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Inflation is cooling, yet many Americans say they're living paycheck to paycheck

Even as inflation continues to cool into the second half of 2024, many Americans say they’re still struggling to make ends meet.

Roughly one-third of U.S. workers say they’re living paycheck to paycheck and have nearly no money for savings after paying their monthly bills, according to a survey from personal finance website Bankrate.

SatansMaggotyCumFart ,

I’ve been living paycheck to paycheck for twenty years now.

Reverendender ,

There’s another way?

SatansMaggotyCumFart ,

I’m just happy I got out of the payday loan to pay off payday loans trap two years ago.

zelifcam ,
@zelifcam@lemmy.world avatar

It stopped raining but grass is still wet

Prox ,

It’s still raining, but it’s not raining as hard as it was a while ago. Grass is still wet.

FTFY

zelifcam ,
@zelifcam@lemmy.world avatar

I Agree. Like that better.

And to be fair, the paycheck to paycheck thing has been going on for generations. It’s fucked up.

FlowVoid ,

And historically, it rains over 90% of the time.

EatATaco ,

Nah, because it’s actually getting better as wages are outpacing inflation. There was just a lot of rain and it’s going to take a long ass time to dry.

card797 ,

The rate of inflation is slower but prices are never going back down.

redeyejedi ,

On top of that companies used inflation as an excuse to raise prices higher than they should have.

sunzu ,

While refusing to provide any pay increase for current employees. You have to get another job to get a proper wage after two years at the same job.

LibertyLizard ,

Because the fed chose to solve inflation by putting downward pressure on wages. This was the only way it could ever happen.

Unless we actually tried to fix the problem in other ways than rate hikes. But since the federal government is completely dysfunctional, the only thing they could agree on was doing nothing and leaving the job to the Fed’s hammer. And we were the nails.

sunzu , (edited )

Corpo komissars are firing people and refusing to do wage increases while price gouging the pessants... during pretty normal by historical standards interest rates but shit wages over last 40 years lol

FartsWithAnAccent ,
@FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io avatar

I've been living my whole life pay check to pay check despite being highly qualified in multiple fields, no fucking shit CBS.

TommySoda ,

Because I’ve always lived paycheck to paycheck. Even my parents did when I was a kid. My rent is 70% of my paycheck. What else ya want me to fucking do?

sunzu ,

They are going after people up the income ladder tbh.

Post 2008, we prolly already had half the population at break even point. Now it got tonbe pushing 60-70%.

The_Worst ,

Just earn more money. (/s)

dragontamer ,

Inflation is cooling because Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

Inflation was never going to come down until people ran out of money. Basic economics unfortunately. When people are tight on money and cut down on spending, demand drops. And with demand dropping inflation goes down.

Kecessa ,

Inflation can cool down all it wants, it’s reported year on year so prices are still much higher than 5 years ago while wages haven’t increased, deflation or huge wage increases would be necessary to make it so people would have their purchasing power back.

EatATaco ,

Wages are outpacing inflation, there’s just a lot of catching up to do.

epi.org/…/average-wages-have-surpassed-inflation-…

kibiz0r ,

% change is a pretty wild metric. It becomes unwieldy at longer time spans, and does a pretty poor job at comparisons.

Can we get like wages vs cost of living, or rent/mortgage as a percentage of income?

EatATaco ,

What I linked was wage growth vs inflation, especially among generally lower paid workers (hourly).

goferking0 ,

No because that wouldn’t make things look good

Pacattack57 ,

The root cause of this is housing costs and interest rates which affect car prices as well. Until we at least reduce housing costs, this will continue to be a problem.

randon31415 ,

Solutions to inflation:

#1) Wage growth. How do you make more money? Get a new job and move! Problem: Everyone has these golden handcuff mortgages. 2% to 7%. Moving would actually cost people more per month that the extra wages

#2) Wage growth through WFH. This path is currently so crowded that few have a chance. Hopefully once a few office mortgages are done and boomers with office fetishes die, more jobs will move this way

#3) Deflation. Makes economist immediately shout “But people will hold off purchasing things until later, making the economy worse!” The average car age is at a record high. Everyone is holding off on housing. There is word of groceries payment plans on installments. People already are holding off for later.

I say we try 3 until 2 becomes viable.

sparkle , (edited )

#2) Wage growth through WFH. This path is currently so crowded that few have a chance. Hopefully once a few office mortgages are done and boomers with office fetishes die, more jobs will move this way

It’s insane how much time and money we waste on just commuting for jobs that we really don’t need to be travelling to, and additionally how much we waste on just fucking around in the office without actually doing anything productive (because there’s nothing productive to do). A lot of people could free up a whole half of the rest of their life by just being able to work from home, I wager. Whether people realize it or not, the commute (including the gas money and fares) is part of the time they dedicate to work, and having to waste time on it without getting paid means you’re getting lese compensation for your time. Some people don’t value their time enough for it to matter, but some people (like me) do.

If you average 2 hours a day on your commute, that’s almost an entire month of unpaid time you’re using on your job (it’s not 30 days of pure time if you work an average of 4.5 days per week, but I’m including costs associated with the commute like gas or car maintanence and repair, which for most people would bring it up from the original 20 days to at least 30 days). Most people who don’t live in a city (or who have a job a far enough distance away) waste a whole fucking half a month to an entire month every year – 1/24 to 1/12 of their entire life – just driving to work. On the commute alone. I would take a massive pay cut to not have to make that commute, as well as not have to waste time sitting in an office that I could be using with my loved ones or to do the things I enjoy, which a good WFH setup actually allows you to do.

I’m moving to Chicago so I don’t have to have a car nor waste that much time travelling to places, and not just work but also to stores and hobby stuff. Apparently this is something a lot of people have been doing within the past few years because of how affordable Chicago is in comparison to pretty much every other big city. Ahhh, gentrification my beloved.

Overall I think we’re having a massive reversal of suburbanization/white flight and a move back to cities by people who want to “take back” their time and freedom of movement. As well as just generally not wanting to live in a conservative hellhole.

nutsack ,

i thought this is what americans were always doing

Etterra ,

Yeah you know why people are still living paycheck to paycheck? Because it doesn’t matter if inflation slows down; it never goes backwards.

The_Worst ,

It does go backwards but then you’ll have negative inflation. That means people buy less, prices have to go down. Negative effect is that businesses go bankrupt, people lose their job and they don’t have a paycheck to live to.

gedaliyah ,
@gedaliyah@lemmy.world avatar

Isn’t it funny how inflation always effects every price except the price of labor first?

some_guy ,

I thought inflation wasn’t that bad to begin with. Isn’t that what they told us? Sigh…

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