Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 133 posts

Re: Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

#41

Post by azinman2 »

tomc1985 wrote: post #28
gruez wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Anyone who didn't get a 20% raise this year lost money. but inflation (as measured by CPI) isn't anywhere close to 20%?

I have tons of anecdata suggesting worse… I just filled up a propane tank, 3lbs of fuel was almost $10 whereas a year ago it was $5-$6 The price of a California burrito most places here is almost $10, they were closer to $7/$8 before pandemic started spiking beef prices It’s getting harder and harder to keep the bill at Costco under $100 Uber/Lyft rides that used to be $10 cost $15-$20 during non-surge hours And so o…

Uber/Lyft have IPOd and no longer are being pumped artificially, and they need to make up after a year of drastically lower revenue. Lots of things increased in price but that doesn't always mean it's tied to something larger.

Re: Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

#42

Post by frankbreetz »

autokad wrote: post #24

> "The report’s Housing Wage is an estimate of the hourly wage full-time workers must earn to afford a rental home at HUD’s fair market rent without spending more than 30% of their incomes. Fair market rents are estimates of what a person moving today can expect to pay for a modestly priced rental home in a given area. The kind of home that can be rented for the fair market rent is in decent condition, but it is not…

This is a good point, when you take into account two income households, more then half can afford the average apartment. It would make sense that the lowest 10% of paid workers would live in the cheapest 10% of apartments. I wonder how that picture looks.

Re: Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

#43

Post by DudeInBasement »

NationalPark wrote: post #18
Grakel wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inflation statistics are lies. Look at individual metrics in housing and food.

All food CPI is up 2.1% this year, housing of course is much more but that's what the article is about so where's the lie?

Food items are swapped out for lower cost 'substitutes'. I can't imagine someone cooking those numbers

Re: Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

#44

Post by Kim_Bruning »

It used to be understood in the 2nd half of the 20th century that a modern western society needs a strong middle class.

That's the proof that the west actually works, and at the time was the only way to fend off the communist hordes.

I wonder what happened to that strategy?

Re: Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

#45

Post by Overton-Window »

gruez wrote: post #26
Grakel wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prices up 2.1%, I would like to see the average package size change. Shrinkflation is happening to everything on the shelves.

package size is factored into inflation.

Package constituents are not.

Re: Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

#46

Post by tomc1985 »

azinman2 wrote: post #41
tomc1985 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have tons of anecdata suggesting worse… I just filled up a propane tank, 3lbs of fuel was almost $10 whereas a year ago it was $5-$6 The price of a California burrito most places here is almost $10, they were closer to $7/$8 before pandemic started spiking beef prices It’s getting harder and harder to keep the bill at Costco under $100 Uber/Lyft rides that used to be $10 cost $15-$20 during non-surge hours And so o…

Uber/Lyft have IPOd and no longer are being pumped artificially, and they need to make up after a year of drastically lower revenue. Lots of things increased in price but that doesn't always mean it's tied to something larger.

So you’re saying they will lower prices after they’ve made up for the shortfall? I doubt it. That would be leaving money on the table, and that’s positively unamerican!

Re: Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

#47

Post by gruez »

tomc1985 wrote: post #38
gruez wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have tons of anecdata suggesting worse… And that's flawed due to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heuristic [thing] increases in price: "omg inflation!" [thing stays the same]: "meh" result? "omg inflation!"

But… that is inflation. Prices are going up. Such is the anecdata? Is this effect global? Who knows, it’s anecdata

>But… that is inflation

did I say it wasn't? The BLS freely admits that inflation is higher than usual at 5.4% YOY. What's being disputed is whether it's 5.4% as the BLS claims or 20% as GGP claims.

>Is this effect global? Who knows, it’s anecdata

The problem is that listing a bunch of things that's gone up by 20% doesn't mean the overall CPI went up 20%. CPI is a weighted measure, so the things you listed only contribute 1% to it, then it can go up 2000% and the CPI wouldn't be anywhere close to the claimed 20%.

Re: Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

#48

Post by azinman2 »

tomc1985 wrote: post #46
azinman2 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber/Lyft have IPOd and no longer are being pumped artificially, and they need to make up after a year of drastically lower revenue. Lots of things increased in price but that doesn't always mean it's tied to something larger.

So you’re saying they will lower prices after they’ve made up for the shortfall? I doubt it. That would be leaving money on the table, and that’s positively unamerican!

That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that not only do they not have VC cash mania going on, they're also really hit by Covid. The only way they'd start lowering prices is if demand spikes, things normalized out, and Uber/Lyft wage war on each other as capitalism is supposed to work (but in reality they'll just pick turfs).

Re: Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

#49

Post by tomc1985 »

gruez wrote: post #47
tomc1985 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But… that is inflation. Prices are going up. Such is the anecdata? Is this effect global? Who knows, it’s anecdata

>But… that is inflation did I say it wasn't? The BLS freely admits that inflation is higher than usual at 5.4% YOY. What's being disputed is whether it's 5.4% as the BLS claims or 20% as GGP claims. >Is this effect global? Who knows, it’s anecdata The problem is that listing a bunch of things that's gone up by 20% doesn't mean the overall CPI went up 20%. CPI is a weighted measure, so the things you listed only contr…

I read the gp comments as questioning the relevance of the CPI. From my experience it understates the very real price increases I am seeing where I am

Re: Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

#50

Post by aardvarkr »

Grakel wrote: post #31
aardvarkr wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LOL now this is fearmongering at it's best (worst?). You don't have to count the number of articles to measure inflation (surely this is a joke, right?), instead you can go straight to the source to see that prices rose 0.9% in June and 0.5% in July. It's at 5.3% for the year[0]. Come on @Grakel, do better [0] https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/us-consumer-prices-rose-...

Ahh yes, those government published facts, love it.

Ahh yes, those conspiracy-based "alternative facts", love it. Post some evidence or GTFO.
Post reply on HN