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"This is patently false" vs https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/US_Real_Household_Median_Income_thru_2012.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wik

by VLM 11y ago

"This is patently false" vs https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/US_Real_Household_Median_Income_thru_2012.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/US_Real_... And note that being a .gov production, they have every motivation to make things look better than they are. And thats just looking at permanent decline in top row revenue numbers, obviously increasing medical, real estate, and education costs by 10% annually for decades lowers standard of living because merely paying $30K for a leg cast doesn't mean its 100x better than paying $300 for a leg cast, it just means middlemen siphon out more money. Or paying $600K for a house that used to sell for $60K doesn't mean the standard of living increased by a factor of 10.

happyscrappy 11y ago
Median income is not standard of living. The reason income inequality is trumpeted so much around here is because it is one the few remaining metrics that still work for the worn out everything is getting worse trope. Standard of living is the entire scope not your cherry picked datapoints.
- VLM 11y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_of_living https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_of_living "The standard of living includes factors such as income, quality and availability of employment, class disparity, poverty rate, quality and affordability of housing, people, hours of work required to purchase necessities, gross domestic product, inflation rate, number of holiday days per year, affordable (or free) access to quality healthcare, quality and availability of education, life expectancy, incidence of disease, cost of goods and services, infrastructure, national economic growth, economic and political stability, political and religious freedom, environmental quality, climate and safety." (And edited to add, "happyscrappy is, indeed, happy" did not appear on the list, although I am happy for your happiness, because life should be fun) Make my day, pick some and provide unbiased data showing improvement, much as I've done for decline in income. Wikipedia is weird so I don't know what "people" or "climate" means in the context of standard of living. Also GDP is totally irrelevant to individuals and any way that it could be relevant is already handled in the previously listed economic indicators.
  - happyscrappy 11y ago
    >Make my day, pick some and provide unbiased data showing improvement I won't need any sources because I believe you will be able to stipulate: Access to virtually any info at your fingertips Safer water, food, health care, workplace etc. Increased protection of LBGT Increased consumer protections, remedy of fraud Longer lifespan, medical breakthroughs, better protections and access for the blind and deaf I could literally go on forever. It takes a pretty stubborn dogma to insist things are getting worse.

by VLM 11y ago

happyscrappy 11y ago

Median income is not standard of living. The reason income inequality is trumpeted so much around here is because it is one the few remaining metrics that still work for the worn out everything is getting worse trope. Standard of living is the entire scope not your cherry picked datapoints.

VLM 11y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_of_living https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_of_living "The standard of living includes factors such as income, quality and availability of employment, class disparity, poverty rate, quality and affordability of housing, people, hours of work required to purchase necessities, gross domestic product, inflation rate, number of holiday days per year, affordable (or free) access to quality healthcare, quality and availability of education, life expectancy, incidence of disease, cost of goods and services, infrastructure, national economic growth, economic and political stability, political and religious freedom, environmental quality, climate and safety." (And edited to add, "happyscrappy is, indeed, happy" did not appear on the list, although I am happy for your happiness, because life should be fun) Make my day, pick some and provide unbiased data showing improvement, much as I've done for decline in income. Wikipedia is weird so I don't know what "people" or "climate" means in the context of standard of living. Also GDP is totally irrelevant to individuals and any way that it could be relevant is already handled in the previously listed economic indicators.
- happyscrappy 11y ago
  >Make my day, pick some and provide unbiased data showing improvement I won't need any sources because I believe you will be able to stipulate: Access to virtually any info at your fingertips Safer water, food, health care, workplace etc. Increased protection of LBGT Increased consumer protections, remedy of fraud Longer lifespan, medical breakthroughs, better protections and access for the blind and deaf I could literally go on forever. It takes a pretty stubborn dogma to insist things are getting worse.