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Good news! The average worker has gone from spending about 25% of their paycheck on food in 1930[1] to about 11% today[2]. This is during a time period where th

Good news! The average worker has gone from spending about 25% of their paycheck on food in 1930[1] to about 11% today[2]. This is during a time period where the average worker has decreased their total hours[3]. This is confounded by more people entering the workforce, but the earliest data I can find suggests that we've gone from 58% of the population in the workforce in 1950 to 63% today[4]. [1] https://flatworldknowledge.lardbucket.org/books/beginning-economic-analysis/s05-03-households-and-consumption.html#mcafee-ch04_s03_f10 https://flatworldknowledge.lardbucket.org/books/beginning-ec... (Note that "Food" is "food as a percentage of income", and "eating out" is "eating out as a percentage of food" which makes the chart look weird. This means that the 11% number below includes the cost of the private taxi for your burrito.) [2] https://www.axios.com/2024/02/27/price-food-us-inflation-data-groceries https://www.axios.com/2024/02/27/price-food-us-inflation-dat... [3] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=18H2H https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=18H2H [4] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CIVPART https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CIVPART

aprilthird2021 1y ago
I don't believe we work less hours now. Something about that chart seems off. Wish I knew the methodology of its calculations
- WorldMaker 1y ago
  I'm more concerned about the graph attributed to flatworldknowledge.lardbucket.org. I've lived on the internet long enough to know a shitposter when I see one and that's a whale of a URL that every fiber of my body says never to click. I know it is a logical fallacy to dismiss an entire argument simply by association with a crank, but that's my gut reaction to that post.
  - timerol 1y ago
    ... I didn't even notice the name. That site is an archive of a collection of textbooks that were Creative Commons-licensed before 2012, dedicated to the memory of Aaron Swartz. Evidently https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/beginning-economic-analysis/s05-03-households-and-consumption.html#mcafee-ch04_s03_f10 https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/beginning-economic-an... goes to the same place. I feel like I just got pranked by SEO somehow
- timerol 1y ago
  Alas, the government provides no transparency into these calculations. What can a concerned citizen do, other than say "I don't believe"? https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2022/article/improving-estimates-of-hours-worked-for-us-productivity-measurement.htm https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2022/article/improving-estimate...
  - no_wizard 1y ago
    wait, are you saying they actually don't or is this some form of sarcasm? because the link clearly shows, to me at least, that they document the methods publicly

aprilthird2021 1y ago

I don't believe we work less hours now. Something about that chart seems off. Wish I knew the methodology of its calculations

WorldMaker 1y ago
I'm more concerned about the graph attributed to flatworldknowledge.lardbucket.org. I've lived on the internet long enough to know a shitposter when I see one and that's a whale of a URL that every fiber of my body says never to click. I know it is a logical fallacy to dismiss an entire argument simply by association with a crank, but that's my gut reaction to that post.
- timerol 1y ago
  ... I didn't even notice the name. That site is an archive of a collection of textbooks that were Creative Commons-licensed before 2012, dedicated to the memory of Aaron Swartz. Evidently https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/beginning-economic-analysis/s05-03-households-and-consumption.html#mcafee-ch04_s03_f10 https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/beginning-economic-an... goes to the same place. I feel like I just got pranked by SEO somehow
timerol 1y ago
Alas, the government provides no transparency into these calculations. What can a concerned citizen do, other than say "I don't believe"? https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2022/article/improving-estimates-of-hours-worked-for-us-productivity-measurement.htm https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2022/article/improving-estimate...
- no_wizard 1y ago
  wait, are you saying they actually don't or is this some form of sarcasm? because the link clearly shows, to me at least, that they document the methods publicly