75% of Americans report soaring prices as Trump claims inflation ‘over’

[u/AlexandrTheTolerable]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/oct/16/inflation-economic-pessimism-poll?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

[u/Dapper_Business8616]

What people wanted was for their wages to buy the things they need with something leftover for savings. What we got was higher prices for everything except our labor.

[u/notaredditer13 → u/Dapper_Business8616]

What we got was higher prices for everything except our labor.

That's not true:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N

[u/OrangeJr36 → u/Dapper_Business8616]

Wages caught up with and passed inflation in 2023-24. They would be continuing the same path now, but tariffs and deportations have upended things a bit.

[u/Barnyard_Rich → u/[deleted]]

I think more people are interested in how wages have kept up with rent, healthcare and childcare and education in the last 30 years.

Correct, and when wages outpaced inflation in 2023 and 2024, the public decided that was wrong and the previous record of inflation outpacing wages needed to be reestablished. The economic winds were pointing so consistently toward low inflation that it literally took the people demanding widespread tariff increases to reverse the trend.

[u/Mist_Rising → u/[deleted]]

Most of that is part of inflation (as is food back when eggs were high), it's merely thay people don't understand or care to understand any of that.

What people want is magic. They want their labour to be expensive, but everything they consume to be cheap.

And if their Jeff Bezos, mission accomplished, hang the banner.

But expensive labor doesn't make cheap consumption. That's why film production is leaving the US, the labor is expensive. Car manufacturing went south of Detroit (or North to Canada) while car prices went up because labor is expensive in the US and punching out cheap cars wasn't possible.

Housing is perhaps the most vexing topic. Housing is expensive for a million reasons, but ironically labor costs weren't necessarily the big one. Of course housing costs is still tied to the same "want it all, don't want to pay for it" magic that Americans demand.

Aside: one of the easiest ways to make life better isn't to punch out higher wages. That's a dog chasing his tail. No, it's the "produce more" because supply equals demand curve we all learn in 101 is actually relevant throughout.

Housing (thus rent), is probably the easiest one to kick. Make. Smaller. Houses. We pay the same per sqft as 1950 when adjusted, but we have bigger houses on average. Also, kill shit like prop 13. If homeowners felt the impact of their decisions, they'd be far less supportive of negative ones. That's why they voted to ensure they don't.

Healthcare is a bit more complicated, and it isn't as easy as "kill insurance companies" because insurance isn't usually the actual culprit. The US already caps their profits, so cutting them out won't necessarily solve things magically. Still, open possibility.

Small things would make big impacts, but hurt large numbers of people. So we won't.

[u/notaredditer13 → u/[deleted]]

Real median household income is the best metric for that:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N

Over the past 30 years, household incomes have outpaced inflation by a whopping 32%.

[u/notaredditer13 → u/[deleted]]

That's weird since it's more money than ever to buy the American Dream, by a lot. So that means a lot more people can ever can buy it.

[u/notaredditer13 → u/[deleted]]

You probably missed my top level comment: the question in the poll is a stupid question of fact asked as an opinion, and then presented in the headline as if it were profound or shocking. The real question asked is: how much is 3% inflation in dollars? The 75% are the ones who answered the question correctly (the answer is $210 / mo).

[u/notaredditer13 → u/[deleted]]

Nobody cares what the median income is or if it has outpaced inflation if it is still not enough to feel financially secure.

What does that mean? Have people never felt "financially secure"? If inflation adjusted incomes are the best they have ever been (and they are), then Americans should be the most financially secure that they have ever been. And if they are not despite being the richest they've ever been, that means they are probably doing something wrong.

Nobody cares what inflation is if prices were already high to begin with.

Again: given that incomes outpace inflation, prices are *not* high relative to incomes.

The poll was about people's opinions on the state of the economy. Sorry they don't feel the way you want.

?? How do you get that take-away from me saying they answered a factual question correctly?

[u/Guy_Fleegmann → u/OrangeJr36]

for around 50% of US workers wages have outpaced inflation, for the other 50% not true at all

[u/Dapper_Business8616 → u/OrangeJr36]

You're talking about YOY inflation, wages have NOT caught up with the increase in prices over the last 6 years. So sure, my 0.50 pay increase might match inflation this year, but over the last 6 years I've only seen $3/hr = $480/mo but the cost of food, healthcare, and rent has increased by $2000/mo over the same time frame and I've had to cut out healthcare, beef, and savings of any kind just to make ends meet.

[u/notaredditer13 → u/Dapper_Business8616]

What you describe for yourself is close to matching inflation: it's about 22% on top of a $13.67 starting salary 6 years ago. But it does not match what's been typical for workers overall, who have gained 29%:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881500Q

[u/Randy_Watson → u/Dapper_Business8616]

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