Live data from Hacker News

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

theguardian.com

61–70 of 133 posts

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

#61
It's interesting that the map for minimum wage earner housing affordability is what you might expect (really unaffordable near big metro areas), and kind of smooth gradations. But the "average renter" map has a lot more local variability, with extremely unaffordable metrics for some counties that are really out of the way. What's special in Skamania County, WA, or Pike County, PA, or Park County, CO?

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

#64
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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

>From my experience it understates the very real price increases I am seeing where I am

the "very real price increases" you're seeing is clouded by the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heuristic. The CPI uses a fixed basket to weigh the different price increases. Meanwhile in your head, your brain weighs price increases based on the shock factor. That lyft ride that got 2x more expensive? That's going to have much more mental weight than your rent that stayed about the same, even though the rent makes up 40% of your monthly spend and your lyft rides makes up 5%.

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

#65

And the number of singles is projected to continue to increase. We need to go back to committed relationships again, life is so much easier with 2 incomes.

or we could pay people more so they earn a living wage

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

#66
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Did you expect them to be the same, in order for there to be a causal effect?

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

#67
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who needs facts when they have feelings?

What I feel is prices on everything in every store and online going up, while packaging shrinks. Who's doing your shopping? There's a big difference between facts and government published statistics.

>Who's doing your shopping? There's a big difference between facts and government published statistics.

CPI adjusts for package sizes.

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

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

They're also still losing money. I'd be surprised to ever see cheap prices again from them.

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

#70
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anyone who didn't get a 20% raise this year lost money Inflation numbers that just came out measure year-over-year inflation at 5.4%. And last July we had artificially depressed demand during the pandemic.

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

The fact that inflation is going up exactly as much as it should kind of destroys that idea. There are lots of conspiracy theorists that say real inflation is something like 10% per year and the government is suppressing it into a convenient range for the sake of specific policies.

Well, if it were that simple they would simply report another manipulated inflation number and sleep well at night.

Let's assume we accept that there is actually double digit inflation of some sort then what meaning would it have to the economy or monetary policy? Honestly, I'd say it would have zero relevance. Ok, houses went up and now we have to make money scarce and make people unemployed because of that? Building a house creates jobs, selling a house doesn't.

Post reply on HN