Value Driven: The standard-of-living bubble - Aug. 20, 2008 - The Diigo Meta page

• 20 Aug 08
  

  harry palmer

  debt hello-oblivion thevault us-economy sick:us markets credit

  • For the past several years, the average inflation-adjusted total pay of American workers hasn't been increasing. That means we haven't been building a foundation for increases in our living standard. You might be tempted to say that by definition our living standard couldn't have increased, but that's not quite right. Even with stagnant real incomes, we can always live a little better every year through borrowing and pretending that our living standard is still rising, just as it was for decades.
  • Since credit card debt has been growing much faster than the economy - more than 8% in last year's third and fourth quarters and over 7% in May (the most recent month reported)- people are apparently using it as a substitute for income. Thus, for the past year or so we have still maintained the standard-of-living illusion.
• 

  Kallu Kalakar

  Economic_Crisis

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