Absolutely nailed it. Official statistics v. lived experience. I asked just this question to a panel of four economists at the Levy Institute, congressional series seminar this week. Randy Wray's answer was best; ignore the statistics, people need jobs, pass a job guarantee; wall street has run amok, re-regulate it; the rich are too rich, so tax the hell out of them; need to rebuild manufacturing, make the Fed gear investment toward actually building real things. Now to build the political power to defeat the massive monied powers aligned against the people.
The tv our grandparents bought still works, too. The tv you bought 5 years ago is obsolete and the company made it stop working by no longer supporting it via required internet updates.
While I agree in principle, I bought a used 55” LED monitor twelve years ago for about $100. I’ve never had a problem. It works perfectly.
Maybe you don’t remember television of the 60’s, but they cost far more, broke all the time—remember tube testers at every hardware store? TV repair vans?
I also had a Prius which went 259,000 miles with no repair but one wheel bearing. The irony? Both “Made in Japan”.
I can concede that. But I’ll counter the right to repair that stuff. Too many things are made with planned obsolescence and no rights or ability to repair.
I agree completely. I am far from defending those practices, I just like to see the positive side occasionally.
I’ve heard that small groups of consumers have organized “Fix-it Cafés” where you can bring small items to get help with repairs. Everyone pitches in their expertise.
One of the small towns not too far from me has the repair cafe - not sure the name they give it but essentially people bring small items (as you said) to be repaired. Seems like a good idea to me.
I love to see a positive. It’s a huge struggle for me to see them in late-stage capitalism. But I love to know about the people coming together to fix things. That is an absolute positive.
“Any politician promising affordability without a bold plan to shift power back to working people is full of shit.”
You are on fire. If only you were the chairman of the DNC, there might be a shot a creating the FDR working class coalition necessary to legislate us out of this mess. As it is, AOC refusing to support a Jeffries primary shows how even progressive darlings embrace the full of shit label.
Decades ago, hence forgetting the actual numbers, I was deeply concerned that rent went up every year at a much higher percentage than income went up. It wasn't sustainable. Nobody cared. ... Well, maybe now they care.
At the very least, let us have regulations that cap both expenses and income to keep it in the proverbial Goldilocks Zone. But do it by percentages, not dollars, so that it automatically adjusts. Still blows my mind that we set a "minimum wage" that is out of date before it even gets legalized. Why can't minimum wage be a percentage of something reliable, adjustable each year like COLA?
When we prioritize what we care about, and we care about what matters, things change for the better. If we don't change for the better, then we have to admit that it wasn't a priority.
PS. It matters that we care about all the members of our species, and the planet we call home.
In the original story the bears ate Goldilocks. Just saying. I agree that the fundamentals of economics should return to the capacity of Earth. From there we share.
The relative price of a TV may have declined since 1950, but people didn't pay (except through ads) for the entertainment provided. Today, you can't even watch a college football game without forking over money. WWII vets received a free college education and a stipend for living expenses. My mother complained bitterly in 1968 about paying $200 in annual tuition in Florida when her cousins were sending their kids to college for free (yes free) in California. If you confine your observations to the last 10 years, the rate of tuition increase doesn't look too bad. But compare it to the historical data and you get an entirely different picture. The same with healthcare although even the last ten years looks pretty dire.
My students were always shocked when I told them I worked retail jobs to pay for college and graduated with just $800 of debt after four years. And that debt was because of the recession in the early 90's when I could not find work.
It's a good idea to avoid universalist claims. Some care, but if they don't have an impetus to act, they will not invest political capital. It's the story of FDR and A. Philip Randolph. Randolph was lobbying for equal pay in federal contracts and making his pitch to the president. FDR listened then said, Mr. Randolph, I agree with everything you are proposing. Now go out and make me do it. You get an organization holding a $100 million in debt saying they're not paying...that will get someone's attention.
