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

theguardian.com

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

#51

Post by dougmwne »

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…

I don't think it follows that "the average house is affordable to the average person." A 1br apartment is certainly not the average home. And paying more than 30% of your income on housing might sound like it'll reduce your savings and investments if you are earning a high income where other essential expenses might only take another 20% of your income, but for a low income person, it would mean not being able to afford healthcare, food, transportation. If you can't see the problem, then you don't know much about how the other half lives.

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

#52

Post by notJim »

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…

A lot of this stuff is transitory, and there are signs it's starting to come down. However with the rise of delta, I think we're in for a rocky ride ahead.

Edit: in the spirit of worker solidarity though, if you can convince your boss to give you a 20% raise by showing them the M2 money supply, I fully support you in that.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonmoore/2021/08/12/cpi-data-...

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

#53

Post by OrvalWintermute »

A one bedroom where ?

The issue of cost relativism is key.

In low cost flyover country, mortgages can be cheaper than rent. This is why CAP [1] rates in Middle America are so attractive.

20 an hour would be fine for a one bedroom in many places in lower cost areas.

I don't think 20 an hour will cut it in LA, SF, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, DC, or NYC, but you can always double up.

[1] https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/va...

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

#54

Post by wombatmobile »

Didn't people start America because the places they came from hundreds of years ago, Britain, Germany, France etc. were so oppressively unequal with respect to wealth and liberty?

So, hundreds of years later, what have they created? Something better? Something similar? Something same same but different?

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/top-worst-paid-jobs-206169...

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

#55

Post by notJim »

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

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

You say this like no one measures inflation, but in fact we do measure inflation quite carefully, and it's nowhere near 20%.

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

#56

Post by notJim »

frankbreetz wrote: post #16
Grakel wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Read: cherry pick whichever values are highest to keep the inflation narrative going.

The data disagrees with my hypothesis, therefore the data must be wrong.

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

#57

Post by imtringued »

lend000 wrote: post #33
Retric wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

M2 money supply doesn’t correspond very closely with inflation. https://www.longtermtrends.net/m2-money-supply-vs-inflation/

Your link doesn't support your conclusion. Growth in M2 clearly precedes increases in inflation by 1-3 years.

Look at the second chart:

"M2 Money Supply vs. CPI and GDP"

220x increase in the money supply vs 18x increase in CPI

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

#58

Post by RhysU »

finexplained wrote: post #11
Grakel wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

20% of dollars in circulation were printed in 2020 and the inflation is filtering down. Also inflation statistics are intentionally blurred. Look at housing prices or other individual metrics.

Inflation isn't directly (that is one-to-one) tied to the amount of money printed. That's a simplistic view of a complicated phenomena. What matters is demand aggregated among many individuals. You can print any sum of money and if the person you give it to decides not to spend it, it doesn't affect demand and thus doesn't cause inflation. Meanwhile you can stop printing money, and if demand increases inflation can s…

But what if we handed the printed dollars to a large number of individuals to spend immediately to cover their income shortfalls in unprecedented government largess?

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

#59

Post by notJim »

Grakel wrote: post #3

Anyone who didn't get a 20% raise this year lost money. As the fed pumped cash, the stock market gains kept the rich from feeling the inflation that is being handed to everybody else with a bow on it. For months everyone has naysayed the idea that money printing would have a negative effect, now just Google "inflation" news articles.

> For months everyone has naysayed the idea that money printing would have a negative effect, now just Google "inflation" news articles.

I did, they all say inflation is transitory largely due to supply chain issues, and that it looks like it's starting to come down.

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

#60

Post by tayo42 »

gruez wrote: post #39
tayo42 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that inflation and not things like supply chain problems or availability?

>supply chain problems or availability If supply chain problems or availability cause prices to go up, that's still inflation. They might call it transitory inflation or whatever, but they won't say "well that's just supply chain problems so we won't count it for this month".

I see, guess it was a bad question. In the context of this discussion the comment chain seems to be talking about money supply as being the source of inflation. Seems like there's different types of inflation. I see some other comments trying to clarify that too
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