For chrissake:
Neither worker pay nor benefits grew at anything close to a record pace last quarter unless you insist on never adjusting anything for inflation. Here's what total compensation for workers looks like over the past two years:
Since the beginning of 2021, ECI has risen 6% while inflation has gone up 11%. Employers are paying their workers less, and compensation certainly hasn't been keeping pressure on inflation. Just the opposite.
For the record, real ECI was down a whopping 4.6% last quarter on an annualized basis. Keep this in mind if you're wondering how corporate earnings can be so strong when we're supposedly heading into a recession.
Since no one ever adjusts for inflation in the media, do you going around being annoyed all the time?
Well, according to Republicans the only solution to this is moar tax cutz for corporations and rich people. Seems fair.
Should this be filed under "Reporters are dumb" or "Reporters are cynical hacks trying to ride the latest CW for more clicks"?
Curious, really.
Is there an example of a (presumably) European country where there is enough of a Democratic Socialist thumb on the economy where wages keep up with inflation?
The more I look at Kevin's charts, the more socialist I become. Under capitalism, there is no way that wages are going to keep pace with inflation. The reason is that wages are controlled by the ownership class, and the ownership class measures how good or bad it is doing by its profits.
Profits go up when you keep costs (wages) down. Its possible to have profits and wages go up, but profits won't go up as much as if you hold wages down.
Up here in socialist Canada, inflation is also galloping along. I'm part of a unionized organization and this is the year we negotiate our new 3-year contract. I don't think we've *ever* had more than a negotiated 3% annual increase over the last two decades. I can't see the pattern changing this time around. The dollars simply aren't there.
So it's a virtual certainty that 12 months from now my earning power will be substantially reduced from what it is now. That's only important because it will be the same across huge sectors of the workforce. And as inflation chews away at our earning power it's going to force less consumption. I can't see how we avoid a recession, quite honestly. And then the job losses. And the bankruptcies. And home repossessions. It's going to get ugly.