They are stealing your time and now they are stealing your retirement money, too. In order to continue to have funds for buy-backs of sagging stocks, invested in oil and gas, the permission to raid 401K plans by Private Investment funds was granted by a Republican controlled Congress. These risky and self-serving "investors" can now access your 401K and never need tell what they have invested in, even buy-backs of their own stock that hides their losses. What can stop them? Make sure your employer picks investment pans that openly state they will NOT allow investments from Private Equity Funds as part of your portfolio. These funds already loose money for many public pension funds. Do not let them make bad investments with your retirement. For more information see what is being done to divest from Private Equity Funds already loosing retirees their pension millions. www.divestoregon.us for the ongoing story.
I cannot wait for you to find that video person, Corbin! This stuff needs to get out there and go viral. Thank you for doing the deep work to uncover what has for so long been widely felt but not well understood.
Actually, a lot of people read Profits without Production, and in the 60s and 70s he was a well-known intellectual. But as the neoliberal ideology gained a hold, he had the same problem as Corbin will have: people don’t understand the importance of manufacturing. It is necessary to explain this to the public now, while it wasn’t before the 1980s
Sadly too many intellectuals sit behind their dusty old desks and expect that knowledge get just get miraculously absorbed into the general population, a a growing improbability given the level to which it would seem bo one seems to be reading much of anything worthwhile however accessible it may be or may e lack the ability to read over a sixth grade level.
Urban research finds 52 percent of people in American families don't have the resources to cover what it really costs to live securely in their community.
This affordability crisis arises from household prices like child care, health care, rent, and home sales increasing faster than earnings. While average earnings have grown 38 percent nationwide since 2017, annual child care prices for two young children have risen by 40 percent, rents by 50 percent, and home sale prices by 80 percent, and the lowest-priced "Silver" health care plan on the Affordable Care Act Marketplace has risen 41 percent.
Grocery prices have also become more of a cost burden for American households. Since 2019, the average monthly cost of groceries has risen by 32 percent, while earnings growth trailed slightly at 29 percent.
Now, previously low-cost areas across the country have become substantially more expensive. Parts of Atlanta, Chicago, Columbus, Nashville, and Central Florida have all seen costs for groceries, health care, and housing rise faster than other relatively low-cost areas.
Yea, the GOP used to crow about the low cost of housing in Florida. It's not so low now and insurance rates are off the charts. And don't get me started with the toll roads that continue to proliferate.
Unlike Sleepy Joe Biden (for one among a legion) or Big Media reporters, I don't want to hear that the economy is good without reference to breaking that "good" down by deciles.
The reality is that on a decile by decile basis, the bottom levels haven't been improving for decades. And worse and unreported, the levels on which that's true are actually growing. Things are getting worse on more and more decile levels--first workers, then the middle class and now it's coming for professionals.
I should say neither party cares. This collapse has been the Republicans' goal forever, ever and the national Democrats have been disinterested in the decline since Clinton. Or I should qualify that: There's still interest in providing lip service--that's marketing the brand--but no interest in doing anything like what's needed if they actually cared.
Absolutely nailed it. Official statistics v. lived experience. I asked just this question to a panel of four economists at the Levy Institute, congressional series seminar this week. Randy Wray's answer was best; ignore the statistics, people need jobs, pass a job guarantee; wall street has run amok, re-regulate it; the rich are too rich, so tax the hell out of them; need to rebuild manufacturing, make the Fed gear investment toward actually building real things. Now to build the political power to defeat the massive monied powers aligned against the people.
Did not Dick Armey teach the masses thusly: "You tell me who did the study, and I'll tell you what results they got."?
The tv our grandparents bought still works, too. The tv you bought 5 years ago is obsolete and the company made it stop working by no longer supporting it via required internet updates.
While I agree in principle, I bought a used 55” LED monitor twelve years ago for about $100. I’ve never had a problem. It works perfectly.
Maybe you don’t remember television of the 60’s, but they cost far more, broke all the time—remember tube testers at every hardware store? TV repair vans?
I also had a Prius which went 259,000 miles with no repair but one wheel bearing. The irony? Both “Made in Japan”.
I can concede that. But I’ll counter the right to repair that stuff. Too many things are made with planned obsolescence and no rights or ability to repair.
I agree completely. I am far from defending those practices, I just like to see the positive side occasionally.
