The Funniest Memes About Donald Trump's Impending Doll Shortage
gizmodo.com
President Trump said, "Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls."

I swear I had Econ in college, but I don’t remember anyone saying this so succinctly. It’s from a weird place too, but this quote hits home. It’s like population decline, but for money.

It was a truly baffling thing for an American president to say. And University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers explained on MSNBC that things could get very bad as Trump’s scheme becomes reality. Wolfers ntoed that the idea of how much you can afford to buy with your income is called “real income.” And if real income falls, that’s called a recession. Wolfers went on to explain that if things decline as badly as Trump’s example, where someone who bought 30 dolls could only afford to buy two dolls, that’s called a depression.

Video from MSNBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAZxLm6M_V0

    • frezik@midwest.socialEnglish
      81·
      20 hours ago

      This is a good analysis, but it’s slightly different from OP’s statement.

      Median real wages actually are up since 1979. It became something of a meme post-2008 to say that median wages have been flat since that time. That was true for a few years following the Great Recession, but they caught up and went quite a bit higher. It’s possible the numbers will cycle around to that again, but it’s not where we’re at right now.

      What the graphs in the article are arguing is that wages over that time are much lower than they should be given productivity increases.

      Let’s say you work for one hour making a widget, and you get $1 for that time. Your boss sells the widget for $5 and pockets the difference. Now there’s an increase in productivity, and you can make two widgets in the same hour. You still get paid $1 for that hour, but your boss is selling those two widgets for $10 total now. You’re not getting a raise just because of that productivity increase.

      You might get a raise due to inflation. With 4% inflation, you get to make $1.04/hour, but your boss is now selling those widgets for $5.20 each. This is more or less the story since 1979.

      That difference between productivity and real wages is what’s charted out above. It tells you exactly who the real moochers are in society.

      This all tracks very neatly with a decline in union membership.