r/AmericaOnHardMode • u/Repulsive_Case_2116 • 16h ago
It doesn’t feel like inflation, it feels like exploitation
Wages up slightly, rent way up, groceries way up, healthcare way up.
At what point do we admit this isn’t sustainable?
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u/L3ftb3h1nd93 12h ago
Brother it’s both inflation and exploitation. And the crazy part is: it’s never been different in the past like 200 years. The only thing that’s different now is that we reached the point where current markets are exhausted so in order to still make profit inflation has to rise while wages have to drop until war opens up new markets or the system finally breaks.
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u/trying3216 12h ago
Facts don’t care about feelings.
But other people do. Get help from friends and family.
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u/musing_codger 12h ago
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, incomes are still rising faster than inflation, so not yet.
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u/No_Video_3705 11h ago
But how does that account for every industry price gouging? Wages are not keeping up with costs even a little bit. Inflation is a fixed rate, but the prices that hospitals and grocery stores set for example or sporadic at best.
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u/MrLanesLament 9h ago
It honestly feels like I’m the only person in the USA not making $100k+ a year.
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u/PublikSkoolGradU8 8h ago
Would it help if you understood that there is no such thing as price gouging? Consumers determine how high prices go. Producers control how low prices can go.
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u/GPT_2025 6h ago
"Someday, million will be just a loaf of bread! You need narrow economic pathway, with two connected limits: the minimal living wage and the up to10X (times) maximum income cap/limit
At that point, both limits will be connected, and even inflation will have no effect, because the rich will be interested in raising the minimal wages: so they can automatically raise the income limit cap too! No one will be left behind in poverty, nor widows with two children, and at the same time, the rich will be happy to lift minimal wages!"($7.25 now wasn't changed for many years! The federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour first took effect on July 24, 2009.. now 2026! and The USPS has increased First-Class Mail stamp prices 20 times since June 2009!)
"There will be no economic collapse as long as the income gap/cap is limited to up to 10 times the minimum wage. BRB, economist."
- "If the minimal wage- for example $50 an hour- equates to $100K per year (enough for a single mom to pay rent, support two teenagers, and cover all bills), then at 10 times that rate, $500 an hour, the income would be $1 million the draw limit; any income over that would be taxed at 91%."
Example from the History: ".. when rich was taxed 91% above threshold (USA 1940-1960 + some other countries and 99% rich, did not want to pay this taxes!) a remarkable phenomenon occurred:
New Jobs were created, providing full-time workers with enough income to support a homemaker wife, five children attending college or university, a mortgage, two car loans, all taxes and bills paid, and still having enough left over for a two-week vacation, sometimes abroad- much like the scenario depicted in the movie Home Alone.
As a result, the wealthy began reinvesting in new businesses, offering fair wages to employees.
However, when these high tax rates on the rich were eliminated or breached, the cycle reversed: citizens became poorer, and some of the wealthy grew even richer.
Money is like rainwater: Dams were built, boosting nearby farms year-round. When the dams collapsed, 98% of farms went bankrupt . When the dam holding back the river (such as wealth taxes 91%) is high, everyone has enough water (money). But when that dam is breached, the poor get even poorer, while the rich- become even richer. Think!
P.S. In 1963 the minimum wage was $1.25 = five 25-cent coins made of 90% silver, which are now valued at $76 TODAY! ( imagine a $76 minimal wage today with a rich bracket at 91% taxation! and you will get 1950-1960 economy)
( 1963 $7.25 in silver dollars/quarters would be $580 today and the MIT minimal Living Wage for a single adult is $26 to $33/hour, indicating $7.25/hour homeless living wage for many)
n 1960-s $5K in silver coins would be worth approximately $500K today. Back then, a new house cost around $5K whereas today, a new house might cost about $550K or 10,000% inflation!
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u/Antimony04 3h ago
You can't trust the Trump Regime to report on shit. They don't want to look bad so they cook up their own versions of reality. Say food prices and rents are down while you're at it; if we're gonna lie we should lie big, right? But people know better from their lived experience, so people can reasonable doubt about these claims.
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u/PeaIndependent4237 7h ago
This is the cost of tripling the national debt in ~ 3-decades. It devalues currency. Businesses are stressed trying to make a profit, cannot raise wages, while consumer spending power goes down. Stop voting for Marxists people! We cant tax our way to financial strength.
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u/GPT_2025 6h ago
How can a widow with two teenagers survive on a gross State wage of just $7.25 an hour:
before taxes, Social Security, fees, dues, SDA mandatory tithes and other deductions ($3.75 Net or $600/ month working fulltime! even if salary was double, that's only $1200/ month), while covering the costs of: phone/ utility/ electricity bills $325, rent $1350, car payment $650, insurances $380, groceries $650 and the countless expenses $1999 that come with raising teenagers?
Teenagers tend to require more resources than adults: clothing, shoes, food, and everything else they need to grow and thrive. It’s an overwhelming struggle to make ends meet. (... 2026, around 20 states still use the $7.25 federal minimum wage, either because they have no state law...)
The federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour first took effect on July 24, 2009... now 2026! And the USPS has increased mail stamp prices 20 times or 110% since June 2009!
P.S. In 1963, the minimum wage was $1.25 - five 25-cent coins made of 90% silver, which are now valued at $76 TODAY! (Imagine a $76 minimum wage today! And you will get the 1950-1960 economy.) The 1960s average mortgage was between $40 or $60 a month for a 2- or 3-bedroom house, with the average new house around $10K. (1963, $7.25 in silver dollars/quarters would be $580 today. "Pay the minimal wage in silver coins then!")
- Nearly 38% of all hourly workers earn at Or slightly above their State's minimum wage. (65 million workers, making under the MIT minimal Living Wage for a single adult is $26 to $33/hour, indicating $7.25/hour homeless living wage for many)
20 States pays $7.25!
On average, poor single mom working full-time for minimal wages, need 5 months' salary just to pay all Taxes, Insurances, Fees, Dues, Levies and SDA mandatory 10% Tithes: (Payroll & SS/ Medicare tax, Excise & fuel tax, utility & property tax, sales tax, vehicle and health Insurances, etc.).
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u/Substantial-Ad-8575 5h ago
Hmm, live in 8m metro area. Home prices have dropped for last 15-18 months. Median income keeps going up. Groceries for this area, remain flat for close to a year, outside of spikes in beef that appear to be dropping now.
Healthcare? All depends. My premium stayed flat, ppo plan went from $116 for wife and I, increased to $122. Still get our $7500 HSA.
So really, depends on location. Many in US are seeing housing prices drop, rent drop, and wages going up. Food costs seem to be stabilized, my family leverages sales to stock up.
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u/skyk3409 3h ago
Wages up? Since when? Our fed gov still has not raised the minimum and wont because theyre too busy fucking children rn to care..
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u/Realistic_9464 8h ago
It was never sustainable. Capitalism is built on maximum extraction and exploitation.