Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are metaverse gonna replace lack of owning a house (and travel) soon? /s
Maybe you could just live in a coffin and jack into a more spacious metaverse simulation of an apartment /s
lol, this will actually happen.
Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation
481–490 of 859 posts
Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation
#482Earlier quoted context omitted.
So what You are saying is You and your partner are Dual Income No Kids or (D.I.N.K.s) and still struggling to get by? Now is the time to make some changes, You probably both have cell phone contracts totaling over $100 USD per month, chances are there is a just as much going out in other digital subscriptions, maybe You even have that stuff that makes your toilet water blue...literally flushing money away. IDK your s…
It's a nice fantasy, but you need to brush up on Amdahl's law and apply it to saving. Our rent is currently 25% of our joint take home pay. It's contractually tied to inflation and goes up every year. Housing goes to 40-50% if we buy, but half of that will be equity and the other half at least won't be making my landlord, who owns at least a dozen properties, even wealthier. And we're not DINKs by choice. We want kid…
>>>I've also heard this bullshit before from older generations, including my parents.
Mark those words my friend...There is truth in them and one day not too long from now that same BS will be coming out of your mouth, I guarantee it!
On a side note, put some of your savings into physical precious metals it may very well be the only thing that will allow You to prosper in the next decade.
Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation
#483Earlier quoted context omitted.
An internet connected smartphone is not equivalent to the postal service (plus a pay phone or landline I guess). It may be that you use a computer or something else for the things that most people use smartphones for, wand so don’t realise how much they cover. You also didn’t mention having to go to the library (distance + fuel/car/travel costs + more time) for information, finding jobs from newspaper advertisements…
I’m curious - what personal experience with poverty in the USA do you have? I’ve found that shapes people’s perspective on the topic significantly.
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Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation
#484Earlier quoted context omitted.
> As a non-American, it's heartbreaking to see efforts to unify the underclass completely derailed by this ridiculous race war. Yeah, well, it's not like things are much better in Europe. Far-right parties are now mainstream in most major EU countries, and their n.1 priority is exactly the same. Signed, a Brexit victim.
The far-right parties in Europe are usually focused on immigration rather than race. Look at the Brexit parties in the UK, the big enemies were the Poles. And the FN/RN in France has always taken pains to show that it is "pro-black" (and anti-brown..)
We saw this coming. I read predictions of a right wing backlash to immigration as a kid. In the 80s.
Even in the USA, the nation of immigrants, where we assimilate immigrants the best (comparatively), increased immigration has always leads to a reactionary backlash.
Being very pro-immigration, a big of Matthew Yglesias's One Billion Americans thesis, I have no clue how to move forward.
Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation
#485Earlier quoted context omitted.
> people just really want the right to reign Many people do. I see this as a dangerous problem. Weimar Germany also really wanted the right to reign and it didn't turn out well. The party here was founded in part by two literal Nazis and a bunch of skinheads. I don't really care what people want when they want them to rule.
I'm caught in a (philosophical?) dillemna though: I don't want the right to rise to power because I fear for the future of freedom, but I would be repressing freedom by ostracising/excluding the right from electoral eligibility. Is technocracy the answer? Have some kind of determinable objective truth rule? How do we mitigate for failure to identify the objective truth in that case? .. and on continues the shower tho…
I've always viewed the popularity of the far-right as being a result of a general sense of hopelessness that turns to resentment.
Right wing media feeds off that hopelessness and apportion blame to a convenient target, one that usually can't speak up for itself. The homeless, immigrants, benefits claimants are favourite examples.
At the same time they portray the people responsible for the decisions that lead to that hopelessness as uniquely competent by taking a tough approach on the scapegoats.
The only real way of reducing the temperature is to make those people more secure, financially and socially. You don't care if your neighbour is a Polish plumber if you're not worrying about making rent/paying bills.
Conservative parties normally won't enact the measures necessary to cool things down, since they typically benefit electorally and convincing those already in the pipeline is extremely difficult.
Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation
#486Earlier quoted context omitted.
>>As someone who does OK, but lives in reality (not the bay area), I feel a revolution coming. As some one who lives in India, where inflation is perennially high. I can assure you revolution is not coming, in fact not even a protest march. Revolutions needs a lot of hunger and suffering, its not things like milk going from being $9 to $12 a unit. The common man delays things like fighting for almost as long as they…
Culturally, the average person here in India is absolutely clueless about what freedom is. The idea of small government is non-existent in the minds of people. Based on hundreds of conversations with my red state friends, attitudes are very different. You may be right, but the comparison is missing many key details.
Workers in India have it rough, the concept of releasing letters[0] is quite offensive to my western ear. You give me permission to leave?
With H1B it's not much better in the US, lets say your job is taking advantage of you, working you 80 hour weeks, one day you decide that you want to go to your daughters big soccer game and they fire you for it. Find a new job in 30 days (?) or move out of the country. Children in the workhouses during industrial revolution had more mobility. Absolutely bonkers. Clearly designed to be explotative.
My Indian peers have been as good as my western ones on average. I understand the motivations, but you guys really don't have to put up with this. If anyone should revolt it's them.
Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation
#487Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do you mean? He is currently a U.S. Senator. There aren’t many circles more elite or powerful than that.
