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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   25228 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 30, 2023

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Real incomes have gone up, not down. Inflation was high but there was also a corresponding increase in wages. Total wealth is also up.

Which doesn't compensate? Wage increases were some 6% 2022 compared to about 9.5% inflation, in 2023 were looking at 5% wage increases and 4% inflation.

Maybe people are so used to increasing wages and stagnant prices that even mild decreases or wages and prices keeping track feels like a decline?

Both average real incomes and real disposable incomes have beat inflation.

Maybe people are so used to increasing wages and stagnant prices that even mild decreases or wages and prices keeping track feels like a decline?

Perhaps, although the second point of the post was that the noticing is inexplicably much, much more severe by the party not occupying the White House.

Total wealth is also up.

From the post:

This translates to an increase in wealth of about $51,800 for the median American household over three years. Not bad! Median family net worth is now about $192,900.

Man, I'm really enjoying the increase in wealth that comes from a spiked monetary supply that added a hundred grand to the estimated price of my house. With all that extra net worth, I can do really cool things, like have basically zero opportunity to move in the near future because houses cost twice as much to finance as they did a couple years ago!

Seriously though, this stuff just comes across as incredibly tone deaf. Listing "wealth" in nominal dollars when the value of dollars is down substantially is silly. Treating an increase in the price of houses as wealth-building is the kind of thing only a dishonest economist could love. Ignoring that this extra $52K in net worth is offset by an enormous runup in government debt is short-sighted.

You don't need to buy a house to move. You are actually richer if your house increases in value.

My house increasing substantially in value actually makes me slightly poorer. My city decided they needed to perform an off cycle property tax evaluation, so my taxes have now gone up by a noticeable amount.

You can sell your house and have more wealth than before your house increased in value.

Equity in your house is only barely wealth. Sure, when you die or laughs retire, you might cash out. Or you could actually pay off the mortgage in 30 years, right before you retire. Maybe you can pay a variable rate starting at ~9% to access that "wealth". But for most people, all that extra "wealth" does for them is increase their property taxes.

HELOCs are a thing that let you turn home equity into actual cash.

Maybe you can pay a variable rate starting at ~9% to access that "wealth".

Nobody reads anymore do they?

why read when you can dunk on the outgroup and cover yourself in glory.

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