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Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

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Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#331

Post by shafoshaf »

DonnyV wrote: post #315
ajross wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a good chunk of the population live paycheck to paycheck. Is that not true in other economies? Was that not true at some (mythical?) point in the past? What number, specifically, would you like to see before you're willing to declare "The Economy is Good"? Basically the point you made is an example of the Economics of Vibes. It's non-falsifiable and allows you to justify any position you want. We're about to start…

Family needs to make $107,700 a year to own a home. Apartment in a moderate-cost area is about $70,000-$100,000/year. Median salary in the US is $59,300 What considered poverty level in the US for: 1 person: $15,060 2 people: $20,440 3 people: $25,820 4 people: $31,200 According to recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, around 50% of Americans make $70,000 or more annually. That means about 50% of the US can not af…

I wouldn't consider $5,833 a moderate cost rent. ($70k / 12) 3 bedrooms inside the loop in Houston is ~$2,100 / month. https://www.apartments.com/vintage-at-18th-street-houston-tx...

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#332

Post by revnode »

DonnyV wrote: post #321
sangnoir wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But is the majority of the population thriving? Looking at the numbers: low unemployment, strong consumer spending, average income increasing at a rate higher than inflation, I'd say the majority is doing better than most years. They might not feel that way though, and we've been in a continuous vibes-cession since COVID.

Family needs to make $107,700 a year to own a home. Apartment in a moderate-cost area is about $70,000-$100,000/year. Median salary in the US is $59,300 What considered poverty level in the US for: 1 person: $15,060 2 people: $20,440 3 people: $25,820 4 people: $31,200 According to recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, around 50% of Americans make $70,000 or more annually. That means about 50% of the US can not af…

> That means about 50% of the US can not afford a place to live.

So 50% of the US are homeless?

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#333

Post by lolinder »

sangnoir wrote: post #291
luizfzs wrote: post #255

But is the majority of the population thriving? It is very misleading (at best) to say the economy is strong when a good chunk of the population live paycheck to paycheck. A handful of companies are thriving, but barely any of its employees.

> But is the majority of the population thriving? Looking at the numbers: low unemployment, strong consumer spending, average income increasing at a rate higher than inflation, I'd say the majority is doing better than most years. They might not feel that way though, and we've been in a continuous vibes-cession since COVID.

HN in particular has a deflated view of the economy because our sector was going through such a big bubble from 2014 on, which got even bigger for a brief window around the pandemic. We in particular had a long way to fall back to reality, so our personal economic outlook is worse than it's been for a while, even if the rest of the economy is looking up.

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#334

Post by gruez »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #201

Tech is the problem. The internet is global (or perhaps two or three regions), and winner takes all - so global value creation is being experienced everywhere, but being monetised in the US stock market. Take tech out of the equation and the US is pretty much on par with EU, and China and India are just burning the coal for everyone else.

>China and India are just burning the coal for everyone else.

The actual effect of this is far less than you think. While it's true there's some amount of "exporting" of emissions from rich countries to china/india, the effect is small. Consumption based emissions (ie. accounting for imports) for US is only 11% higher than territorial emissions. Meanwhile the difference for China is also 11% (in the opposite direction, of course).

https://ourworldindata.org/consumption-based-co2

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#335

Post by lief79 »

DonnyV wrote: post #315
ajross wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a good chunk of the population live paycheck to paycheck. Is that not true in other economies? Was that not true at some (mythical?) point in the past? What number, specifically, would you like to see before you're willing to declare "The Economy is Good"? Basically the point you made is an example of the Economics of Vibes. It's non-falsifiable and allows you to justify any position you want. We're about to start…

Family needs to make $107,700 a year to own a home. Apartment in a moderate-cost area is about $70,000-$100,000/year. Median salary in the US is $59,300 What considered poverty level in the US for: 1 person: $15,060 2 people: $20,440 3 people: $25,820 4 people: $31,200 According to recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, around 50% of Americans make $70,000 or more annually. That means about 50% of the US can not af…

The average apartment in a moderate-cost area is 5833 per month? Where is that number coming from?

The average rent for an apartment in the United States is between $1,559 and $1,748 per month, depending on the source (google AI). This would be $21000 per year in rent.

