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Why Americans are bummed out about the economy (www.cnn.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/news@lemmy.world
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US consumers remain unimpressed with this progress, however, because they remember what they were paying for things pre-pandemic. Used car prices are 34% higher, food prices are 26% higher and rent prices are 22% higher than in January 2020, according to our calculations using PCE data.

While these are some of the more extreme examples of recent price increases, the average basket of goods and services that most Americans buy in any given month is 17% more expensive than four years ago.

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[–] 17 points 2 years ago (2 children)

the average basket of goods and services that most Americans buy in any given month is 17% more expensive than four years ago.

That’s 4% per year

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    And now much has pay gone up?

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    They claim it's gone up more than that, but I'm very curious where they're getting these numbers.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Here's US bureau of labor statistics:

    https://www.bls.gov/charts/usual-weekly-earnings/usual-weekly-earnings-over-time-total-men-women.htm#

    Pay went up faster than inflation compared to before the pandemic

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    That graph shows real wages as being flat for the last 24 years, and even the bump you mentioned was barely noticable and fell back to baseline in like a year.

    What would the chart look like when we exclude billionaires, C-suite executives, and everyone else who gets paid to own stuff instead of working for a living?

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Well is it average or median?

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  • [–] -3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Median is an average.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I can't tell if you're joking.

    Difference between median and average

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    It’s gone up more than 4% per year for the past 3 years. Even the article mentions a 5% increase when accounting for inflation. Though that seems high; the article is a mess.

    BLS:

    • Compensation costs up 4.0 percent from December 2020 to December 2021

    • Compensation costs up 5.1 percent from December 2021 to December 2022

    • Compensation costs for civilian workers increased 4.2 percent for the 12-month period ending in December 2023

    Obviously this is flawed as we don’t have data for December 2024. 2019-2020 wasn’t a great time overall, but really we need the data for March to March, etc.

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  • [–] [S] 10 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    This was at my grocery store the other day in the LA area.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    It's literally just wheat meal with honey, it costs literally 12 cents a box to make.

    The packaging is more expensive.

    But capitalism says 'lol it's ok to charge whatever!'.

    And 1/3 of the internet will defend them for 'reasons'.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    Where did you get "it costs literally 12 cents a box"? Is that a random number for effect or do you have some insider knowledge and know that for sure?

    Either way is fine with me, just curious because it seems like a very small amount after paying for the raw materials, the workers wages, the shipping costs, and the grocery store overhead, etc.

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  • [+] -9 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    And 1/3 of the internet will defend them for 'reasons

    I'm one of the people that often jumps in on posts like these. It's hardly defending them, hear me out.

    I'm not in the us, I looked at that picture for 45 seconds straight to understand what's wrong with it, I assume it's the price but I have no idea what that shit is so I had to read all the words on the package to understand if it was another issue..

    The good news is that your life doesn't depend on eating this shit. Don't like the price, don't buy it.

    I hate how a serious issue, prices are going up is diluted down by people bringing in stupid arguments like Starbucks "coffee" costing a fortune or Netflix jacking up prices. My point I am not defending Graham, Starbucks nor Netflix, just stop buying overprinting that you don't need or if you really do, stop complaining.

    Now if we want to talk about the price of actual groceries, like fruit vegetables and meat we can all have a serious convo

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    https://www.walmart.com/search?q=honey%20maid%20graham%20crackers&typeahead=honey%20maid

    When I choose a Walmart in LA, it says that they have it for $4.68. That might just be the particular store charging more, rather than stores in the area in general.

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