Inflation hits 6-year high, wiping out wage gains for the average American

[Zan15]

It is called "Built-in inflation". And the effect you describe is called "The price/wage spiral". Which I think is already happening for some time now (the spiral)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Built-in_inflation

in a perfect vacuum this would be almost true, but history has proven that this is not the case since there is more than just wages that make up the cost of products. And there is production increases and other ways to cut labor cost besides wages.

[Jujudrood]

When the coal jobs come back this will be fixed....

Reminds me of...

[Draco-Onis]

It used to be that places of employment would train new employees (instead they want ludicrous prior experience). Now they dont want to and bitch that they cant find anyone to hire.

What a fucking shock.

Pretty much this employers are basically pugs asking for 930 ilvl for 890 content. They don't want to invest or train employees which is why a national jobs training program would do wonders for the economy.

[Rasulis]

Pretty much this employers are basically pugs asking for 930 ilvl for 890 content. They don't want to invest or train employees which is why a national jobs training program would do wonders for the economy.

Maybe that is the case with small and medium companies. I do know from personal experience, that large construction and engineering companies like Turner, Kiewitt, Bechtel, Flour, PCL, Skanska, Obayashi, Jacobs, Kleinfelder, AECOM, Clark, Swinerton, Black & Veatch provide apprenticeship and training. The same with many drilling companies.

Their biggest problem right now is finding people that can pass background check and pee test.

[McFuu]

What it means is the chest-beating repubs and Trump dick-suckers did over things like the Walmart bonus payouts was even more stupid than was called out at the time.

Bonuses aren't raises though. You guys are turning an article that states the obvious and has been true for years as some kind of drum beat to march an army too.
It's disingenuous at best. Like the article that stated school age children were more likely to die than military members.
Again, no shit, that's always been true. A cherry picked group of people in the prime of their lives VS all school aged children.

[Hilhen7]

he theory is that if the minimum wage rises, it will cause inflation. It says that corporations will raise prices in order to recuperate their profits that were lost from the increase of the cost of production, in this case, the increase of the minimum wage. Because employers will have to spend more money on their employees, they will just increase the prices to make it up. It makes sense in theory but that’s not how it works in reality.

Even in theory it doesn't make sense, because they don't account for increased productivity.

Productivity for many industries has increased but wages don't reflect that.

[Draco-Onis]

Even in theory it doesn't make sense, because they don't account for increased productivity.

Productivity for many industries has increased but wages don't reflect that.

Technology increase productivity it is a multiplier as technology gets better which is pretty much every single day productivity will continue to go up but that is detached from human performance / compensation.

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Maybe that is the case with small and medium companies. I do know from personal experience, that large construction and engineering companies like Turner, Kiewitt, Bechtel, Flour, PCL, Skanska, Obayashi, Jacobs, Kleinfelder, AECOM, Clark, Swinerton, Black & Veatch provide apprenticeship and training. The same with many drilling companies.

Their biggest problem right now is finding people that can pass background check and pee test.

I think construction is still suffering from what happened after the housing crash many people left that industry and many are still avoiding it. This might just a special case also people usually look down on blue collar jobs.

[Toppy]

Even in theory it doesn't make sense, because they don't account for increased productivity.

Productivity for many industries has increased but wages don't reflect that.

We need to move away from the fairy tale that money is worth more if you worked harder for it. That has gone a long way in ensuring people dont make living wages since it supports the idea that people deserve to suffer and allows businesses to have record productivity without any expectation that they then pay their workers more.

[unbound]

Really

Or is he just acting?

Actually, this is potentially real on their part. With the low unemployment, they were expecting workers wages to go up more than they have. As far as theory goes, with low unemployment, workers should be willing (and able) to jump ship more easily with employers being forced to pay more to attract the talent that they want / need to fill positions (hence higher wages).