I’ve heard that small groups of consumers have organized “Fix-it Cafés” where you can bring small items to get help with repairs. Everyone pitches in their expertise.
One of the small towns not too far from me has the repair cafe - not sure the name they give it but essentially people bring small items (as you said) to be repaired. Seems like a good idea to me.
I love to see a positive. It’s a huge struggle for me to see them in late-stage capitalism. But I love to know about the people coming together to fix things. That is an absolute positive.
“Any politician promising affordability without a bold plan to shift power back to working people is full of shit.”
You are on fire. If only you were the chairman of the DNC, there might be a shot a creating the FDR working class coalition necessary to legislate us out of this mess. As it is, AOC refusing to support a Jeffries primary shows how even progressive darlings embrace the full of shit label.
Decades ago, hence forgetting the actual numbers, I was deeply concerned that rent went up every year at a much higher percentage than income went up. It wasn't sustainable. Nobody cared. ... Well, maybe now they care.
At the very least, let us have regulations that cap both expenses and income to keep it in the proverbial Goldilocks Zone. But do it by percentages, not dollars, so that it automatically adjusts. Still blows my mind that we set a "minimum wage" that is out of date before it even gets legalized. Why can't minimum wage be a percentage of something reliable, adjustable each year like COLA?
When we prioritize what we care about, and we care about what matters, things change for the better. If we don't change for the better, then we have to admit that it wasn't a priority.
PS. It matters that we care about all the members of our species, and the planet we call home.
In the original story the bears ate Goldilocks. Just saying. I agree that the fundamentals of economics should return to the capacity of Earth. From there we share.
The relative price of a TV may have declined since 1950, but people didn't pay (except through ads) for the entertainment provided. Today, you can't even watch a college football game without forking over money. WWII vets received a free college education and a stipend for living expenses. My mother complained bitterly in 1968 about paying $200 in annual tuition in Florida when her cousins were sending their kids to college for free (yes free) in California. If you confine your observations to the last 10 years, the rate of tuition increase doesn't look too bad. But compare it to the historical data and you get an entirely different picture. The same with healthcare although even the last ten years looks pretty dire.
You win again. Im too angry to work right now. I've got to regulate myself before I yell at someone just as desperate as I am, and probably get shot.
My students were always shocked when I told them I worked retail jobs to pay for college and graduated with just $800 of debt after four years. And that debt was because of the recession in the early 90's when I could not find work.
It is necessary to keep the lower orders in debt, lest they get ideas.
A cubicle drone with $100K is student loans (that he cannot discharge in bankruptcy) is not going to rock the boat.
Unless they organize. A cubicle drone with $100k in debt is stuck...but a thousand cubicle drones with $100k in debt have leverage.
Nobody in power gives a shit. We saw that during the GFC, when courts bent over backwards to accommodate MERS.
It's a good idea to avoid universalist claims. Some care, but if they don't have an impetus to act, they will not invest political capital. It's the story of FDR and A. Philip Randolph. Randolph was lobbying for equal pay in federal contracts and making his pitch to the president. FDR listened then said, Mr. Randolph, I agree with everything you are proposing. Now go out and make me do it. You get an organization holding a $100 million in debt saying they're not paying...that will get someone's attention.
The difference is that the Roosevelts fear that someone would make a better deal.
Not to mention that Roosevelt did not face a collective action problem.
I majored in sociology and psychology. This might interest you, especially the Principles of a Pluralistic Commonwealth as an economic function.
www.thenextsystem.org
You have a good website, carry on..
Thank you for the compliment and for sharing this website. It was interesting. Gar Alperovits does great work!
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Outstanding piece as usual. Sharing with my subscribers tomorrow.
I have so enjoyed this series and have in my list to copy the whole thing to have on hand when I communicate with legislators.
Thank you.