Plus he is a multi-millionaire.
What does being a multi millionaire allow one to do? An old couple with a few million saved up for the rest of their life is protected against health risks and some inflation, but they are not likely going to be able to spend sufficiently to influence others.
Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation
#488Earlier quoted context omitted.
> most Americans are significantly worse off since the 1970s I think this is obviously false and hurts the credibility of the rest of this comment. There are many pitfalls with measuring long-term inflation. How much did an internet connection cost in the 1970s? What about a computer? What about a smartphone? These modern technologies make peoples lives much better and were somewhere between impossible and impossibly…
> I think this is obviously false and hurts the credibility of the rest of this comment. The answer to the question of “are we better of than we were in 19xx” is somewhat subjective. Take your points: cars are faster/safer/more comfortable/more fuel efficient and houses are bigger and better. Ok so cars and houses are better today than 1970, but how does that relate to us? 1970 Average salary/median house cost/median…
I think the important numbers here are the salary and housing cost ones.
In 1970 the average house could be purchased for less than 2 years of salary. Today it costs 5.8 years of salary. The cost of housing has sky rocketed relative to income. Housing is the largest bill for the vast majority of people and it eats a massive portion of their take home. Likewise the cost of a vehicle has seen a very large increase percentage wise and very often transportation is the 2nd or 3rd largest cost for a family. So if housing and transportation costs are vastly more expensive then its stands to reason that financial pressure has increased proportionally on most people reducing quality of life. Arguments about 'having cell phones' means we are better off now make no sense. Another thing to consider with that argument is all of those cell phones are built in China where most manufacturing jobs have fled leading to the collapse of an industry that used to fuel the middle class and could comfortably provide a living and sense of pride for so many people.
Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation
#489Earlier quoted context omitted.
Poverty is not just about absolute purchasing power adjusted for location and time. There is also very much an unspoken social context, sometimes even codified into law. In 1970, obviously nobody expected you to own a smartphone because it didn't exist. Noone had access to such a thing. Not so in 2021 western Europe. The example very much holds in that sense. You could fully participate in society without that expens…
Seems like you are talking about social inequality (a zero sum game) vs poverty (a non zero sum game) The idea that no one was expected to own cell phones so they didn’t enrich our lives is clearly false. Can apply this to any technological advance. So for eg. in the 1800s no one expected you to own a car. So the invention and subsequent technology driven deflation of car prices didn’t make everyone’s lives better.
> Seems like you are talking about social inequality (a zero sum game) vs poverty (a non zero sum game)
The two are not opposed. There is significant overlap significantly in many ways, even in the way government treats the very definition of poverty. In most countries, you'll find that poverty is defined as a percentage of median income.
Let me try to rephrase to make this more tangible. The minimum of things and services I need to procure to get minimally acceptable social inclusion is lower in some contexts than in others. 1970 versus 2021. Silicon Valley versus rural Latvia. I hope you get the point.
> The idea that no one was expected to own cell phones so they didn’t enrich our lives is clearly false.
I was certainly not claiming that! Cell phones or cars can clearly enrich the lives of those able to afford them. Their existence also creates a potential gap between haves and have-nots though.
Or to formulate it more sharply, you couldn't be poor because of not being able to afford a cell phone in 1970. You can be poor because of not being able to afford a cell phone in 2021. Does that mean a cell phone is a bad thing? Of course not!
Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation
#490Earlier quoted context omitted.
> How about the ability to drive around with GPS? Maps, and the ability to read them. > Or stay easily in touch with family living far away? Phones, you know good old land lines > Taking photos of your baby and having it stored on the cloud for free? Why do I need physical photos stored in the cloud? > The ability to learn almost anything for free? Have ya heard of libraries? Does technology make these more convenien…
> Maps, and the ability to read them. You basically need another passenger with you otherwise you'll have to do a lot of stops. I'd even say its a bit risky to drive like that. > Phones, you know good old land lines So you are saying having a high def video call with my brother living across the world, for free, is just like calling him in the 60s? It used to be crazy expensive to call abroad. And you couldn't see! >…
> You basically need another passenger with you otherwise you'll have to do a lot of stops. I'd even say its a bit risky to drive like that.
Oh, FFS. Pre-GPS, I would look up my destination on a map or street atlas and learn the route. If a portion was especially tricky, I might jot down a few reminders, or pull over before that leg and review the map.
Is GPS a wonderful convenience, especially with traffic monitoring & such?
Hell yeah, I love it and wouldn't want to go back to maps without a damn good reason.
But don't pretend it's somehow vital.
> So you are saying having a high def video call with my brother living across the world, for free, is just like calling him in the 60s?
The vast majority don't use video calling.
Still, constantly available communication is, IMO, a huge net positive.
> Do you physically develop all your photos?
That was obviously how it worked before ubiquitous digital cameras.
Photo situation is better today, though I might argue that the low marginal cost of each photo leads to people robbing themselves of vivid memories of what they're seen. There's some research that supports that idea, though I don't have a reference immediately on hand.
> Come on now. Try learning C++ in a library, good luck with that.
That's exactly what I did. Checked the ARM out of the library. Eventually bought my own copy when I decided it was worth it.
As much as I love the wealth of information available on the net, I sometimes miss how good libraries used to be.