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Inflation

Started by SGOS, January 05, 2017, 09:53:35 AM

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SGOS

I ran across this CPI CALCULATOR on the Internet.

Enter a dollar amount for any year, and see what it's worth in any other year.  I chose to enter $50 in 1967 (my first real job) to find out how much money I would need in 2016 to buy that same amount of goods:  $50 = $361.  Prices have gone up by a factor of 7.

OK, well La Dee Da.  What really matters is does your income keep up with inflation?  In 1967, the top pay scale for "my first real job" was around $10,000.  Today, as near as I can approximate, the top pay for that same job is $63,000.  Pay has gone up by a factor of 6.

Salary increased 6 times.
Inflation increased 7 times.

Keep in mind that my figures are from memory and sources which may not be up to date.  Also, that particular job is not representative of all jobs.  Some careers may have gained purchasing power, and some my have lost purchasing power.  My guess is that most have lost, but I don't know that for sure.

Also, people change careers, often to better paying jobs, so if you can remember what you made when you started working, and you know what you make today, you can see how you personally did against inflation.

What this doesn't tell us, and I think would be even more interesting, is how the average middle class wage has held up to inflation over the years.  My intuition tells me, not good.

Hydra009

#1
Quote from: SGOS on January 05, 2017, 09:53:35 AMWhat this doesn't tell us, and I think would be even more interesting, is how the average middle class wage has held up to inflation over the years.  My intuition tells me, not good.
Your intuition is correct.  Just barely keeping pace with inflation or falling behind.

That's what I don't think a lot of these people opposed to raising the minimum wage understand.  $15/hour must seem like a king's ransom to people who remember their first job paying $5/hour.  But prices have gone up since then.  Drug prices have gone up, college tuition has gone up, and rent is too damn high.

Mike Cl

Quote from: Hydra009 on January 05, 2017, 10:11:21 AM
Your intuition is correct.  Just barely keeping pace with inflation or falling behind.

That's what I don't think a lot of these people opposed to raising the minimum wage understand.  $15/hour must seem like a king's ransom to people who remember their first job paying $5/hour.  But prices have gone up since then.  Drug prices have gone up, college tuition has gone up, and rent is too damn high.
Fuck--my first job paid a dollar an hour!  My first full time job, at age 24 (not counting the Army, which was $80 a month) was $6,700 a year.  Times have changed.
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?<br />Then he is not omnipotent,<br />Is he able but not willing?<br />Then whence cometh evil?<br />Is he neither able or willing?<br />Then why call him god?

SGOS

W
Quote from: Hydra009 on January 05, 2017, 10:11:21 AM
Your intuition is correct.  Just barely keeping pace with inflation or falling behind.

That's what I don't think a lot of these people opposed to raising the minimum wage understand.  $15/hour must seem like a king's ransom to people who remember their first job paying $5/hour.

And in minimum wage jobs, we are talking about jobs that were poverty level to begin with.  These are people who have to choose which bill to pay and which to put off for another month.  Making choices between a flat screen TV or a new set of tires is beyond their normal experience.

Baruch

Quote from: Hydra009 on January 05, 2017, 10:11:21 AM
Your intuition is correct.  Just barely keeping pace with inflation or falling behind.

That's what I don't think a lot of these people opposed to raising the minimum wage understand.  $15/hour must seem like a king's ransom to people who remember their first job paying $5/hour.  But prices have gone up since then.  Drug prices have gone up, college tuition has gone up, and rent is too damn high.

Yes, but upper class people and their middle class lackeys ... particularly the middle class who are under declining standard of living conditions ... want cheaper shit, and don't mind throwing the working poor under the bus.  The white collars should be shot by a firing squad of blue collars.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Baruch

Quote from: SGOS on January 05, 2017, 10:33:05 AM
W
And in minimum wage jobs, we are talking about jobs that were poverty level to begin with.  These are people who have to choose which bill to pay and which to put off for another month.  Making choices between a flat screen TV or a new set of tires is beyond their normal experience.

