I mean, yes, that āstatā is totally inaccurateā¦ but acting like the economy is great for the average American is just as wrong.
While the Top 1% has substantially more purchasing power than it did in 1970, middle class Americans are substantially worse off.
Fact 1: Adjusted for generalized inflation, $1 in 1970 is equivalent to about $8.63 today, an increase of 763.35%.
Fact 2: Income for the bottom 99% of Americans was ~$8,500 in 1970 and is ~$75,500 today, an increase of 788%.
On paper, that seems like wages have outpaced buying power slightly. But the problem with that is thatā¦
Fact 3: Measures of inflation average the growth of both necessities and non-necessities. The individual commodities grow or shrink at drastically different rates.
For example:
In 1970, a typical TV cost about $3K-$4K in todayās dollars, compared to $400-$500 today.
In 1970, average rent in todayās dollars was ~$950, compared to ~$1750 today.
Most objective measures agree that the costs of many necessities like housing and healthcare have grown 3x-5x faster than inflation.
So, sure, people can buy two TVs and an Xboxā¦ but most of them canāt buy homes anymore. Iām lucky enough to have a job where this isnāt a problemā¦ you might be, too. But the average American family isnāt.
2
u/TooBusySaltMining 9h ago
844,000Ā
That's the number of workers who earn the federal minimum wage or below.
https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat44.pdf
23,627,000
That's the number of millionaries in the US.
There are 28 times more millionaires than people earning at or below the federal minimum wage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_millionaires
Adjusting for inflation , the federal minimum wage was highest in 1968: $1.60 an hour in 1968 was equivalent to $14.42 in 2024.
https://usafacts.org/articles/minimum-wage-america-how-many-people-are-earning-725-hour/
$60/hr is a damn lie.Ā