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View Full Version : How the middle class lifestyle became unaffordable.



U-Ute
05-09-2014, 11:07 AM
An interesting read.

http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2014/05/how-middle-class-lifestyle-became.html

Sullyute
05-09-2014, 01:33 PM
I tried to read the article but felt like I needed a master in Economics to understand what he was trying to say. :(

LA Ute
05-09-2014, 01:45 PM
1121

U-Ute
05-09-2014, 02:29 PM
1121

I'm not sure I understand the statement you are making with this...

LA Ute
05-09-2014, 02:51 PM
I'm not sure I understand the statement you are making with this...

I took as about disposable income being gone.

LA Ute
05-09-2014, 02:57 PM
1122

Rocker Ute
05-10-2014, 05:40 AM
An interesting read.

http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2014/05/how-middle-class-lifestyle-became.html


Found the wages vs productivity graph interesting and supports what I and many others have been saying for a long time. Each piece of technology that comes our way is billed as 'making our lives easier' but rarely do and in most instances make our lives harder but does make us more productive.

For example, imagine 20 years ago if you came home from work and told your family that you wrote 120 notes of varying length and detail and had direct conversations with 40 other people. That would have been known as the craziest work day on record, but your day would have also ended.

Now what I described with email, cell phones, text and IM/social media is completely commonplace and your day never ends. Emails stream in at all hours of the day and weekends and demand immediate response. Our bosses and or clients have reached into all hours of our lives. 20 years ago say your boss or clients called you on your old land line at home after work hours 3 or 4 times they'd be considered the biggest assholes of all time. Now I think everyone is doing that.

So we are way more productive (well I might argue that people view shooting emails out at a blistering pace cc'ing everyone in sight is equated to productivity but actually reduces it) but our wages and often our actual quality of life never went up because of it.

It is interesting to watch my Mom who while she does have a cell phone and does email etc, has kept herself largely out of most of these techs. She'll turn on her cell like once a day if she remembers to see if someone left her a message. She checks email maybe a few times a week. She always looks puzzled at her kids like, "Why are you doing this to yourselves?" We tease her about being tech savvy but she avoids the little stresses that don't matter but dominate our lives and just focuses on the stresses that actually matter.

I would love if society drew a line where it is understood that when it comes to business nobody is going to answer their phones or emails or anything else after 6pm and before 8am and people will start ditching these devices and reclaim their lives and human interactions with people. This may be a 'first world problem' but I can't help but notice how inhumane life has become in this regard. Even when our species was fighting for each scrap of food that they caught, cultivated or killed themselves, the sun eventually went down at night and the work was done.

LA Ute
05-10-2014, 11:40 AM
Found the wages vs productivity graph interesting and supports what I and many others have been saying for a long time. Each piece of technology that comes our way is billed as 'making our lives easier' but rarely do and in most instances make our lives harder but does make us more productive.

For example, imagine 20 years ago if you came home from work and told your family that you wrote 120 notes of varying length and detail and had direct conversations with 40 other people. That would have been known as the craziest work day on record, but your day would have also ended.

Now what I described with email, cell phones, text and IM/social media is completely commonplace and your day never ends. Emails stream in at all hours of the day and weekends and demand immediate response. Our bosses and or clients have reached into all hours of our lives. 20 years ago say your boss or clients called you on your old land line at home after work hours 3 or 4 times they'd be considered the biggest assholes of all time. Now I think everyone is doing that.

So we are way more productive (well I might argue that people view shooting emails out at a blistering pace cc'ing everyone in sight is equated to productivity but actually reduces it) but our wages and often our actual quality of life never went up because of it.

It is interesting to watch my Mom who while she does have a cell phone and does email etc, has kept herself largely out of most of these techs. She'll turn on her cell like once a day if she remembers to see if someone left her a message. She checks email maybe a few times a week. She always looks puzzled at her kids like, "Why are you doing this to yourselves?" We tease her about being tech savvy but she avoids the little stresses that don't matter but dominate our lives and just focuses on the stresses that actually matter.

I would love if society drew a line where it is understood that when it comes to business nobody is going to answer their phones or emails or anything else after 6pm and before 8am and people will start ditching these devices and reclaim their lives and human interactions with people. This may be a 'first world problem' but I can't help but notice how inhumane life has become in this regard. Even when our species was fighting for each scrap of food that they caught, cultivated or killed themselves, the sun eventually went down at night and the work was done.

:clap:

DanielLaRusso
05-10-2014, 12:28 PM
Found the wages vs productivity graph interesting and supports what I and many others have been saying for a long time. Each piece of technology that comes our way is billed as 'making our lives easier' but rarely do and in most instances make our lives harder but does make us more productive.

For example, imagine 20 years ago if you came home from work and told your family that you wrote 120 notes of varying length and detail and had direct conversations with 40 other people. That would have been known as the craziest work day on record, but your day would have also ended.

Now what I described with email, cell phones, text and IM/social media is completely commonplace and your day never ends. Emails stream in at all hours of the day and weekends and demand immediate response. Our bosses and or clients have reached into all hours of our lives. 20 years ago say your boss or clients called you on your old land line at home after work hours 3 or 4 times they'd be considered the biggest assholes of all time. Now I think everyone is doing that.

So we are way more productive (well I might argue that people view shooting emails out at a blistering pace cc'ing everyone in sight is equated to productivity but actually reduces it) but our wages and often our actual quality of life never went up because of it.

It is interesting to watch my Mom who while she does have a cell phone and does email etc, has kept herself largely out of most of these techs. She'll turn on her cell like once a day if she remembers to see if someone left her a message. She checks email maybe a few times a week. She always looks puzzled at her kids like, "Why are you doing this to yourselves?" We tease her about being tech savvy but she avoids the little stresses that don't matter but dominate our lives and just focuses on the stresses that actually matter.

I would love if society drew a line where it is understood that when it comes to business nobody is going to answer their phones or emails or anything else after 6pm and before 8am and people will start ditching these devices and reclaim their lives and human interactions with people. This may be a 'first world problem' but I can't help but notice how inhumane life has become in this regard. Even when our species was fighting for each scrap of food that they caught, cultivated or killed themselves, the sun eventually went down at night and the work was done.

Pre-industrial workers may have only lived to their 40's, but you can't beat this break schedule (http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_workweek.html).

mUUser
09-13-2018, 10:45 AM
Would have put this in the "Utah" thread but it was shut down for some reason.

https://www.ksl.com/article/46390412/utahs-quality-of-life-drops-housing-costs-among-top-concerns


Having spent the last quarter century living coast-to-coast, I gotta say returning to Salt Lake is a breath of fresh air (yeah....I know, I know). Hope my kids are able to stick around.

mUUser
10-30-2018, 03:05 PM
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/10/30/housing-prices-continue/

Good for me. Not so good for my kids or most young families.

mUUser
03-28-2019, 06:36 PM
https://www.ksl.com/article/46519273/unaffordable-utah-time-to-move-or-time-for-a-reality-check

Another SLC housing update.

U-Ute
03-29-2019, 11:29 AM
We should weep for these people who feel so average.

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