Comment on The U.S. economy is booming. So why are tech companies laying off workers?

derf82@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The past 40 years have shown me that no matter how well the economy is doing in the news, it doesnt mean shit for most Americans.

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• Cryophilia@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Actually the bottom 50% have seen the most wage growth.

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  • derf82@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I call bullshit. That is not what anyone sees.

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    • Cryophilia@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      As a result, earnings have outpaced increases in prices such that real wages have increased since before the pandemic. Real weekly earnings for the median worker grew 1.7 percent between 2019 and 2023.[3] This means that one week of pay for the median worker now buys more than a week of pay did in 2019, despite higher prices. Furthermore, as shown in Figure 1, the increases in earnings are by no means concentrated at the top: in fact, they skew toward the middle class and the lower end of the income distribution. The 25th percentile of the wage distribution saw their nominal weekly earnings grow by $143, from $611 in 2019 to $754 in 2023. When adjusted for inflation, this amounts to a 3.2 percent increase in real earnings. Real earnings increases were particularly strong for the median Black and Hispanic Americans, who saw increases of 5.7 and 2.9 percent, respectively.[4]

      Data doesn’t lie.

      I think one problem with the “vibes” everyone is giving here is that most people aren’t as poor as they think they are. I suspect a lot of people on this site would not believe that one third of American households make less than $50,000 a year, and 8% of American households make less than $15,000 a year.. If you’re making $80k and struggling, it can be tough to hear that “the poor” are doing better because you think you are one of the poor.

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      • Brainsploosh@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I appreciate a data supported argument, and love that you actually linked sources.

        One thing that I feel is missing in most of the linked analyses is that inflation has also hit unevenly, and the price of basic goods has increased significantly more than overall inflation. Which would explain why households still have less disposable income, also the mean debt burden is much higher leading to loan costs being more common.

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      • derf82@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Data can absolutely be misleading. Liars, damn liars, and statisticians, as they say. And trying to produce one number that somehow represents everyone will never work, whatever economists want to think.

        The fact is many of the super-poor are doing better because government benefits like social security are indexed to inflation, meaning they are actually keeping up.

        Personally, my real earnings are down over $10,000 a year. My whole industry has stagnant wages. Don’t piss on me and tell me it’s raining.

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      • Nommer@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I’ve been in the 1/3 my whole 36 years I’ve been alive. To me the economy has failed.

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      • scarabic@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        $80k is a struggle salary where I live but only if you have the ambition to own property and raise multiple kids. The common narrative is that everyone could do that on manual labor wages back in 1950 but that’s definitely bullshit.

        The real travesty is that my kids teachers are pulling down $25k - absolutely ridiculous.

        Not only that: once, I went to take the qualifying of exam for California teachers programs and the room was full of people yammering about that sweet $25k they were about to start making in just two short years.

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  • unreasonabro@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    horse shit. if you wanna play the twist the numbers game, do it in an article on your blog. booooring

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    • Cryophilia@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I give data and sources below, but I’m sure that’s too booooooooooooring for your tiny little brain.

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  • linearchaos@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I see, you forgot to say Union and corporate soulless husk. They can’t be bothered to upvote you on just facts alone.

    The job market is trying to correct but it’s going to take a long time.

    After a decent inflation push blue collar wages have to come up or people just starve to death and people aren’t very fond of that.

    Honestly some of that lower-end boost is probably work from home bolstering the job market is bringing white collar jobs into areas that are deficient.

    What I haven’t figured out yet, as hell New York City and San Francisco haven’t managed to completely outsource all their work to Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee. You should be able to hire developers out of there for less than half the big city rates.

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• Sorgan71@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  That does not explain it either

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  • derf82@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Wealthy shareholders and C-suite executives are trying to squeeze out as much profit as they can. Their boom leads to bust for the rest of us.

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