Ben, that's a clear explanation and to the point. Its good that median incomes are keeping up. But, what's happening at the low and high end of the scale?
In Australia it now requires two incomes at the average level to finance the purchase of an average priced house. If we go back to 1908 one man on the minimum wage could afford to keep a wife and three children. Granted, houses were smaller and less well appointed at that time and the man would have got around on two legs and a bicycle rather than a car.
I think in prior posts you’ve commented on how much a percentage of CPI shelter makes up and it being more than 25%? So the CPI inflation is already being pulled up by those price / rent inflation numbers too. The difference between price / rent inflation and a CPI inflation rate that was adjusted to not include shelter would be even more substantial!
Ben, that's a clear explanation and to the point. Its good that median incomes are keeping up. But, what's happening at the low and high end of the scale?
In Australia it now requires two incomes at the average level to finance the purchase of an average priced house. If we go back to 1908 one man on the minimum wage could afford to keep a wife and three children. Granted, houses were smaller and less well appointed at that time and the man would have got around on two legs and a bicycle rather than a car.
I think in prior posts you’ve commented on how much a percentage of CPI shelter makes up and it being more than 25%? So the CPI inflation is already being pulled up by those price / rent inflation numbers too. The difference between price / rent inflation and a CPI inflation rate that was adjusted to not include shelter would be even more substantial!