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#336

Post by layer8 »

RajT88 wrote: post #320
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #201

Tech is the problem. The internet is global (or perhaps two or three regions), and winner takes all - so global value creation is being experienced everywhere, but being monetised in the US stock market. Take tech out of the equation and the US is pretty much on par with EU, and China and India are just burning the coal for everyone else.

The US has the highest disposable income per capital out of the whole world: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per... For all the workers are living paycheck to paycheck, they are sitting on a gigantic monetizable pile of money. Consider this: the most popular languages in YouTube videos are English and Spanish. And did you ever notice how most videos, when they talk about units, talk about Dol…

> English and Spanish

Part of the causality is the other way around: The largest language communities attract the most monetization. Europe being compartmented into 24+ languages is one reason that it’s harder to monetize.

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#337

Post by DiogenesKynikos »

asdasdsddd wrote: post #107
spiderfarmer wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU is number one in quality of life and that’s all that matters to me. If we work just hard enough to maintain and maybe even improve it, other countries can do their pissing contest.

That's what the chinese thought in the 18th century :). A fun quote for the europeans here: "Our land is so wealthy and prosperous that we possess all things. Therefore, there is no need to exchange the produce of foreign barbarians for our own." - The emperor at the height of Qing China

The Emperor is not necessarily the guy to go to for the man-in-the-street view from China.

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#338

Post by dkasper »

DonnyV wrote: post #321
sangnoir wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But is the majority of the population thriving? Looking at the numbers: low unemployment, strong consumer spending, average income increasing at a rate higher than inflation, I'd say the majority is doing better than most years. They might not feel that way though, and we've been in a continuous vibes-cession since COVID.

Family needs to make $107,700 a year to own a home. Apartment in a moderate-cost area is about $70,000-$100,000/year. Median salary in the US is $59,300 What considered poverty level in the US for: 1 person: $15,060 2 people: $20,440 3 people: $25,820 4 people: $31,200 According to recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, around 50% of Americans make $70,000 or more annually. That means about 50% of the US can not af…

You’re forgetting lots of people rent. Lots of people can’t afford to own, and almost all of them rent. The other factor is dual, or even 3+ incomes in families living together.

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#339

Post by keybored »

majormajor wrote: post #261
mesk wrote: post #227

I'm thinking a lot lately about which country would be best for my future, and somehow US is never there. Maybe for me without family yes, but otherwise I see it like there, I would be one illness away from bankrupcy, one crazy kid with a gun away from family tragedy, one away from . Sure, being in top 10% is cool, but will my kids be also so lucky? And the middle class in the US already thinks they are struggling (h…

The thing about the US is that it's very unevenly distributed. So it depends on what you'd be doing and how much money you'd be making / already have. If you have a professional-class job the US is often the best place in the world to be for illness. You'll have a fairly high salary (especially comparing globally) and an insurance plan with an out of pocket max that is probably 10-15k per year (or much less, for most…

> The thing about the US is that it's very unevenly distributed. So it depends on what you'd be doing and how much money you'd be making / already have.

The Veil of Ignorance, anyone? Even invented by an American.

People here need to consider the state of a society without spending 80% of the bytes on the what-if of being a 135+ IQ individual with a passion that coincides with the work tasks of amazingly successful megacorporations based on the West Coast. At least when we’re supposed to be talking in the abstract.

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#340

Post by hombre_fatal »

DonnyV wrote: post #321
sangnoir wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But is the majority of the population thriving? Looking at the numbers: low unemployment, strong consumer spending, average income increasing at a rate higher than inflation, I'd say the majority is doing better than most years. They might not feel that way though, and we've been in a continuous vibes-cession since COVID.

Family needs to make $107,700 a year to own a home. Apartment in a moderate-cost area is about $70,000-$100,000/year. Median salary in the US is $59,300 What considered poverty level in the US for: 1 person: $15,060 2 people: $20,440 3 people: $25,820 4 people: $31,200 According to recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, around 50% of Americans make $70,000 or more annually. That means about 50% of the US can not af…

That's not a measure of an economy though. Housing and especially dense affordable housing isn't widely built in the US and the supply is artificially constrained, usually by NIMBY politics.
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