Most of that increase in spending is driven by housing costs, which have surged, Zandi told CNN in an email on Friday. He added that families are also spending more at the grocery store; on buying, maintaining and insuring vehicles and on recreational services like cable.
Of course, paychecks have also grown over the past two years — but not by as much as the cost of living.
Americans are paying more because companies raised prices during the pandemic and never decreased them, pocketing the extra.
Welcome to the new norm. We’re all getting fucked.
Companies have always been greedy, what’s new is that there were trillion dollar handouts to the upper classes while workers got almost nothing.
The Fed increased the money supply to prop up stocks, essentially giving cash to stock owners. 90% of stocks are owned by 10% of the population.
Average PPP loan forgiven is almost $100K, and that free cash only went to those doing well enough to own a business.
Meanwhile those handouts caused inflation, which effectively lowers workers pay and the real purchasing power of the minimum wage.
What a terribly written article. It makes it sound like all Americans suddenly have mortgages at the current 7％ when reality is most are sitting with current loans in the 3％ range and much lower payments. This headline assumes everyone is paying the current rates.
Most Americans pay rent, not mortgage. Rent changes every year/when the lease renews.Edit: I was wrong: https://www.rubyhome.com/blog/homeowners-vs-renters-stats/#:~:text=65.8%25 of the U.S. population,own%2C and 34.2%25 rent.
Why do these news corporations keep misspelling “corporate greed”?
That certainly explains why my savings is going the wrong direction despite no lifestyle changes.
Damn.
tldr: Inflation was 9% last year, and 3% this year
all this free profit for them is what is keeping the stock market inflated. but that’s getting ready to come down now too…
Median weekly earnings for full time workers were $899 in Q1 2019, $1107 in Q2 2023.
That’s $3895/mo to $4797/mo, so the median full time worker is earning an extra $902/mo in that time span.
I don’t know how he was calculating “typical household” or what quarter he was working with, my point is that the net dollar amount is pretty misleading for an article headline. It sounds like the typical household is $700 worse off, but they definitely are not.
We have an appropriate measure for answering this question, real wages. It’s below pre-pandemic numbers but it’s catching up as wages are currently rising faster than inflation.
The time period was over two years, not four. Two years ago it was $996/week in Q2 of 2021. That’s $4316/mo or a $481/mo increase in that span. Still not $700 a month worse off, but they are worse off.
I think you are reading the “stuck at 2019 levels” and reading that as the starting point of their assertion.
Is that like saying 354.50 more a month?
No, it’s $709 more per month. It’s just being compared to 2021.
tnx i read it wrong
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