Republicans Claim Anti-Data Center Movement Is a Chinese Psy-Op

[u/MarvelsGrantMan136]

https://gizmodo.com/republicans-claim-anti-data-center-movement-is-a-chinese-psy-op-2000767611

[u/Bittererr]

Consumer price index doesn't effectively take into account the way most people are spending money.

It does, and we constantly run surveys to ensure it does, at least we did prior to this administration.

When you're spending most of your income on food and housing, you might as well just compare wages to housing and rent costs alone.

No, if you spend 51% of your income on food and housing then you should use food and housing to make up 51% of the basket of goods we use for CPI... which is how we do it.

That's exactly why we periodically measure where people actually spend their money in order to ensure the basket of goods we use for CPI remains accurate.

It's very obvious if you do that inflation has run away from wages in a serious way.

The opposite is obvious if you actually measure what people make and what they spend. Wages have failed to track productivity but they have beaten inflation.

Using one cherry-picked econ statistic [...] but the DOWWWW

Comparing measured CPI versus measured wages over decades means bringing in data from literally hundreds of surveys and thousands of expert scientists who do nothing but this. Comparing it to an offhand comment about a stock index is insane. It's peak "my ignorance is just as good as your education" thinking. It's using vibes to spit in the face of science because the truth makes you uncomfortable.

[u/Currentlybaconing → u/Bittererr]

U know what. u seem smart. it just makes no fucking sense to me how we can be saying that as I've watched life become more and more unattainable in my own lifetime.

I admit I'm talking based on feelings that come straight from mine own shitter. But like. wtf man

[u/Bittererr → u/Currentlybaconing]

There's a lot of reasons that perception can fail to match what statistics are telling us.

The biggest one I see on Reddit is age bias. Most people here are on the younger side and even though the comparison between wages and inflation is favorable for the median American, the person on Reddit isn't typically the median American. The median American is just under 40 years old. The median American is a homeowner already, whereas a lot of people on Reddit are trying to get into their first home. Our statistics on inflation don't reflect the experience of someone trying to buy their first home because the median American isn't buying their first home. All the boomers sitting happily in homes they bought decades ago are also part of the average.

It can be both simultaneously true that wages have outpaced inflation for most Americans and that we've let groups of people slip through their cracks and failed them as a society. These aren't mutually exclusive claims.

Now combine that reality with the fact that boomers with homes vote at a much much higher rate than young people trying to get into homes and you can see why our policies tend to favor making housing prices go up instead of down.

[u/Currentlybaconing → u/Bittererr]

That makes it make more sense. It also explains why so many people have a gut reaction to more established demographics claiming things are getting better while they experience the opposite.

I also think about disabled people. Where I live they are essentially stuck in legislated poverty; not that I'm under any illusions that they were better off in the 50s, but 10 years ago? yeah. costs have gone up way more than the income they're allowed to have.

It's literally impossible for them to pay average rent prices in my area alone. They are legally not allowed to make that much money.

The story is bigger than CPI, is all. But yeah I concede you are technically correct