The main reason for this disconnect is that most economists refuse to acknowledge the reality that there are lots of backroom deals that go on between corporations. My own corporate HR department used to openly brag that they talked to our competitors about salaries...ostensibly to make sure would be getting fair wages, but, in fact, it becomes explicit collusion to keep wages consistent (and lower than they should be). Since these are backroom discussions with verbal agreements only (typically), they don't get caught very often or are largely ignored because of the more onerous nonsense (e.g. Silicon Valley outright and explicit agreements not to hire each others talent).

[Zan15]

Pretty much this employers are basically pugs asking for 930 ilvl for 890 content. They don't want to invest or train employees which is why a national jobs training program would do wonders for the economy.

So basically a bail out for corporations....who don't want to spend on training.


didn't we just give them a trillion.

[Eveningforest]

So basically a bail out for corporations....who don't want to spend on training.

This is why you hear things like "national nursing shortage." There really isn't a shortage of nurses (there are nursing schools in just about every neighborhood);it's just that hospitals resembling luxury resorts these days don't want to pay for training of inexperienced people.
The staff they do have on the floor is stretched so thin, they can't even take a lunch break. They last a year and quit in frustration, and the cycle continues.
For profit health care is criminal.

[Toogoodman]

Off topic, but are you guys self serve, or full service?

Self serve, literally almost zero full service station. Also, most places offer a "discounted rate" for cash users, like who the fuck has cash

[Kathandira]

Self serve, literally almost zero full service station. Also, most places offer a "discounted rate" for cash users, like who the fuck has cash

I'm interested in this. In NJ there have been talks about moving to self serve, but when I hear gas prices from other states, they are in the same ballpark as they are in NJ, but we only have Full Service. Which is why I don't want to go to self serve. I'm quite sure the prices will remain the same, but we will be losing a service. I'd rather, if i'm paying the same price, I'd like it to stay the way it is.

[ldev]

I get 16 mpg, and am happy for it. Much more fuel efficient than any of those listed. Try hauling a trailer and a bunch of tools and supplies in a Focus.

So you bought STI to haul trailers?

[Toogoodman]

Lol next time buy a good car? Golf R, Focus RS, Leon Cupra ST? They consume less fuel and when you're driving below 4k RPM, they don't feel like 1.4 diesel lol. STI is such a shitty car.

My car progression went:

Golf R (2006, aka R32), Evo X, and now I have a 2012 STI making 440WHP, getting a solid 9-11 MPG. I actually have to say, out of all the cars on this list, the Golf was the worst one, likely just the one I bought. It had a leaking evap line, multiple recalls, constantly failed inspections (with zero mods in that car), turbo oil line blew TWICE, and what really was the last straw was when all the power sockets no longer worked, and the clock would go 11:50, 3:45, 9:30, 10:44 all in the period of 30 seconds. The best hands down was the Evo X, too bad a lady in an Escalade was on her cell phone and decided to T-bone me at 30 mph and ruin it.

Also, we purchased my fiance a 2014 GLI, the clutch blew at 8000 miles lmao, it also constantly failed inspections, ill never buy a VW again.

However, if they keep making the RS, I might buy one down the road.

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So you bought STI to haul trailers?

They actually have a good tow capacity lmao, listed higher than most SUV's, I could never get a hitch on mine though, its got about 3 inches of ground clearance in the summer.

[Kathandira]

My car progression went:

Golf R (2006, aka R32), Evo X, and now I have a 2012 STI making 440WHP, getting a solid 9-11 MPG. I actually have to say, out of all the cars on this list, the Golf was the worst one, likely just the one I bought. It had a leaking evap line, multiple recalls, constantly failed inspections (with zero mods in that car), turbo oil line blew TWICE, and what really was the last straw was when all the power sockets no longer worked, and the clock would go 11:50, 3:45, 9:30, 10:44 all in the period of 30 seconds. The best hands down was the Evo X, too bad a lady in an Escalade was on her cell phone and decided to T-bone me at 30 mph and ruin it.

Also, we purchased my fiance a 2014 GLI, the clutch blew at 8000 miles lmao, it also constantly failed inspections, ill never buy a VW again.

However, if they keep making the RS, I might buy one down the road.

