251–260 of 327 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Credit card debt in the U.S. alone hit 1 Trillion https://www.cnet.com/personal-finance/credit-cards/credit-ca...
This can be a misleading statistic. A lot of people use credit cards as a substitute for cash, and pay off the balance every month. This is accounted as "debt" but in a practical sense it is not. Me, I use the credit card as a 6 week interest-free loan, plus getting the cash back discount.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the biggest opponent of minimum wage increase are the one who's in that category. 43% of Ohio voters voted against their own interest last week. Majority of them are in lower side of the income.
>43% of Ohio voters voted against their own interest last week. Majority of them are in lower side of the income. What makes you think that raising the minimum wage would be in their interest? A comprehensive study[1] that factored in hours worked found that even though average hourly wage increased, hours worked went down, so total pay actually went down. [1] https://www.nber.org/papers/w23532
It is paranoid of me to envision conversations planning this, a conspiracy amongst corporations? I don't remember ever seeing prices rise so steadily, so quickly (and I am old).
You don't need much of a conspiracy when virtually every industry, everywhere has gone through significant consolidation.
It's even a problem for the military. Private contractors are gouging the US Government to the tune of *billions* and we can't do anything about it because critical parts, once produced by a few competitors, now have only one producer.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a _LOT_ of debt being added, household debt is up to something like 17 trillion dollars from like under 10 trillion pre pandemic. IMHO vehicles are huge drivers of debt. There are almost no cars under $30k now, and the average sale price of new cars is pushing up near $50k. This is for bog standard stuff like Hondas and Fords, not luxury cars. Used cars are incredibly expensive too. People are financing cars…
There are now officially 10 year car loans, 40 year mortgages.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Currently trying to buy a Corolla Hybrid (base). The best out-the-door quote I got so far is $28.5k, the MSRP is $23k. So yes, you are looking at almost $30k for the most basic car.
$30k for the highest quality most basic car. Other brands surely have cheaper basic options, and although I might not recommend going all the way to a Stellantis/GM car, a Ford/Honda/Mazda might be available for less and still be acceptable for quality.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a _LOT_ of debt being added, household debt is up to something like 17 trillion dollars from like under 10 trillion pre pandemic. IMHO vehicles are huge drivers of debt. There are almost no cars under $30k now, and the average sale price of new cars is pushing up near $50k. This is for bog standard stuff like Hondas and Fords, not luxury cars. Used cars are incredibly expensive too. People are financing cars…
There are now officially 10 year car loans, 40 year mortgages.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> If for whatever reason you think that driving a compact car is beneath you Armchair economist-shoppers, I love them. The other day a guy told me housing in NYC was absolutely affordable. Managed to find a bedroom for rent at $2k/mo. Sure bro, let me stuff my family of four into a shared 1br apt and then have my kids share a bathroom with some random guy in the other room. Sure, i'd do this if I was desperate...but…
I don't get the last part - nobody should have to put up with this. That's part of the problem - there are still some careers where people can "make it" and mentally say "well if you'd just done what I did, you'd be fine" I don't think that situation is fine for anyone, and we should reinforce that. It's just not ok. People stay in abusive relationships for housing, all kinds of negative shit. Nobody should be forced…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any reason you haven’t changed jobs? A company has at most one full review cycle to not keep up with market before I start looking.
Not OP but depending on how much job hopping you’ve done, you need a long stay on your resume so it might not be a great option.
But by definition, if he starts interviewing and gets an offer, the company who gave him an offer doesn’t care about the length he has been at his current employer.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
$30k for the highest quality most basic car. Other brands surely have cheaper basic options, and although I might not recommend going all the way to a Stellantis/GM car, a Ford/Honda/Mazda might be available for less and still be acceptable for quality.
Ford doesn’t even sell sedans anymore!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Restaurant workers are probably the biggest winners over the past three years. Their wages are a large component driving inflation.
The wage-price spiral is a myth. The cause of inflation is, as usual, the government running the printing press and printing "free" money. Then, the pesky Law of Supply and Demand devalues the extra money, which we call "inflation".
The pesky law you mention is indeed the issue. Not enough people are willing to work in restaurants, and/or not enough people are willing to modify their habits to avoid eating in restaurants when the prices increase.
Whether "printing" money was a cause of generalized inflation is a matter of debate. It's hard to argue it didn't have some effect, but I think you'd probably expect the inflation to have been worse if it were just dependent on the amount of dollars in the system. Given the tightness in the labor market and reduced workforce participation, it seems to me that the pandemic was a large-scale, impromptu test of the UBI, and society failed it very badly. Turns out people will actually not work if they don't have to, and robots are not yet prepared to pick up the slack.