As financial fears mount, some Americans are "doom spending," or spending money despite their economic and geopolitical concerns, as a way to cope with stress.
“the rest of us see a net loss compared to inflation”
The data suggests most people have not seen a net loss compared to inflation. Agreed you would need more granular data to know for sure, in case the mean was too influenced by outliers. So I looked up median too which are seeing similar rates of wage growth. So no that doesn’t appear to be the case. Most people are not seeing a net loss compared to inflation. If you back up to three years ago, when we had a period of rapidly lowering inflation as the entire economy shut down, oil was literally being given away, and people were getting additional checks and tax credits in the mail, then yes you’re right, real wages still lag about three percent. If you compare to four years ago, December, 2019, a more normal economic situation just before the pandemic, then wages have fully compensated for inflation in comparison to then.
You also mention well maybe low wage workers aren’t getting the increase. It’s actually the opposite, lower wage earners have seen more of the wage increase.
“the rest of us see a net loss compared to inflation”
The data suggests most people have not seen a net loss compared to inflation. Agreed you would need more granular data to know for sure, in case the mean was too influenced by outliers. So I looked up median too which are seeing similar rates of wage growth. So no that doesn’t appear to be the case. Most people are not seeing a net loss compared to inflation. If you back up to three years ago, when we had a period of rapidly lowering inflation as the entire economy shut down, oil was literally being given away, and people were getting additional checks and tax credits in the mail, then yes you’re right, real wages still lag about three percent. If you compare to four years ago, December, 2019, a more normal economic situation just before the pandemic, then wages have fully compensated for inflation in comparison to then.
https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2023/median-weekly-earnings-increased-5-7-percent-over-the-year-ending-in-the-second-quarter-of-2023.htm?mf_ct_campaign=yahoo-synd-feed
Real wages 2019 December https://stats.bls.gov/news.release/archives/realer_01142020.pdf
Real wages October 2023 https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/realer.pdf
Things should also continue to get better, as wage growth has been outpacing inflation again since January 2023.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-inflation-us/
You also mention well maybe low wage workers aren’t getting the increase. It’s actually the opposite, lower wage earners have seen more of the wage increase.
https://www.epi.org/publication/swa-wages-2022/