 years on the average. I'm glad that someone is getting better than 3% yearly raises.
- dinglestepup 2y agoThis point is really irritating. When pundits complain about the public being wrong on the economy, they constantly ignore the fact that inflation has been very high for many months, prices went up, so even if inflation is lower now - the prices are still up. I can see the impact of it every time I go to the grocery store.
- laidoffamazon 2y agoYes but you also make more money. American's buying power has literally never been higher.
- dinglestepup 2y agoMy salary definitely did not go up by 10% if that's what you mean.
- laidoffamazon 2y agoThat's a you problem, not something shown by the wage growth data.
- dinglestepup 2y agoWage growth data is showing that the US wages grew by 10% over the same period we experienced the 10% inflation? Highly doubt it but would be happy to be proven wrong.