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by BurningFrog 509 days ago
It's easy to get discouraged by The News, which will always focus on things going badly. That generates clicks, but it's not a neutral sample of larger trends.

The last decade has increased US GDP per person by more than 50% (yes, adjusted for inflation), and launched many innovations making live better and safer.
1 comments
wslh 509 days ago
> The last decade has increased US GDP per person by more than 50% (yes, adjusted for inflation), and launched many innovations making live better and safer.

I think what you're referring to is the calculation of US GDP per capita, which is an average. However, this doesn't mean that the typical individual has experienced a 50% improvement in their income or well-being. The distribution of economic gains matters, and GDP per capita doesn't capture that. This is a significant difference.

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BurningFrog 509 days ago
In theory, you could be right. In practice, it's hard to make the math come out that way.

Basic facts: GDP is how much value a country produces. It is also close to how much it consumes, aside from some marginal adjustments, which I doubt have changed much over this decade.

If income distribution had changed drastically, it could still be true that average people didn't see any of that 50% increase, but I don't see any signs of change on such dramatic scale.

So yes, I do think the typical individual has experienced a 50% improvement in their income.

For "well being", the change is probably much smaller. Happiness doesn't come from money...

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BoiledCabbage 508 days ago
Well this seems pretty easy to check, has inflation adjusted median household income also gone up by 50% during this period of 50% GDP growth?

It turns out it hasn't, it's only gone up by 25%. Which is clearly better than zero, but definitely not the expected amount.

But I'd add one more item, housing costs have skyrocketed during that time. And while overall inflation has gone up notably, I believe housing costs have gone up more - and I wouldn't be surprised if most of those gains in income have been eaten up by having to pay higher housing costs. So all in all possibly no net gain.

[1] - https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N

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