Discussion: Western Living Standards Then and Now
I think I know how you will respond to the question
The above tweet has generated a lot of discussion, especially those of us who were around during the 1990s.
I can speak for myself when I say that his description almost to a tee described my family during that decade, and my parents were proletarian factory workers!
What about you? And what about now? How much income and education is required to make the above condition doable today?
Notes Of Interest
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First.
The divergence is driven by the Fed and financialization. The real wages of labor have not gone up much over the last twenty years. But the equity markets are up huge, and interest rates are lower, which has driven up the value of real estate and almost all assets. So CEOs, private equity, VC, bankers have taken almost all the gains, and the elite absolutely know that - in every field.
Also, energy prices have gone up, and the P/E world has made many things much more expensive. Healthcare, education, concert tickets, high end vacations, etc. while the Fed claims that there is no inflation because you can buy a much larger TV.
A good microcosm of that is skiing. Vail Resorts went bust, Apollo bought it, took it public in the early 2000s. Vail has bought out other ski places, and jacked up prices. The cost of a ski ticket is much higher than it was 10 years ago. Vail Resorts makes a lot of money in real estate development, so they drive prices up for hotel rooms, restaurants, and all the stores in the ski village. What P/E did to skiing, people do in many other industries, and that's why without financial assets pumped by the Fed, everyone is poorer.