Before yall say anything yes i understand they were figferent times and the dollar value was different

https://i.redd.it/r04v15453fjf1.jpeg

by catalinalovrr

25 comments

  2. Also people now a days have to many wants over needs. Explain that one to them.

  3. Wait until you hear how the CPI calculations are manipulated to measure lower than reality, and that it’s more than 3.9x

  4. Yeah, sure…

    In 1980, the median new home price was about $68,000, while in 2025, it’s around $426,000

    In 1980, the average new car cost around $7,600, while in 2025, the average new car price is estimated to be around $49,000

    Per capita health spending in 1980 was $1,099. For 2025 it s projected to be 440 Monthly! for individuals and 1168 on family plan.

    Similar pattern with college, groceries, gas… But sure… It is only 3 times higher.

    It is a very common mistake to look at calculated inflation and assume money spending and purchase power can be adjusted just through those numbers. That’s not only incorrect, but dumb. It ignores the fact market follows the money, not inflation.

  5. Median salary was 17k in 1980. It was $68k in 2024. So about a 4x increase 🤷

  7. This is correct. People today have it better than the past but they don’t want to accept that truth.

  8. I’m so over the CPI calculators… It’s an extreme lesson in gaslighting IMO. Kroger raised prices nearly 40% in 2022, so to say things have gone up by only a factor of 4 is ridiculous. Like, it’s only doubled in 40 years, and then doubled again within the last 3? GTFO. Housing? Up by a factor of 20. Cars? Up by a factor of at least 8. Taxes up on everything also. But it’s only gone up 4x’s.. sure.

  9. And back then we only had Columbia Records and magazine subscriptions

  12. Minimum wage shouldn’t just be 1980 wages * CPI

    CPI tracks prices, but it misses productivity growth, which has far outpaced inflation – meaning workers would fall behind. It also ignores that costs like housing and healthcare rose faster than CPI. Plus, CPI isn’t designed around low-income households’ spending patterns. And people in 1980 might’ve actually been overpaid relative to productivity then, so blindly locking today’s wage to that baseline doesn’t make sense.

    Minimum wage policy should reflect living standards, productivity, and equity today – not just an inflation formula tied to one arbitrary year.

  13. Minimum wage is a great idea if we want to destroy the economy by killing jobs and squeezing out poor people with higher prices.

  14. Please do not use ChatGPT for math. It does not know how to do math. You can ask it for equations and then implement in excel or something but even OpenAI admits it’s not for doing actual calculations. It’s a language model, it’s in the name.

    Whether or not it was wrong in this case is not super relevant but you are playing with fire and are gonna be burned. I’m saying this as somebody with a math degree.

  15. Yeah, because CPI is a terrible measurement…and it was also calculated differently over the decades as well. Today’s version is the worst of them all.

  17. In a nutshell wage buying power has not kept up with CPI or actual costs for things like homes, cars, food, etc.

    Also keep in mind, and let’s be honest with ourselves about our societal bloat and the connivence Tax for not wanting to do manual labor.

    People used to buy or had the option to buy:

    Basic transportation cars with no A/C, hand crank windows, and no safety or creature comforts. Even base model cars now all have all of that which is why a car is $50k.

    Free or almost free community college or trade schools that would get you a decent salary, now everyone thinks they need a BS 4+ year degree just to sell shoes because corporate HR pinheads make it a requirement in the job description.

    Homes that were simple <1000 sqft structures with no bells and whistles but kept you housed, now most new homes are 2,000+ sqft McMansions with HOAs and prices through the roof so you can keep up with the Joneses.

    Food that you had to spend the time to buy & cook, I mean actual food, and not preprocessed, fast food, or DoorDash food that we just hit a button on our phone and “poof” it’s magically delivered to our door.

    Clothes that were made of durable material and could be restitched if a simple seam broke, now we just throw them away and spend another $50 bucks on another pair of crappy jeans.

    The list goes on and on…

    So the issue is two fold:

    1) Corporations have found a great way to make more profits for shareholders while not increasing wages for employees due to increased productivity from automation, so wages have not kept up with CPI at an appropriate rate for employees, and let’s not forget to mention all the CXO people making 7-8 figures annually, just cause they feel like they deserve it.

    2) I hate to say it but we as Americans have gotten soft, we have seen generational comfort bloat due to technology and think it’s a viable baseline when in fact the majority of us are much more physically comfortable than our parents and grandparents, but much more financially stressed because of our wasteful spending that is just padding the billionaires pockets.

    I am just as guilty as everyone else, my 15 year ago self would have kicked my current ass for being so soft and lazy.

    Made extra money and now I have a newer car with A/C, my older self would have kept the cash and kept driving a $500 junker that barely ran.

    My older self almost never bought fast food and hit up the dented can store for deals on day old food, my current self goes to Costco and gets a nice fat steak to smoke on the weekend “just cause”.

    My older self would hustle day and night outside and survive on 4 hrs of sleep, my current self complains about my 8 hr job and my commute in an air conditioned car.

    So yes, CPI may be up by 3.9X, but there’s a lot of other factors at play to explain why we’re all so screwed.

    As much as I hate to say it I think we all need to focus more on needs and not wants, tune out the mass marketing corporate “buy buy buy” BS, get off our damn phones, and just live within our means.

    The wage debate is a whole other issue, which really requires a lot of greedy billionaires to share their wealth instead of building penis shaped rockets, but that’s a battle for another day…

    ,

  18. Our buying power shrunk but goods got cheaper. Now the price of most goods will increase while our buying power is low. Good to know

  19. look up how long peope had to save up to buy a home in the 80s… it’s comical. not even only the US… it’s similar in Germany or the UK or Australia.

  21. CPI misses so much. It’s only a measure of consumption. It gives us no view of wealth inequality and how it effects the quality of life

  22. If Maga could read they would be upset… oh wait, no they’d be turned on by their billionaire daddies

  23. You’re smarter than I am. I didn’t know they were figferent times. 

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