Since you asked... I used to live on your planet, profiting from housing,
earning good wages, buying cars, etc. Amazing how fast vultures swoop in
when you're down though. Several business closures and health misdiagnoses
and mistreatment ended decades of momentum. When I entered the workforce, it
was like this on my planet:
44-cents per gallon for gasoline, nearly $3 now (+5.9% annually).
$25-35k for a new house then, $250-300k now (+6.9% annually).
$2/hr. minimum wage then, $5.25 now (+3% annually).
Had minimum wage kept up with gasoline, it would be over $13/hr now.
Had minimum wage kept up with home prices, it would be over $18/hr now.
Had gasoline kept pace with minimum wage, it should be just over $1 per
gallon.
Had housing kept pace with minimum wage, the average home would cost $78k.
Fed Minimum wage from 1938 to 1968, up 6.ax.
Fed Minimum wage from 1938 to 1978, up 10.6x.
Going back 30 and 40 years respectively, this implies that FMW should be
around $15 per hour today.
Last year, my realestate agent decried their raising local prices 30% in one
swoop but local builders, realtors and bankers met to do just that. Months
later, housing sales halted. Cheap foreign capital inflows catapulted home
and car prices much faster than wages for a reason; some benefited where
others will pay the price. Are cheap, longer term loans why we stopped
publishing the M3? So those without capital must finance their lives from
those who do? I want fair wages, not more credit.
