
(Why Millennials Are) America’s First Poor Generation - paulpauper
https://eand.co/why-millennials-are-americas-first-poor-generation-aa91998bc75
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eberkund
One of the talking points I hear repeated by one side of the debate is:
although wealth inequality is high, even the people at the bottom can afford
more than ever.

I was doing some shopping the other day and I got thinking about how this
could potentially be false. Similar to how salaries have gone up slower than
the rate of inflation, I feel like with many products the quality has
decreases substantially to prevent increasing prices. I don't believe this
sort of thing is factored into studies on spending power, wealth inequality or
inflation.

It is more obvious when you look back decades and notice that household items
that used to be made out of solid, more expensive materials like metal or
wood, are now made out of flimsy plastic that will probably need replacing in
a few months. I couldn't find any information about which specific products
make up the consumer price index beyond broad categories but I think many
products if you compare items made from the same material and quality there
would be a difference of 2x or more.

~~~
api
The poor can afford more gadgets, information, toys, appliances, etc than ever
before. What they can't afford is housing, tuition, and health care, the three
things whose cost has exploded since the late 1990s. In larger cities and
especially coastal ones housing is the worst, while for the interior its
education and health care.

~~~
eberkund
I'm not disagreeing that housing, tuition and health care costs have exploded.
What I am suspicious about is whether people can afford more of those other
things than ever before. At first glance it appears so, but it also seems to
me like people replace those things far quicker than ever before also.

If I have to replace appliances after 5 or 10 years where it used to last 30+
yrs, does it really matter if it's half the cost? Not to mention the
repairability factor. It used to be that many items could be repaired but now
we buy cheap disposable items and replace them when they inevitably fail.

It's hard to compare something like this but this is my gut feeling and I'm
curious to hear what other people think.

