Latest / The Sense and Senseless Podcast / EP:69 Why You’re Poorer Than the “Great Economy” Says You Are
Transcript
- Bryan: right. You ready? Jason: Mm. Bryan: Hey everybody, welcome back to the Sin Sign Senseless Podcast. I am Brian. Jason: No, I'm Jason. Bryan: Yeah, Jason. This your first time joining us. Welcome to the family. We're just two guys discussing shit in a way that everyone can understand. So what we're talking about tonight? Tonight we're gonna talk about the struggles most of us feel every day in the economy that keeps gaslighting us about it. We're going to show you why you're probably doing better than the doom scrolling makes you think. We'll look at how everyday Americans are really feeling right now. We'll dig into why so many of us feel poor while the rich seem to live in a completely different reality. And we'll talk about the numbers on housing, groceries, wages, credit card debt, and the shiny stock market glow that somehow never quite reaches our bank accounts. By then you'll see the gap between the headlines and your grocery receipt a lot more clearly. Please like, share, follow and subscribe. We appreciate every single one of you. Jay's own. Jason: Roll it. Bryan: All right. Let's go back to one of the best movies of all time. All right. The Breakfast Club. Jason: I love breakfast. Bryan: I watched some of the you remember the Breakfast Club though, right? Jason: yeah, dude. I've watched it. If I see it on TV all it's like tombstone, I'll watch it if it's on. Bryan: Yeah, it wasn't long ago. I I was watching it myself. And they came across the scene that I'm about to play and and because it stuck with me. And not because of the performance, but because of what the principal says about basically about how good he has it. So let's go back in time when movies were great. And time seemed to be just a little bit slower, you know, and just moved a little bit slower back then. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: Here's a little bit of the Breakfast Club. Jason: Thirty one thousand dollars and I got a home. Bryan: Yep. And that's what I caught. He's proud of that. I mean, that's awesome. That was nineteen eighty Jason: I don't Bryan: five. Jason: I know, dude. Thinking back on that movie, I don't remember that part. I guess I just it just Bryan: Yeah. That's yeah. Jason: rolled into you know what I'm saying. It just rolled. Bryan: But yeah, that that was an accomplishment back then. Jason: I make thirty one thousand dollars a year. Dude, if you said that Bryan: Yeah. Yeah. Jason: now, you'd be like, You work part time at McDonald's? Bryan: Well, in nineteen eighty five the median price for a home in the US was eighty to a hundred thousand dollars. Today the median home price is four hundred and sixteen thousand. The average sales right now is near five hundred thousand, depending on new construction metrics. And that's all tracked by the US Census Bureau. Housing cost inflation rose by roughly two hundred and thirty percent since nineteen eighty five, outpacing standard consumer price inflation. The CPI. The national median home price to income ratio jumped from three point five in nineteen eighty five to five point in recent years. So homes went from three point five years of pay to five years of pay. That's how much it is stretching your ass right now. A longstanding practical rule of thumb in US housing is that a household should aim for a home priced at no more than two and a half to three times its annual income. Sometimes stretched to three to five times depending on debt levels, interest rates, credit, and down payment. Now the common benchmarks for perspective, and this is from move number.com, around 3.0 or under is generally considered affordable or healthy. So three to four is moderately unaffordable or historically normal in many markets. And five plus is stretched or signaling. an affordability crisis in many analysis. Okay. So here's a picture of what the home price to income ratio looks since nineteen eighty five. the orange is the home US household income and the blue Jason: Jeez. Bryan: is the medium home price. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: And this data's from the data science of our research. Yeah the the Your salary did go up, but home prices sure did fucking outpace those salaries. Pretty eye opening, ain't Jason: Yeah, it's crazy. Bryan: And you can easily see the housing markets output outpacing your income. It's very simple to see that. And some current examples of extremely unaffordable And most affordable cities in the US. And I'm not gonna shock anyone with the cities in California listed as the highest. Often Santa San Jose, California. So that was a five. Five point one that you just looked at, right? The Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: big blue line. San Jose, California is around eleven