There is a club.  You and I are not in it.  If you aren't in it, then the Establishment says ... FO somewhere and die already.  Keep voting for psychopaths and criminals.  Keep shopping at Walmart ... cretins!
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

aitm

My first job was 1.50 an hour...but I was a lifeguard and lived at home with the parents.....i didn't care if I ever got paid...
A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

Journey_To_Mars

We are now also at a point where you will have to start competing against a robot, and hell, what business wouldn't want to upgrade to a robot. They don't need to be paid and they have no cares about emotions depending on how they are programmed. Ultimately, I see a rise of people seeking out jobs for science, maths, and philosophy eventually because they will require more thought. Although, what would prevent from a developed AI taking those jobs as well, something able to perform the job of human thought at the speed of a computer. The only thing that I see competing this would be entangling the brain with a computer, something that will also most likely happen within the next 50-250 years.
"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." - Voltaire

Maths is a game where you make the rules and play around within them.

Baruch

Quote from: Journey_To_Mars on January 05, 2017, 10:59:20 PM
We are now also at a point where you will have to start competing against a robot, and hell, what business wouldn't want to upgrade to a robot. They don't need to be paid and they have no cares about emotions depending on how they are programmed. Ultimately, I see a rise of people seeking out jobs for science, maths, and philosophy eventually because they will require more thought. Although, what would prevent from a developed AI taking those jobs as well, something able to perform the job of human thought at the speed of a computer. The only thing that I see competing this would be entangling the brain with a computer, something that will also most likely happen within the next 50-250 years.

Maybe.  I see cyborgs as more likely than androids.  I am a cyborg myself, my eye lenses are artificial now.  With cyborgs, there is still a man-in-the-loop .... like Daleks.  The point of automation at this point is ... 10% of society has no use for 90% of society, and want to get rid of them.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

wolf39us

Quote from: Hydra009 on January 05, 2017, 10:11:21 AM
Your intuition is correct.  Just barely keeping pace with inflation or falling behind.

That's what I don't think a lot of these people opposed to raising the minimum wage understand.  $15/hour must seem like a king's ransom to people who remember their first job paying $5/hour.  But prices have gone up since then.  Drug prices have gone up, college tuition has gone up, and rent is too damn high.

I received an email from someone named John Hawthorne who had asked me to post an updated article regarding this topic listed Why Insurance Premiums Rise Faster Than Salary

This is what he had to say:

Hello there,

My name is John Hawthorne and I had noticed that on http://atheistforums.com/index.php?topic=11151.0 you reference this article about how average workers are getting effected by the lack of wage growth found here. I just wanted to contact you and show you my recently published article on the topic of how the cost of insurance premiums are rising faster than people salary. If you like you could use it as a reference on the page I mentioned or if you rather you may republish the article.

Here is a link to my article. Hope you enjoy.

Thank you,

John.


Sorginak

#10
Instead of living costs remaining the same when the minimum wage increases, living costs increase when people earn more than previously.   That is the problem. 

SGOS

#11
Quote from: Hydra009 on January 05, 2017, 10:11:21 AM
Your intuition is correct.  Just barely keeping pace with inflation or falling behind.

That's what I don't think a lot of these people opposed to raising the minimum wage understand.  $15/hour must seem like a king's ransom to people who remember their first job paying $5/hour.  But prices have gone up since then.  Drug prices have gone up, college tuition has gone up, and rent is too damn high.
My first job paid 85 cents an hour, and that was a special short term thing that represented a financial gold mine compared to similar jobs.  My first real job, summer employment for the Forest Service, paid $1.95 an hour at the age of 18, which was representative of similar jobs.  I could have worked at the lumber mill and made $2.25, but I enjoyed Forest Service work more.

Sorginak

My first job was as a college English tutor.  I cannot remember how much I made, though.

Mike Cl

My first paid job was $1 an hour hoeing (yep--I was a ho) garlic--that was done with a chisel because the young shoots were very tender.  Stoop labor is fun.  I also picked strawberries for 25 cents a halack--6 boxes twice the size of those in the store.  Stoop labor is fun.  I also got $1.25 an hr in college as a dishwasher.  My first real job was the US Army--$85 bucks a month!!  And just for me!!!
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?<br />Then he is not omnipotent,<br />Is he able but not willing?<br />Then whence cometh evil?<br />Is he neither able or willing?<br />Then why call him god?

Baruch

Quote from: Sorginak on April 10, 2017, 01:53:22 PM
Instead of living costs remaining the same when the minimum wage increases, living costs increase when people earn more than previously.   That is the problem.

Wage push inflation isn't the only kind. On that basis, if we reduced all wages to zero, the resulting deflation would make every product and service free ;-)  There isn't a simple relationship between wage level and price level.  Basically, if you manage to get blood out of a turnip, an vampire will show up to claim it ;-)
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.