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nonstopdev | 2 years ago

Forget inflation data. Companies are not doing raises and a lot are not doing bonuses. Is anyone honestly saying they spend less now than a few years ago? Would love to hear the back story.

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jjeaff|2 years ago

Do you have data to indicate that companies are not doing raises or bonuses? or is this your opinion based on anecdotes?

We don't spend a lot more than a few years ago. Mortgage is fixed and we work from home so we don't drive much, so gas prices don't affect us much. Groceries and eating out is certainly more but wasn't a high percentage expenditure before. We get a lot of our groceries from Costco, who seem to pin the prices of certain staples, so we really aren't paying much more for milk, eggs, and of course rotisserie chicken.

overall inflation is entirely dependent on your personal "basket of goods" so some are affected less than others.

simple-thoughts|2 years ago

Most hacker news people aren’t experiencing any positive effects from inflation, since the tech industry is fundamentally about future growth rather than present income. Higher interest rates means less funding for ventures.

According to the economic stats, the average US worker is receiving raises that are slightly above cpi. Most workers aren’t professionals whether in tech or not.

The current situation is monetary deflation but price inflation. The same amount of money will buy more of the long term hard assets, but less consumer goods. That weirdness is due to government policy; large deficits on the one side drive up demand for consumer goods, and industrial policy constricts supply of consumer goods on the other side. Then in order to reduce the impact of these policies, the federal reserve constricts the money supply causing monetary deflation. So there’s less money, but prices are higher anyway.

Of course since there’s less money available for long term investments, at some point in the future the price inflation will worsen due to a reduced supply of consumer goods unless there’s countervailing effects.

shrubble|2 years ago

I am spending less, but only because I am cutting back like crazy on certain items (storage unit emptied and put into spare room etc.).

Prices on food have certainly increased - 10lbs of Quaker Oats oatmeal at Costco went up about 15% , and the organic 5lb bag went from about $8 to $10.99 at the same time. Meat also, the Angus ground beef patties are $5/lb from Costco, up from I think $4/lb a year ago.