point six five. Jason: Gee, that's crazy. Bryan: Los Angeles nine point seven five, San Francisco nine point six, and San Diego at nine. Now Newport Beach, they're around twenty one point five. So right around where we we were. Jason: Where we lived. Hey, have you ever Google map where we lived? Bryan: No. Jason: Dude, they tore all that down and built townhouses and stuff and Holly was looking at It's crazy the amount of money Bryan: Well, that's why they wanted us all gone, 'cause that property was so much v more valuable, you know, as real estate than it was basis. It was Jason: dude. It was beautiful. It was beautiful where we were at, was it not? I mean, you had everything Bryan: it's beautiful. Jason: in the world to do out there, but the problem is you couldn't afford it. I you couldn't afford to do shit out there. Bryan: you couldn't afford no. I didn't do much. No, you can go to the beach if you can afford to park. Jason: And that was still expensive. Yeah. Bryan: It's like, God damn. the lowest one they had was Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at three point zero seven. They had Cli Cleveland, Ohio, 3.3, St. Louis, Detroit, Oklahoma City. They generally in the low to mid threes. Now, these are the people that were not probably dusted with nuclear particles like we discussed in our last episode when I said they wasn't doing high-end areas. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: Nantucket, Massachusetts reported as high as forty one point one. Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, twenty four. And there's other high ones like in California and Hawaii. Forty one point one. Jason: Of your income. Bryan: Of your income. It's with the house. All right. So right now we had a round of five. Okay. The last housing bubble w before it burst, it was around a five. Now I All you see is these big HOA subdivisions being built everywhere. Jason: fuck an HOA dude. Bryan: No, but am I right? Every time you go around, Jason: Yes. Bryan: you don't see like a random ass house being built somewhere. You don't see a little starter house being built anywhere. Jason: No. No, it's it's farmers selling ground and then they build a big subdivision and it's And all the houses look the same and like you said, it's an HOA and all that shit. Screw that crap, man. Bryan: But they're making these big ass houses. How many people when they first start off need a big ass how many people need a big ass house, period? You know, I I live in a little house. I mean, it's it's functional. Jason: I live in a little house. Bryan: You know, I don't see anything wrong with that. But it seems like more and more today, whether people are deciding to do that or that's all that's available, is they're going to bigger homes. All right. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: And is it because everybody wants these big ass homes? Or is it because they don't have starter homes available? You know, so you're forced to buy these big ass homes. All right, check this one out. Jason: No, I think I think it's like I I think it's T V and stuff like that, dude. Like I'm content with what I've got. But I've got somebody in the room next to me. I love her so much. I really do. And I die for that woman. But gosh dang. They just want and want want more. They want this. They want that. I mean, she even taught, We oughta just fix this house up and sell it and build us a barn to many. Why? We're almost got this thing paid off. I I'm not gonna lie. Would it be cool to live out further into I'd live in the co I live in between two two citi she's texting me, she's probably dogging on me. Why are you talking about me? Hold on, what is she saying? Bryan: You in trouble. Jason: I probably am. she sent me a TikTok. Yeah, when I'm trying to tell my husband about how hard of a day I've had and he says, I got something hard for you. That's what I exactly tell her. But anyways, Bryan: Ha ha ha. Jason: why not? You want to talk about something hard? I got something hard right Bryan: Yeah. Jason: here. but no, I d Brian, would I love to live out in the boonies further than what I do with you know, with some woods and a pond. in a pole barn house. I've I've got it figured out. Bryan: Would Holly like to live with some wood? Jason: hell yeah she would. She'd love that. But dude, Bryan: She loves some wood. Jason: I don't want the payment. I've almost got this house paid off of. She wants some hardwood. Bryan: Sh sh she wants some hard wood. No, I hear you. I agree with you. I d I don't want nothing more. I it would be nice. I agree with you to have something like that, you know. Jason: I well, where you're at, I don't know if that's a a dream of yours or a thought of man, it'd be awesome to live out in the boonies with a lake, with with a pond, you know, like a stock pond with a with a with a dock that goes out