4 ms·

I'm out of my element here, but isn't the stagnation in wages counterbalanced by the availability of cheap goods and services? Sure, wages may not have gone up

I'm out of my element here, but isn't the stagnation in wages counterbalanced by the availability of cheap goods and services? Sure, wages may not have gone up over the past 50 years, but your dollar can buy a heck of a lot more now than it could 50 years ago, thanks to cheap overseas labor, automation, technological innovations, etc. It makes sense that wages would reflect this, too. People agree to work for a wage that will let them afford the quality of life they are comfortable with. If you can live as comfortably as you could 50 years ago at roughly the same wages, then there's no reason they would need to rise. The final point is that the labor pool has roughly doubled since 1950 because women entered the work force. It's now more common to have two incomes per home than one, and it's only natural that wages would decrease accordingly. Again, it's because workers set a bar for themselves in terms of quality of life, and they simply want to reach that bar. If it can be done with two salaries buying cheap goods and services, then wages don't need to rise.

eli_gottlieb 14y ago
I'm out of my element here, but isn't the stagnation in wages counterbalanced by the availability of cheap goods and services? Sure, wages may not have gone up over the past 50 years, but your dollar can buy a heck of a lot more now than it could 50 years ago, thanks to cheap overseas labor, automation, technological innovations, etc. Has the Consumer Price Index gone down?
chii 14y ago
> it's because workers set a bar for themselves in terms of quality of life, and they simply want to reach that bar. If it can be done with two salaries buying cheap goods and services, then wages don't need to rise. thats a post facto explanation, which i don't believe can be used to make predictions. I mean, will wages rise if suddenly, due to post peak oil, that cost of living suddenly became high? I think the real reason wages didn't rise is because it didn't have to (from the point of view of the employer) - there are people willing to keep the same wage. In other words, people are becoming more and more worthless, especially unskilled workers (automation and robotics etc). Its a sad fact, but its true, and its a problem that needs fixing. Probably only fixable by better gov't policies on education.

eli_gottlieb 14y ago

chii 14y ago

> it's because workers set a bar for themselves in terms of quality of life, and they simply want to reach that bar. If it can be done with two salaries buying cheap goods and services, then wages don't need to rise. thats a post facto explanation, which i don't believe can be used to make predictions. I mean, will wages rise if suddenly, due to post peak oil, that cost of living suddenly became high? I think the real reason wages didn't rise is because it didn't have to (from the point of view of the employer) - there are people willing to keep the same wage. In other words, people are becoming more and more worthless, especially unskilled workers (automation and robotics etc). Its a sad fact, but its true, and its a problem that needs fixing. Probably only fixable by better gov't policies on education.