For the bottom 20% of Americans in terms of income, the cost of food and housing accounts for more than 50% of their expenditures. Housing (shelter) prices are one of the fastest growing sectors in the consumer price index. While prices overall in the last 12 months have climbed by 2.0% according to the CPI, the prices of shelter have climbed by 2.8%.
Most of us reading this website know that a major cause of this price inflation is the mad money printing going on by the Fed. Unfortunately some people will draw the wrong conclusions from this graph and join Sawant in Seattle to advocate for high minimum wages, which will only lead to higher unemployment and higher price inflation.
ReplyDeleteEnd the Fed!
Taxes and fines should be broken out as well. Especially when moving above the the bottom 20% where it quickly becomes the number one expenditure.
ReplyDeleteI'm low income; I have to manage my budget so I do not pay more than 28% for housing; if I do then dental insurance goes out the window and I start to lose my teeth.
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons why Obama won in the election was that he promised Obamacare and the votes flowed in because low income people can not sustain life paying for health care and housing.
The bottom line here is that low income people simply cant survive paying 40% on housing.