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355 points Aloisius | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.22s | source
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like_any_other ◴[] No.44393473[source]
Nothing to worry about - life in the year 1990 was good, and that was with an inflation-adjusted GDP per capita just 59% of current (2023) value [1]. So we would need 82 of such 0.5% drops until things got as "bad" as in the year 1990.

Because GDP is a meaningful quality of life indicator.

[1] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.KD?location...

replies(1): >>44397465 #
1. DiscourseFan ◴[] No.44397465[source]
Yes, but this data does not show that the "upper-middle class" (ie the professional class), which I imagine everyone here is a part of, has had significantly more gains than every other class aside from the very wealthy. For people with college degrees, and especially advanced degrees, that wealth has been realized quite clearly (and I don't know a whole lot of people in that position who are remotely interested in leaving the US, aside from those who are having trouble in academia and don't realize how easy it is to move to the private sector). For those with jobs in sectors that are less technologically advanced (who tend to have less education), thus less productive overall, their compensation is matched by the equivalent thereof in the global market, which is much more fiercely competitive than it was even 30-40 years ago.