I agree with this. Golf R32's and such aren't made that well. Anyone I know who has had one, has had more problems than a typical car would have.

And STI might be rough on gas, but it is a car that will last.

[ProfessorTjc]

Extra $1 per gallon? Yikes, it's still 60 cents lower per gallon than it was about 3 years ago here. Everytime I see a 5-10 cent jump (it yo yo's that 10 cent range a lot, up and down), I glare at the sign hoping it won't go back to $3/gallon here. But an extra $1/gallon? Nah. It's been decades since gas was around $1.50.

Fairly sure California is always over $3 and near $4, but California is pants on head crazy expensive, so I assume that's standard there.

Here in Florida our regular gas price was $1.90ish late 2015 and now it's $2.76.

[Yuujin]

Just thank Obama for printing billions of dollars and injecting it into the economy while keep interest rates incredibly low. This creates an asset price bubble, hence higher cost of housing and other big credit related assets mainly controlled by banks. This explains why stock market is where it is as well.

Why would employees all of a sudden start getting paid more if skills required and actual work are staying the same? People are so lost trying to blame in the wrong places...'I should get more because the government should be giving me more'. The logic is garbage. Stop wanting the government to help you so much.

Gas prices are incredibly cyclical and is not a major reflection of the US government toying with it. Incredibly reliant on world supply vs. demand, see basic economics.

Tariffs while will increase pricing in short term, would potentially create US jobs and thus increasing wage rates in the medium term, especially if some of those jobs are high skilled.

When I see people posting 'well in my country I get raises all the time and I don't do anything', that's probably false. Your governments don't put mandatory raises for your company unless you live in a communist/socialist country. I work in the US and basically have gotten big raises every 2-3 years since finishing college because I do a good job, not because anyone is making them.

Thanks Obama, for decades of wage stagnation and for being the first President in history to inject money into the economy.

[Dolus]

Gas is $2.65 here in TX.

https://gasprices.aaa.com/state-gas-price-averages/

[Rasulis]

I'm interested in this. In NJ there have been talks about moving to self serve, but when I hear gas prices from other states, they are in the same ballpark as they are in NJ, but we only have Full Service. Which is why I don't want to go to self serve. I'm quite sure the prices will remain the same, but we will be losing a service. I'd rather, if i'm paying the same price, I'd like it to stay the way it is.

"The Garden State self-service gas station ban dates back to 1949, when the New Jersey Legislature passed the Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act, primarily over concerns about the safety of consumers pumping petroleum themselves."

It was Irving Reingold who created the crisis that led to the law banning self-serve gasoline. Reingold, a workaholic who took time out only to fly his collection of World War II fighter planes, started the crisis by doing something gas station owners hated: He lowered prices. Fifty-one years ago, gas was selling at 21.9 cents a gallon. The price was rigged by a gentlemen's agreement among gas station owners.

Reingold decided to offer the consumer a choice by opening up a 24-pump gas station on Route 17 in Hackensack. He offered gas at 18.9 cents a gallon. The only requirement was that drivers pump it themselves. They didn't mind. They lined up for blocks.

The other gas station operators didn't like the competition. Someone tried shooting up Reingold's station. But he installed bulletproof glass, so the retailers looked for a softer target - the Statehouse. The Gasoline Retailers Association prevailed upon its pals in the Legislature to push through a bill banning self-serve gas. The pretext was safety, but the Hackensack fire chief had already told all who would listen that Rein- gold's operation was perfectly safe.

The bill sailed through in record time, despite the objections of everyone who cared about the public interest. Journalists howled. "Chalk up another victory for the organized pressure groups," said WOR radio commentator Lyle Van.

Prices went back up. Reingold got out of gas and moved on to other endeavors, such as revolutionizing the sport-fishing business in Florida with boats that were bigger and more luxurious than anyone had seen. On his deathbed he was still angry about the way the politicians ran him out of business. It's amazing that New Jersey consumers could still be suffering in the Internet era from a crooked deal that went through in the pre-television era.