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Comment by anovikov | Hacker News Reader

That's not the case really. People feel fucked because social media and politicians say them so to keep them engaged. In fact, they are getting slightly better off. At the median. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q#

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nope. that chart does not mean what you think it means.

[https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUUR0000SEHA]

[https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPIMEDNS]

[https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPITRNNS]

and many more.

check those charts, and then compare them to yours and you’ll see exactly what I mean.

wages have been roughly stagnant, while major life expenses have skyrocketed. but hey, if you don’t need medical care, don’t rent, and don’t need transportation, maybe it’s fine?

I really don't know what are the "medical expenses" that 90% of people under 65 need. Sure some get badly unlucky, but well, here in Europe majority of people under 50 just never visit a doctor, there is no need. And under 65, extremely rarely like a few times in 50-65 range. After that 65, you have medicare. It's really perplexing why American 30-year olds cry about healthcare costs. I seriously don't know anyone under 45 who knows what it is. I brought my ex to the clinic once when she broke her toe, of course women visit gynecologist for checkup and to get pills prescribed once in 6 months, and that's it.

Fall and break a bone.

Have appendicitis.

Get in a car accident and get injured.

Have an accident in the kitchen (burn yourself, etc.).

Get bit by an animal and need special shots (rabies, or the like).

All relatively common ‘surprise’ events at all ages. All 20-100k easy in the US right now.

Wait until you, your immediate family, or close friends get “unlucky” and then report back.

Here in Cyprus, healthcare works on 2.65% flat tax on all incomes, capped at 180K EUR income per year. Everyone seems happy and a family doctor makes 150K EUR per year, on par with the US earnings in a country which is much cheaper to live in.

Secret is much much much lower usage. People just use healthcare perhaps 10% as little as Americans do. It's just not in the culture. Life expectancy is still 83.5 years vs 79.0 in the USA. And yes we also have a car-based society with most people living in individual houses just like in the USA, almost no usable public transport, most of Cyprus is literally US-style suburbia, and in addition, everyone smokes.

So here is the advice of what to do with the healthcare: crush it. Same with universities, for the same reason. Many, many more people undergo unneeded medical interventions because of feeling compelled to do so for some cultural reasons, and many people also get useless degrees which they are unable to put to any good use, crazily jacking up prices for both healthcare and education.

Uh, none of that has anything to do with a broken bone (for example) costing $20k USD or more to get fixed.

Ironically, out of 3 you listed, two are flat in the last 15 years vs general CPI inflation, and one is slightly up. In terms of purchasing power of median wage, two are more accessible in 15 years and one (rents) very slightly up (~+9%).

Telling you: perception that median people are in some way struggling, is made up, it is political/social media tale they are selling you just to keep you angry and agitated. It does not reflect reality at all.

They may be struggling only in the sense of feeling that they are falling behind, and that is true, but this is an immutable, objective reality that does not depend on policy decisions, it is a force of technological change.

All of them are 3-4x baseline (from the ‘80’s), while wages are up barely 30% from the same time. There is nothing made up about it.

You can't be serious. You are comparing nominal prices with real that is, already CPI-adjusted wages.

They are underlying components for the CPI calculation. How else do you expect it to happen?

Do some math, and show your numbers if you want something else.

That's the thing: nominal wages are up more than 5x since 1980, even 2nd quartile https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881500Q. The chart i posted was for real wages, not nominal. Result is that rent: slightly up, medical care: slightly up, transportation: slightly down, food: slightly down.

Lowest quartile is exactly what was being discussed.

And sure, expenses that have a large component of human labor in them, especially qualified labor, skyrocketed. But others where automation plays a large role, fell. Overall inflation rate best matches expenses structure of the median person.

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