They are stealing your time and now they are stealing your retirement money, too. In order to continue to have funds for buy-backs of sagging stocks, invested in oil and gas, the permission to raid 401K plans by Private Investment funds was granted by a Republican controlled Congress. These risky and self-serving "investors" can now access your 401K and never need tell what they have invested in, even buy-backs of their own stock that hides their losses. What can stop them? Make sure your employer picks investment pans that openly state they will NOT allow investments from Private Equity Funds as part of your portfolio. These funds already loose money for many public pension funds. Do not let them make bad investments with your retirement. For more information see what is being done to divest from Private Equity Funds already loosing retirees their pension millions. www.divestoregon.us for the ongoing story.
I’ve been saying the same thing for years. Thank you Corbin.
https://youtu.be/wcvyF0GLtw4?si=D1w_bj3Yw3mm8J3L
I cannot wait for you to find that video person, Corbin! This stuff needs to get out there and go viral. Thank you for doing the deep work to uncover what has for so long been widely felt but not well understood.
We’ve got some help coming on!
We work and we are owned.
It's called modern slavery.
Debt bondage, specifically.
Wage slaves
Corbin,
You wrote "These days GDP growth is disconnected from real tangible production." My mentor, Seymour Melman, wrote an entire book about this in 1983, "Profits without Production" (out of print, but an introduction is available https://economicreconstruction.org/sites/economicreconstruction.com/static/SeymourMelman/SeymourMelmanProfitsIntroduction.pdf).
Also, he oten used an equivalent of your Years of Work, for instance, in his last book, "After Capitalism: From managerialism to workplace democracy", 2001 (also out of print, Introduction https://economicreconstruction.org/sites/economicreconstruction.com/static/SeymourMelman/SeymourMelmanAfterCapIntroduction.pdf), page 92, he compares 1993 to 1998 for a number of consumer goods, in terms of hours and minutes (things got worse)
Keep up the good work!
Apparently no one read it?
Actually, a lot of people read Profits without Production, and in the 60s and 70s he was a well-known intellectual. But as the neoliberal ideology gained a hold, he had the same problem as Corbin will have: people don’t understand the importance of manufacturing. It is necessary to explain this to the public now, while it wasn’t before the 1980s
Sadly too many intellectuals sit behind their dusty old desks and expect that knowledge get just get miraculously absorbed into the general population, a a growing improbability given the level to which it would seem bo one seems to be reading much of anything worthwhile however accessible it may be or may e lack the ability to read over a sixth grade level.
Excellent article! These numbers do not lie.
Relevant findings from the Urban Institute's Affordability Tracker (https://www.urban.org/data-tools/american-affordability-tracker):
Urban research finds 52 percent of people in American families don't have the resources to cover what it really costs to live securely in their community.
This affordability crisis arises from household prices like child care, health care, rent, and home sales increasing faster than earnings. While average earnings have grown 38 percent nationwide since 2017, annual child care prices for two young children have risen by 40 percent, rents by 50 percent, and home sale prices by 80 percent, and the lowest-priced "Silver" health care plan on the Affordable Care Act Marketplace has risen 41 percent.
Grocery prices have also become more of a cost burden for American households. Since 2019, the average monthly cost of groceries has risen by 32 percent, while earnings growth trailed slightly at 29 percent.
Now, previously low-cost areas across the country have become substantially more expensive. Parts of Atlanta, Chicago, Columbus, Nashville, and Central Florida have all seen costs for groceries, health care, and housing rise faster than other relatively low-cost areas.
Yea, the GOP used to crow about the low cost of housing in Florida. It's not so low now and insurance rates are off the charts. And don't get me started with the toll roads that continue to proliferate.
And I just read that Florida Power and Light has received permission for the highest utility rate increase in American history.
Unlike Sleepy Joe Biden (for one among a legion) or Big Media reporters, I don't want to hear that the economy is good without reference to breaking that "good" down by deciles.
The reality is that on a decile by decile basis, the bottom levels haven't been improving for decades. And worse and unreported, the levels on which that's true are actually growing. Things are getting worse on more and more decile levels--first workers, then the middle class and now it's coming for professionals.
I should say neither party cares. This collapse has been the Republicans' goal forever, ever and the national Democrats have been disinterested in the decline since Clinton. Or I should qualify that: There's still interest in providing lip service--that's marketing the brand--but no interest in doing anything like what's needed if they actually cared.