Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jcranmer 59 days ago
> Great, have they increased by as much as inflation?

Yes, real wages have been on the rise for the past few years. With the exception of the somewhat artificial COVID peak, median real wages are the highest on record: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q
4 comments
bsder 59 days ago
The "inflation basket" keeps getting rejiggled to hide things.

Rent as percentage of income is up. Groceries as percentage of income is up. Medical insurance as percentage of income is up. etc.

People aren't stupid. They can see and feel this.

Yes, it's nice that computers and phones are super cheap and powerful. That doesn't help people eat.

link
autoexec 59 days ago
> Yes, it's nice that computers and phones are super cheap and powerful.

It was nice, but that's quickly changing now that the consumer market is being ignored by chip makers who'd rather sell to companies building data centers

link
Der_Einzige 59 days ago
Yeah it does help them eat. Give me a computer and I’ll earn all the food I need.
link
bobthepanda 59 days ago
There’s also the question of, “what’s inflation?”

A lot of major necessities like healthcare and housing have outpaced CPI.

link
cperciva 59 days ago
Yes, and a lot of major necessities haven't. CPI is an average -- of course some things will be higher.
link
spixy 59 days ago
Necessary stuff (houses, healthcare, education) have outpaced CPI, and generally it is becoming more expensive.

Unnecessary stuff (electronics, appliances, other tech) did not, and generally it is becoming cheaper (Planned obsolescence is another topic though...)

link
cperciva 59 days ago
Do you consider food and clothing to be "unnecessary stuff"?
link
momoschili 59 days ago
Unfortunately this is using BLS data that captures largely urban areas and fails to account for a large and quickly growing segment of the workforce that also tend to be lower earners - self-employment (eg uber drivers, doordash, gig working, contractors). This is definitely an over-estimate of real wages, a best case scenario of sorts.

With the backdrop of it coming from the organization that is supposedly supposed to be managing inflation... :P

link
shimman 59 days ago
Wow wages barely rising after 60 years of wage suppression, the wealth is truly trickling down now! Just ignore that the top 1% stole $50 trillion from the bottom 90%:

https://time.com/5888024/50-trillion-income-inequality-ameri...

link