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0 pointsmouse_2y ago0 comments

Experts and the educated class will say it's a complex and multifaceted issue. I say it's because the fraction of the sweat of our brow we are entitled to is shrinking ever smaller into nothingness.

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amw2y ago

Absolutely. I feel like the most important infographic for understanding the last fifty years or so of our economy is the one where productivity skyrockets to the moon while wage stays put.

And the most important _book_ for understanding that _infographic_ is Capital Vol. 1.

michaelteter2y ago

I think you could expand on this a bit, because I want to understand... I think I might be close...

mouse_OP2y ago

In the 1970s/80s, an hour of minimum wage could afford you about 7 big macs. Now, it will not even buy you one. Real wages have dropped to an all time low, and it is harder than ever to account for yourself as a working class citizen. Circumstances for the average American have devolved to nightmarish levels, and it seems that it is only going to get worse.

It has been said that inflation is not a bad thing because median wages will increase alongside it. In practice that has not been the case. In 2014, when I was asking for $15 an hour, my rent was $740. Now that I'm getting $15 an hour, my rent is $2,400 and I need several room mates just to get by. Inflation is not a bad thing if wages increase in correlation to it, but if they DON'T, then it functions as a tax on our future. The vice is tightening, things are becoming miserable, and a growing number of our children and our future are turning to hard drugs and escapism as a way of coping with it.

The 1% has managed to enslave everyone else; people grow apathetic, and take drugs, because, really at this point, who cares?

bryik2y ago

> In the 1970s/80s, an hour of minimum wage could afford you about 7 big macs. Now, it will not even buy you one.

The cost of a Big Mac in 1986 was $1.6 according to the Economist's Big Mac Index dataset[0]. The minimum wage in 1986 was $3.35[1] according to the US Department of Labor.

So you could afford at most two Big Macs in 1986, not seven. Also you can definitely afford one big mac with an hour of minimum wage today (minimum wage: $7.25, big mac: $5.36).

0 - https://github.com/TheEconomist/big-mac-data/blob/master/sou...

1 - https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/history/chart

mahogany2y ago

It's good to keep the facts straight here, which is what you're doing. But it should be noted as well that the broader point being made has not been addressed. Even according to these adjusted figures, the ability to buy Big Macs with an hour of labor has decreased. Shouldn't it be increasing, as technology gets better and productivity increases? Where have the additional profits from productivity gain been going?

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