Location, location, location. There isn't is big enough pay increase in my profession to offset the increase in taxes and housing costs to get me to move to California.
"average household income is somewhere around 55k "
that's median, not average, and it was up to 59K in 2017
but
"Adjusted for inflation, current median household income has finally edged past its 1999 level which was close to, but under, $59,000, inflation-adjusted.
... FLAT for 20 years, and flat before those 20 years, essentially FLAT for 40 years.
flat because the oligarchy is getting 90%+ of all new wealth, now they got the HUGE tax cut, and horrible inequality will get a lot worse.
Paychecks Lag as Profits Soar, and Prices Erode Wage Gains
Corporate profits have rarely swept up a bigger share of the nation’s wealth, and workers have rarely shared a smaller one.
For the first time in a long while, workers have some leverage to push for more.
Yet many are far from making up all the lost ground.
Hourly earnings have moved forward at a crawl, with higher prices giving workers less buying power than they had last summer.
Last-minute scheduling,
no-poaching and
noncompete clauses, and
the use of independent contractors are
popular tactics that put workers at a disadvantage.
Threats to move operations overseas, where labor is cheaper, continue to loom.
And in the background,
the nation’s central bankers stand poised to raise interest rates and deliberately rein in growth if wages climb too rapidly.
Workers, understandably, are asking whether they are getting a raw deal.
Businesses have been more successful at regaining losses from the downturn.
Since the recession ended in 2009, corporate profits have grown at an annualized rate of 6.5 percent.
Several sectors have done much better. On Friday, for example, banks like JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup reported outsize double-digit earnings in the second quarter.
Yearly wage growth has yet to hit 3 percent.
And when it does, the Federal Reserve — which has a mandate to keep inflation under control even as it is supposed to maximize employment — can be expected to tap the brakes.
As Fed policymakers have explained, allowing the economy to run too hot “could lead eventually to a significant economic downturn.” And persistent wage increases, unlike growing profit margins, are considered a signal that the heat is on.
The thinking goes like this: Better to inflict some pain now, in the form of higher joblessness and sluggish wage growth, than to allow more pain later.
The conventional wisdom that higher wages inevitably lead to higher prices, however, is flimsy,
some economists argue.
“It theoretically makes sense,” Michael R. Strain, an economist at the conservative American Enterprise Ins ute, said of the link between wage increases and inflation, “but
empirically, it’s increasingly difficult to find a real strong link.”
A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, for example, concluded that
“the connections among wages, prices, and economic activity are more akin to a tangled web than a straight line,” and that
“the ability of wages to help predict future inflation is limited.”
there is plenty of evidence that workers have yet to receive their fair share of this most recent expansion
— or even the previous one.
labor’s share of the nation’s income has sunk to the lowest levels in decades.
If workers’ share had not shrunk, they would have had an additional $532 billion, or about $3,400 each, said Jared Bernstein,
In the tug of war between workers and investors, Americans living on a paycheck have seldom been left with a shorter end of the rope.
Economists have offered various explanations for why workers are not doing better:
the steady weakening of labor unions,
the ability of American companies to find cheaper labor abroad or automate further,
piddling productivity growth and the rise of superstar companies that are extremely efficient with a relatively small labor force.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/13/b...er=rss&emc=rss
Having destroyed unions, Capital is ing over Labor, as it always had done wherever it could.
And Capitalists' very own toy, the Fed, is always ready to kill Ms of jobs if Labor takes too much of Capital's profits.
rent, health care and college are increasingly unaffordable.
I can think of one good reason why:
muh trickle down...
That said, why do you envy the rich and hate America, tbh?
if one sticks up for the 2/3rds of humanity that works for a living, even rhetorically, it must be because one hates America.
You just need to strap on your boots and make it to the top 1/3... then you can live off the 2/3 and don't have to hate America!
the whole point of life is to acquire assets and build wealth so you don't have to work and so you can love America.
if only everyone understood this, everyone could get rich and nobody would have to work and everybody could love America.
the damn poors ruin everything!
Lol. The whole point is to acquire enough assets/wealth to escape America
you can be an exploiter, or you can be exploited.
law of the jungle.
http://undocs.org/A/HRC/38/33/ADD.1“About 40 million [Americans] live in poverty, 18.5 million in extreme poverty, and 5.3 million live in Third World conditions of absolute poverty.”
It has the highest youth povertyrate in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and thehighest infant mortality rates among comparable OECD States. Its citizens live shorter andsicker lives compared to those living in all other rich democracies, eradicable tropicaldiseases are increasingly prevalent, and it has the world’s highest incarceration rate...
where in the world is it easiest to get rich?
https://evonomics.com/where-in-the-w...t-to-get-rich/
yet the ppl who live on welfare...look like they are living fine...given that they dont have a mortgage or whatever like health insurance commitments...
The other problem here is that we've lost sight of what the American dream even means in this country. Quality of life is what should matter most, not simply getting rich.
your evidence for Welfare Queens in Cadillacs?
Last edited by boutons_deux; 08-14-2018 at 01:54 PM.
Same that whine about not having 32 hour work weeks are the same about not having enough to live on.
A 40 hr week is a Wed. morning, not bragging or complaining just stating why sometimes the 1% or the 10% is where they are.
they mostly get there through inheritance. working 40 hours isn't a good predictor of social mobility at all.
Statistics of that? Maybe the one percent, doubtful the top 10.
That's so hard to do as "Quality of life" is subjective to most. Toss in the "keeping up with the Joneses" compe ive lifestyle that social media creates and American society in general (we're obese consumers) and it's a way too abstract and diverse concept to put anything quan ative behind people losing sight of the American dream.
A dream that for many debt slaves... is out of reach.
The boomers are discovering that to their dismay. They have not collectively saved enough.
Most really wealthy attribute "dumb luck" to their success. Statistics tend to support that. US social mobility is low, putting the myth to the "American dream" ethos.
Our country is structured to benefit the wealthy, and hyper-wealthy in particular. That is why almost all economic growth in the last few decades have gone exclusively to them.
It is just the way it is.
it's not just the way it is; it's the result of politics and policies.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine...ocracy/559130/
The 9.9 Percent Is the New American Aristocracy
You are so, very, very wrong about that, and provably so.
An article, if you have the time, and inclination to re-assess your underlying assumptions.
True. My statement belies my overall pessimism that their power will be challenged.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
