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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)

#71

Post by massysett »

abeppu wrote: post #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?

Park County Colorado is in ski country. Low-paying jobs and rich people bidding up what little housing there is.

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

#72

Post by sul_tasto »

Kim_Bruning wrote: post #44

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?

we’re not in charge anymore

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

#73

Post by abeppu »

massysett wrote: post #71
abeppu wrote: post #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?

Park County Colorado is in ski country. Low-paying jobs and rich people bidding up what little housing there is.

Ah, I was wondering b/c it's adjacent to Lake County which has both higher median renter wages and substantially cheaper rent.

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

#74

Post by imtringued »

mindslight wrote: post #20
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.

The problem is that worries about inflation are only ever trotted out when relief for individuals is being considered. Money printing to juice the markets happens without concern or debate. The bailout that caused all the current asset inflation happened reflexively after a single day drop in the stock market at the start of Covid. Executives had looted companies by loading them up with debt that relied on optimistic…

This reminds me of the overseas cash reserves that corporations hold. They basically wait for a tax holiday. Now that inflation is there, that strategy has an obvious problem.

You're right about consumer stimulus. The worst thing about inflation is that it is unpredictable. Pumping the markets with trillions without meaningfully impacting inflation just causes more unpredictability. Just do "QE for the people", hit your inflation goal and then never talk about low inflation again.

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

#75

Post by AnimalMuppet »

abeppu wrote: post #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?

In Park County, CO, a lot of what's available for rent are vacation homes.

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

#76

Post by Retric »

lend000 wrote: post #66
imtringued wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I expect them to have some actual correlation over time for a causal effect look at say 1960 to 1970 and the graphs have nothing in common. Hell some peaks look years early others late but most don’t have anything to do with each other.

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

#77

Post by lend000 »

Retric wrote: post #76
lend000 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I expect them to have some actual correlation over time for a causal effect look at say 1960 to 1970 and the graphs have nothing in common. Hell some peaks look years early others late but most don’t have anything to do with each other.

Bretton Woods ended in 1973. Any time before then, the money supply was strongly impacted by the government's gold reserves.

The only real anomaly in that chart is 2011, which is concealed by the fact that CPI is a terrible inflation metric when wealth inequality is changing (see the increase in equities and real estate during that period).

For reference: CPI is based on a survey to see what median Americans are buying, the prices of those things, and how much of them they are buying. Naturally, people change their spending habits when prices rise to buy cheaper items, and this cancels out the how much of them they buy to end up with an effective metric of "how much are median Americans spending" (hint: basically all of their money). So CPI measures the median American's income, which is why there can never be any changes in "real wages" [0].

[0] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us...

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

#78

Post by imtringued »

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.

You're the one losing out on useful statistics.

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

#79

Post by smeej »

rubyfan wrote: post #65
pcbro141 wrote: post #62

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

This is why using the minimum wage statistics is so misleading.

The minimum wage in my state is just the federal $7.25, but even fast food and big box retail hire people at a minimum of $16/hr, if they can even get them to show up for that anymore.

Nowhere, and I literally mean nowhere, in my area is hiring anyone for "minimum" wage.

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

#80

Post by Retric »

lend000 wrote: post #77
Retric wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I expect them to have some actual correlation over time for a causal effect look at say 1960 to 1970 and the graphs have nothing in common. Hell some peaks look years early others late but most don’t have anything to do with each other.

Bretton Woods ended in 1973. Any time before then, the money supply was strongly impacted by the government's gold reserves. The only real anomaly in that chart is 2011, which is concealed by the fact that CPI is a terrible inflation metric when wealth inequality is changing (see the increase in equities and real estate during that period). For reference: CPI is based on a survey to see what median Americans are buyi…

How about 1980 to 1986 where inflation tanked 90% and M2 started at 8% peaked at over 12% then fell back to 8%. The charts for those years have nothing in common.

I get it, M2 really seems like it should correspond with inflation but at minimum you need to adjust for economic growth. As we produce and consume more we need more money handle those transactions.

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