on it and you can throw some fishing, you know, you can do a little fishing, you can have a little paddle boat out there. you got trees surrounding you, you don't have neighbors for a a couple miles, and you got like a pole barn house with this big old front porch, the side area with the with the outdoor kitchen and a fireplace, you know, the big open living room. Bryan: So now you took a cheap born dominium and you turned it into a five hundred thousand dollar place. Jason: No, dude, you can get those barn dominiums built like that for like two fifty, three hundred thousand where I'm at. But I'm talking if you built a structured house, if you built a brick house with that, you're talking five, seven hundred fifty. Bryan: I'm not saying that what regardless I I'm not spending two or three hundred thousand dollars on a home right now. I'm just not doing it. Jason: That's what I'm getting at. Bryan: Yeah. I just I don't give a shit what it looks like. Jason: I mean, I'm I have no you know I'm transparent as hell. I'm probably sometimes too transparent, but I only paid seventy eight thousand for this house. I don't know what you paid for yours, but I paid seventy eight thousand, less than a hundred thousand. I know, but what did she pay for it? Okay. Bryan: I I I I pay anything for Jennifer Button. I don't know. I don't get into her finances. Jason: Yeah, you don't get into that shit. Free freeloader. You fucking freeloader over here. I'm just kidding. Bryan: No, I mean you damn right. You know, I got she had a house, I was like shit, I fixed it up. Jason: She she got a house. I got a penis. I said, Hey, I'll give you this. You give me the house. You know, we barter a little bit. Yeah. Bryan: Yeah, hey Jason: But anyways, I mean, that no, this was me and my wife's first house we bought. And we raised two kids here with with three bedroom, one bath, one bath. Bryan: So that was so that was your starter home. Jason: And I'm fine keeping it my home. Bryan: My d this was Jen start home, and I'm fine staying here also. But the thing is is w Jason: Dude, you do have a kick ass porch, dude. I ain't gonna lie about that. I love your back patio, dude. That's Bryan: Thank you. Jason: I'm s I'm being honest. I look at mine, Bryan: thank you. Jason: I'm like, how can we get better out here? So Bryan: But yeah, it's you don't need all of that. But I for some reason and maybe you right, you know, that people just think they need more. Maybe it's 'cause they see it on television. Jason: Because television, television and and and social media and all that puts it in our head that we need more, we need more, we need more, we need more. Bryan: So your opinion they probably people don't want to start a home. Okay. I agree with you, but Jason: No. Dude, I remember what my parents had and what we grew up with, that couch that when you sat on it, you almost hit the floor. And then when we got married, I was telling my wife, she's like, I want this Ashley furniture and blah, blah, blah. I'm like, woman, we don't make that money. We make, we make poor money. We we make go somebody that's got that couch sitting out in front of their house for the dumpster to pick up on spring clean them, let's go grab that. We can use that. Bryan: You know, some somebody's gonna Jason: hell no hell no Bryan: listen to this and they're gonna hear, y'all think Ashley Furniture's high class? Yeah, motherfucker. That's where I'm at. I I'm in the Ashley for I I you know, yeah, I stay, I eat at fucking little chain restaurants. I mean, that's high class for me. Jason: She my wife wanted, yeah, she wanted the kitchen, the the the the table and chairs, the the living room suit, the bedroom suit that my parents got after 20, 25 years of marriage. She wanted that her parents got after 20, 25 years of being married. That's what she expected to have when we were two years married. It's like, no, don't you remember the poor shit we grew up? She didn't want that because that's PTSD to me. That's You know what why is it PTSD? It's where you start. Bryan: Well, well, let's look at the starter homes real quick. Jason: All right. Sorry about the rant. Bryan: Calm down. Guess nobody wants to start a home. Jason: No, they wanna graduate straight to the frickin' we've made it home. Bryan: Three car garage. Jason: Yeah. I mean, dude, I I see TikToks all the time talking about these women saying how it's like working for a blue collar man. You know, these guys that are linemen, traveling linemen that are gone five, Bryan: Yeah. Jason: six days a week or a week. Bryan: my guys are gone for months at a time, I get. Yeah. Yeah, all the time. Jason: You know, they're I know, or yeah, like I to hear you talking to your dudes and they're gone. And here you're I'm just being honest, here your happy ass is staying at home and they're out on the road making the dialer, right? They're