Yeah. My point is not to sweep real problems under the rug. But it is to push back against some of the narratives I see from people arguing that things are literally the worst they've ever been, and bound to get catastrophically worse, barring a complete upending of our entire society. This is just negativity bias and motivated reasoning writ large.
The picture looks better if you factor in wage growth, though. This is only looking at nominal price levels. It's not factoring in wage inflation.
There is a lot of false nostalgia though about how much better middle class lifestyles used to be in the past. The idea that lifestyles have deflated to the worst of our lifetimes is simply not true. I am in my early 40s, and grew up in the 80s middle class, when it going to a restaurant was only for special occasions, or flying on an airplane was more of a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Not to mention the idea I could pull out a portable phone and listen to any song I wanted to, and any time I wanted to.
I just don't think the arguments that the material well-being for the average person has been in precipitous decline since the early 1970s is anywhere close to true. It's a completely false nostalgia.
They're more expensive than three years ago. But if you think good prices are near an all-time high, you're deluding yourself.
Did you carefully read what I said above? Your reply is causing me to question whether you did. Because I explicitly acknowledged the price increases over the past three years. It seems you're completely missing my point.
Someone has to violate the narrative once in a while.
How do you define "real terms"? I define it as the cost of a thing in labor hours at the average industrial wage.
You'd have to be like 10 years old or younger for food to be the most expensive it's been in your entire life, in real terms.
Give me an example of how it's the most expensive in real terms in some cases?
It is down in real terms for all staples -- with the notable exception of soybeans. Which are slightly more expensive than they were 20 years ago. So it's not just a function of cheaper, lower quality additives.
I am acknowledging the increase in food prices. It's very real. But food was more expensive in 2008 in real terms. ie. You had to work more labor hours at the average industrial wage to pay for the same amount of food. You can pull average food costs and average wages from 2008, and then do the same thing in 2023, do the division and see for yourself!
This isn't me saying inflation is fine. It's not. But it is me saying it's hyperbolic and untrue to argue this is the worst it's been in our lifetimes. Because that's literally false.
If you adjust for inflation, and wages at the average industrial wage, believe it or not: it paints a picture of food being pretty near the cheapest it's ever been -- when measured in labor hours -- than it has been in all of human history. Not literally the lowest. But near it. It's important to put this in perspective when making predictions of pending absolute doom.
I see a lot of people arguing that food prices are at an all-time high. This is actually manifestly untrue. Even if we look at food commodity prices in nominal price terms -- not even trying to adjust for inflation, looking back at the past 20 years, nominal price levels for wheat, corn and rice peaked around April of 2008, with the price of rice nearly double what it currently is in *nominal* terms right now.
It is simultaneously true, that food prices have risen substantially in the past 3 years. But it's also true, that food commodity prices reached an all-time low in 2017. So the inflation has been very real, and has caused real pain.
But it's also true that even at the peak commodity prices we have seen in foodstuffs in the past two years -- once again, in nominal terms -- in about October of 2022, we did not surpass the peak for food prices in the past two decades.
I know this is a narrative-violation. But it also has the benefit of being true.
To be fair, the average annual income in 1916 was about $570/year. So the cost of this home was approximately twice the average annual income of someone. Which yes, is cheaper than today. But land-use restrictions also play a huge role.
It's like one of the bad freemium games that my son insists on letting him download to his iPad and then starts begging me to buy dumb in-game coins so he can buy stupid crap.
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Yes. The UK system is awful on the issues. There's a reason that venue was chosen.