The economy is the best its ever been, but
wealth inequality is the worst its ever been. The cost of living has gone up far, far faster than income has, while wages have stagnated or dropped, meaning people these days are earning less money and have more expenses than before.
To hear someone who was making $10/hour out of college and bought a home for $40,000 say that the reason millennials can't buy a home today is because they're buying avocado toast and not because equivalent homes cost $1.6 million today is infuriating. Relatively speaking, millennials are doing better, frugally, than baby boomers were (saving more, spending less, etc), but the cost of the things that people are complaining about has grown exponentially.
Meanwhile, almost all of the growth of the economy has gone towards the top 1% of people. If you look at, for example, Canada, the average CEO makes as much by January 2nd as the average worker does by December 31st.
CEO pay growth over the last few decades has skyrocketed (compared to inflation, worker wages, or even corporate profits), while worker wages basically track inflation. In other words, people are making the same amount of money as people 50 years ago, even though a lot of things cost more (e.g. housing).
Blaming the economy inequality on the fact that people aren't willing to take on second jobs ignores the fact that wealth and power is all being concentrated in a small number of people and the rest of us are forced to fight over what they're willing to leave behind for everyone else.
To hear someone who was making $10/hour out of college and bought a home for $40,000 say that the reason millennials can't buy a home today is because they're buying avocado toast and not because equivalent homes cost $1.6 million today is infuriating. Relatively speaking, millennials are doing better, frugally, than baby boomers were (saving more, spending less, etc), but the cost of the things that people are complaining about has grown exponentially.
Meanwhile, almost all of the growth of the economy has gone towards the top 1% of people. If you look at, for example, Canada, the average CEO makes as much by January 2nd as the average worker does by December 31st.
CEO pay growth over the last few decades has skyrocketed (compared to inflation, worker wages, or even corporate profits), while worker wages basically track inflation. In other words, people are making the same amount of money as people 50 years ago, even though a lot of things cost more (e.g. housing).
Blaming the economy inequality on the fact that people aren't willing to take on second jobs ignores the fact that wealth and power is all being concentrated in a small number of people and the rest of us are forced to fight over what they're willing to leave behind for everyone else.