For reference if my math/numbers lined up working full time at 8.50hr puts you above the bottom 10%. So we trying to get pumped at people going from 7.25 to 7.95?
I think youâre using household numbers here instead of wages per worker, which this is.
Also yes Iâm happy with the improvement
Iâd bet that 40th - 80th describes most posters ITT, which explains why the lived experience of those posters isnât great.
Worst part for white collar workers wasnât flatish real wages over those years, it was getting rope a doped. Was like a year where any idiot with a pulse could literally sit at home in their underwear and field multiple job offers, maybe even getting paid to do multiple jobs,
Then bam, all of a sudden layoffs everywhere.
I think it has shit all to do with that and more to do with what political media you consume
You really really really need to get it through your head that the economics department at the University of Louisville made me this way. I want you to imagine that you had gone to school to be a chiropractor instead of an MD and how you would feel a couple years into that program when you realized that the whole thing was just quackery.
Yup I donât have to imagine.
Iâm sure this was driven my median real income raises and not a pushback against a narrative
https://x.com/usa_polling/status/1770933824907604208?s=46&t=N0_fcOKIYYmlCS2e4YShsQ
Yeah Iâm sure the dudes making $7.95 are over the moon to vote for more of the same, they just need the ruling class and the rich to beat them over the head about how great theyâre doing for the next seven months.
1.3% of people are paid the min wage, letâs stick to reality please
And letâs be real small wage increases for people in the 90+% donât really matter. Sure theyâre nice but they have money in stocks/other investments, probably a house unless they want to live in a metro area. If their wages donât increase they can still live a comfortable life as long as they arenât reckless with their money. The bottom 10 or 20% need to see a much larger increase than 12% to make a significant difference. Using percentages for this is dumb and just a way to mask reality.
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Downplaying whatâs roughly 1-2k per year for a bottom 10% earner is a take I did expect to see on this board.
Holy shit the delusional bubble that 40% of the country lives in to think weâre in a recession!
No one is making $7.95 an hour(maybe student workers or jobs programs for people who canât hold down a regular job would be the only exceptions Iâve seen). I live in a low cost of living area and you canât hire anyone for under $15/hr here. When Iâm in bigger cities, I regularly see entry level zero skill work being advertised for over $20/hr starting wage.
We effectively got the $15/hr minimum wage without it becoming a law.
Thatâs 2.6 times as many people as got student loan relief, and you (rightly) want him to brag about that.
The range of the bottom 10% is $7.25 to $13.52. This is the range of people youâre saying âahemâ about as if this is some huge accomplishment. $13.52 x 40 x 52 = $28,122. Thatâs $2,343 a month.
As per otatopâs post quoting the EPI:
Even with 12.1% wage growth since 2019, it is still difficultâif not impossibleâfor a 10th-percentile worker to make ends meet. According to EPIâs Family Budget Calculator, whether a worker is making $12.19 an hour or $14.59 an hour, they are still not earning enough to attain a modest yet adequate standard of livingâa basic family budget for a single individual with no childrenâin any county or metro area in the United States (EPI 2024b).
These people arenât the winners of the last five years. Their rent skyrocketed, their food costs are up, and theyâre still barely scraping by.
$2,343 a month - I just looked all over the Philly region in Zillow. If youâre willing to live in the most dangerous areas, you can find a 1br for $800/mo. If you donât want to be unsafe, $1,000 if youâre lucky with your apartment search and $1,200+ if not. Call it $1,000 and youâre left with $1,343 a month.
Corn Flakes (value size) and skim milk are about $8 per 2,000 calories. So subsisting on that is $243 a month. Thatâs the baseline of a really shitty survival food wise.
Utilities are going to run probably $150ish, transportation is $100/mo for a public transit card but that probably means a higher rent to live in a safe part of the city - more if we want a car and car insurance and cheaper rent farther out. So letâs call it $250.
Now weâve got $700 left, at least $100 is going to healthcare and thatâs if they never pay a copay. Youâve got to throw in a cell phone, at least some money for clothing (say $50/mo) and household goods ($100/mo), a cell phone ($40/mo), and miscellaneous because shit happens ($100/mo). That leaves $310.
Mind you this theoretical person magically has no debt yet, and theyâre sitting in the dark at night with no TV, no internet, and no entertainment budget, eating nothing but Corn Flakes. So obviously thatâs where the $310 and the shit happens $100 is going, then the first time shit happens they get some credit card debt they canât afford running at 25-30% interest, and thatâs going to balloon and theyâre fucked.
And these are the big winners youâre very keen on having Biden tell how great their improvements are!
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Or maybe theyâre the big winners with their 12% real wage increases since 2019, either sitting in the dark eating Corn Flakes or having no money left over because they want Netflix and protein, thinking the economy sucks because for them it does.
Weâre not in a recession, but the top 1-10% are taking way more than their share of the gains over time so the bottom half is getting less and less.
If youâre at subsistence level constantly, who cares if itâs a recession or not? It always feels like one and itâs been getting worse, not better.
Also if anyone hasnât lived through grinding at subsistence level, itâs a stress I wouldnât wish on anyone but itâs goddamn AWFUL. Thereâs never any relief from it.
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Thatâs because itâs basically subsistence level now. When the free market doubles minimum wage, thatâs the indicator that it is a subsistence level wage.
Lmao $30k is not subsistence level. It is if you decide you need to spend like a millionaire while making $30k. The issue is financial literacy sucks, even amongst most in this thread.
When they actually are living off tens of thousands per year of local/state/federal government entitlements itâs a much smaller increase of âtotal compensationâ (if you will) than the raw % increase income. Obviously more money is always better but the government is primarily caring for these folks in bottom 10% not their own income.
An argument that economy is roaring allowing us to generate lots of local/state/federal taxes to sustain programs helping the bottom 10% is much more convincing than super small absolute increases in income.
I know some version of this has been said, but folks ITT are talking past each other because some people think this thread is âHave the last 40 years of neoliberal economic policies produced an acceptable outcome?â and some people think this thread is âIs it rational that people generally think the economy is worse now than it was in March 2019â?
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Not sure what is meant by âbaseline of really shitty survival foodâ but name brand boxed cereal is far from the efficient frontier of calories per dollar.