• Maggoty@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Well substantial growth in Average terms at least. Per Capita is the literal Average, total divided by population. Which is why we talk about medians and modes. Now finding a mode is hilarious, much less for each year. But median is actually pretty available. When even the Fed can’t make the line go up, you know there’s a problem.

    Here’s the Fed showing a 15 percent gap in inflation and wages up to 2022. Median Income / Inflation Consumer Price

    • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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      7 months ago

      Why do you want to use household / family income instead of individual income? Median personal income in constant dollars is independent of any confounding factors and doesn’t show the same drop; it shows no change at all.

      And yes, I could see this being consistent with what I was talking about. I actually already sent you data points (the link text is “fell by 5%”) showing the 10th, 50th (i.e. median), and 90th percentiles, which showed -1% change in real income at the 50th percentile. The census bureau numbers show +0.01% instead at the 50th percentile, but pretty similar.

      All of that is consistent with a boost for the lowest earners, which is what I’ve been saying this entire time. “Most of that growth happened at the lowest-wage end of the scale” is how I phrased it.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Because until that data says IRS, it’s far easier to collect household income, and far more applicable to things like rent and grocery costs. It doesn’t matter if one person’s income goes up, if the household income has gone down.

        • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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          7 months ago

          It doesn’t matter if one person’s income goes up

          I’m comfortable ending the conversation here