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A New Record!

RandyForRubio

RandyForRubio

Well-Known Member
The median household income is now $61,372, which is a new record! 5th consecutive year where it has increased.

In addition:

Compared to 1975, the average household income per US household member has increased by 74% from $19,500 to $34,000, while the median household income per person has increased by 45% from $16,600 to $24,160. Without adjusting for household size, average household income increased by only 50% since 1975 (vs. 74% adjusted for average household size) and median income increased only 25% (vs. 45%), demonstrating the importance of adjusting for changes in household size when comparing median household incomes over time.




https://reason.com/blog/2018/10/01/...er-and-less-equ/amp?__twitter_impression=true

A little positivity for today :)
 
Yet despite the higher salaries its harder than ever to get by on a single income
 
fishonjazz said:
Yet despite the higher salaries its harder than ever to get by on a single income
Click to expand...
Yep. Like the housing crisis in California right now. The market is strong, so strong it is driving up not just the price to purchase a home (up about 30% on average in the last 2 years), but rental rates are skyrocketing. One house we considered renting 2 years ago when we moved here, at that time renting for $1950 per month, is on the market again, this time listed at $2300 per month. And landlords have been raising rents as leases come due to take advantage of it. It is ugly right now.
 
bigb said:
Much more correct
Click to expand...

Im doing it currently. Yet im working more than just about anyome to the point that my overtime is kinda like a second income i guess. Yet im still always broke and always living paycheck to paycheck. And im actually quite frugal and good with money. It sucks. Im scared of retirement and will probably work right up until the day i die. I would like to have a second child so my daughter could have a sibling but i cant afford another child.
 
According to some cost of living calculator I found online, it appears the cost of living has risen 2,500% since 1975. I’m not even sure that can be accurate.

Another site which calculates data has inflation having risen almost 500%. That seems right to me.

Based on that, have salaries increased accordingly?
 
Last edited:
JustTheTip said:
The median household income is now $61,372, which is a new record! 5th consecutive year where it has increased.

In addition:

Compared to 1975, the average household income per US household member has increased by 74% from $19,500 to $34,000, while the median household income per person has increased by 45% from $16,600 to $24,160. Without adjusting for household size, average household income increased by only 50% since 1975 (vs. 74% adjusted for average household size) and median income increased only 25% (vs. 45%), demonstrating the importance of adjusting for changes in household size when comparing median household incomes over time.




https://reason.com/blog/2018/10/01/...er-and-less-equ/amp?__twitter_impression=true

A little positivity for today :)
Click to expand...

I think, when adjusted for inflation, wages have gone down. This article also shows that there are more very rich but the middle class has decreased, and the poor have remained static (again, not adjusted for inflation so they have less buying power). To me this is not good.
Wes Mantooth said:
According to some cost of living calculator I found online, it appears the cost of living has risen 2,500% since 1975. I’m not even sure that can be accurate.

Another site which calculates data has inflation having risen almost 500%. That seems right to me.

Based on that, have salaries increased accordingly?
Click to expand...

No. As I recall from an article I read about a year ago (but don't have a link) that as of l2017, when you adjust for inflation, we were back to 1975 levels or something like that. Even the OP's article shows how the middle class is shrinking and the lower class has remained stagnant (not taking into account inflation as far as I can tell, meaning the poor have gotten poorer).
 
JAZZGASM said:
I think, when adjusted for inflation, wages have gone down. This article also shows that there are more very rich but the middle class has decreased, and the poor have remained static (again, not adjusted for inflation so they have less buying power). To me this is not good.


No. As I recall from an article I read about a year ago (but don't have a link) that as of l2017, when you adjust for inflation, we were back to 1975 levels or something like that. Even the OP's article shows how the middle class is shrinking and the lower class has remained stagnant (not taking into account inflation as far as I can tell, meaning the poor have gotten poorer).
Click to expand...

Yeah, I figured as much but I didn’t want to be too presumptuous.
 
I wish I could be excited, but I'm not seeing the benefits personally and I don't care about everyone else. ;)

Other than milk, which hasn't gone up a lot in the past 40 years, all of the standard pricing items have gone up by huge percentages. For example, tuition when I first went to college in 1978 at Weber State and then at Utah State was $850 for a year. Now it is $6342 for a year. My first apartment in Salt Lake City in 1984 rented for $270. That same apartment now rents for $1099. Average price of a car in 1975 was just over $3,000. Now it is over $30,000. The house I grew up in recently sold for over $200,000, but when we bought it in 1969 it cost $28,000.

Wages for anyone but the wealthy have certainly not kept up.

Depressingly, I make less now than I did 20 years ago. But that is more a product of my declining health than anything else.
 
LogGrad98 said:
Yep. Like the housing crisis in California right now. The market is strong, so strong it is driving up not just the price to purchase a home (up about 30% on average in the last 2 years), but rental rates are skyrocketing. One house we considered renting 2 years ago when we moved here, at that time renting for $1950 per month, is on the market again, this time listed at $2300 per month. And landlords have been raising rents as leases come due to take advantage of it. It is ugly right now.
Click to expand...

It is happening in Salt Lake too. I read recently that Utah has 250k more households than homes(including apts, condos,etc). That's a huge number considering we only have around 1 million homes.

As I see it there are 3 major components to this problem

Pent up demand from the recession
Restrictive zoning ordinances
Shortage of labor

There isn't much we can do about the first. We can relax zoning ordinances for residential buildings and we could encourage imigration to meet our manual labor demands.

We probably won't do either so... it's likely to get worse before it gets better.
 
JazzGal said:
Other than milk, which hasn't gone up a lot in the past 40 years, all of the standard pricing items have gone up by huge percentages.
Click to expand...

You couldn't make a more inaccurate statement. The opposite is true by just about every single measure (education excepted, and there is nothing we can do about limited resources although many prices there continue to decline as well).

USA spends the least % of disposable income on food than ever before. The trend has been down forever and will probably continue to do so until we hit the basement cost.
 
fishonjazz said:
Im doing it currently. Yet im working more than just about anyome to the point that my overtime is kinda like a second income i guess. Yet im still always broke and always living paycheck to paycheck. And im actually quite frugal and good with money. It sucks. Im scared of retirement and will probably work right up until the day i die. I would like to have a second child so my daughter could have a sibling but i cant afford another child.
Click to expand...
Hey, just don't get divorced. The ex will be taking nice vacations while you sit by and take it up the ***. You get penalized for living frugally, trying to retire debt and not having a lot of other expenses. I expect to die at my desk. Or at least hope that's the case. Of course, if you ain't got nothing, no one will get much when they sue you for medical bills at the end of your life.
 
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