the ones putting the b the rubber on the the Bryan: yeah, without them, I'm nothing. I now I used to be them, but without them I'm nothing. I don't have a job. Yeah. Jason: That's right. That's right. And there has to be people that does that. But their wives are sitting there posting on TikTok, Whoa was me, what was bitch, you wouldn't have what you got if it wasn't for him doing that. You either he's doing it because you what you want. He Bryan: Well Jason: don't I guarantee 90% of the men out there busting their ass are doing it for their wife and their kids. They don't want that crap. Their wife their Bryan: And I get Jason: wife wants it. Bryan: and probably sixty or seventy percent of them don't re even realize where their money's going. Jason: No. Bryan: No, that is one of the saddest things I would see when I was and I hate it going offshore, but when you go offshore and you just hear the stories of those guys, you know, coming back in and their shit just gone. You know. Jason: Coming coming home to an empty house? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Bryan: Yeah. Shit shit just gone, you know, and stuff like that. Your bank accounts drained. You don't have nothing. Jason: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Bryan: Then, you know, you home for twenty eight days and then you go back offshore. Right? Just isolated offshore. This is I mean, this was back before cell phones are the way they are today. Jason: Yeah. Bryan: And you just want to kill yourself because you're killing yourself to support somebody that just basically stole everything from you. You know? Jason: Yeah. They didn't give a shit. Bryan: No, they stole all you were. Jason: Yeah. Bryan: But that's what you got. Jason: Old Jody at down the street was getting it, right? Whatever. Bryan: Well, you ever watch any of those fucking house buying shows when somebody comes in Jason: dude. Yeah, like my name's John and this is my wife Rachel. I I I j I sharpen crayons and she works for a nonprofit. Our budget is five million dollars. Bryan: Yep. That's right. It's like what the fuck? You you eighteen years old, you got a five hundred thousand dollar fucking budget? You know? Jason: No, more than that, dude, it's a lot of money. Bryan: Yeah, I need a I'm on the market for a five bedroom, four bath, you know. Yeah, I I I volunteer my time at the soup kitchen. My wife works at the convenience door. Jason: Yeah. She works at the Piggly Wiggly three days a week. We got a one point five million dollar budget. What can you get us? Bryan: Like just straight stupid, but where the fuck do these people come from? Jason: I don't know. Where are they getting that damn money at, Hoss? Bryan: I don't yeah. I mean that there's gotta be actors. There's no way that's real. There's no way that is fucking real. If it is real, it's not our reality. Jason: I don't yeah, yeah. If you guys are listening, comment. I wanna know where you guys are making this money. I don't know if y'all've got lakes up there that people have lake houses. Bryan: yeah, well I mean we well, we got people that just live on the bayou or the rivers and shit, but yeah, they got lake houses. Mm-hmm. Jason: Yeah, but I'm talking like nice ass houses on well, I'm not gonna lie, I remember where you used to live in Morgan City, and that was kind of cool to go get on y'all's jet skis at your mother and father in law's and just head out right Bryan: Yeah. Jason: and go play. That was awesome. I I'd never experienced that before in my life. I wasn't dogging, I was a little jealous, but anyways, we go out on the lake here at Kentucky Lake, and if you do come down, come down where we can go out, 'cause we'll we'll go get a We'll go rent a pontoon for the day or whatever and go out on the lake. But we could drive around these houses, right, on the lake. I wanna know what these people are doing. These are not their home home, these are their summer home, these are their vacation homes. Bryan: when you go we we had to do some work in in Fort Lauderdale and when we was in Fort Lauderdale we didn't realize but we work on boats, so I mean we didn't realize the amount of yachts that they had in that era. We just I mean it was just unbelievable the amount of yachts. And when I say yachts, the boats that I think are huge where I live were tender Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: boats for the yachts. You know what I'm saying? Jason: Yeah. Bryan: Like, good lord, how do you have so much fucking money? That is unreal. Jason: Right. Bryan: And yet I'm out here admiring the home that this fucking homeless person created. This is from tweaker G Geographic. This this shit is funny. Jason: I think I know I was gonna send you this. Play this video. I think I was. Yep. Bryan: So the t the Jason: That's awesome. I love it, man. I see that TikTok. I was gonna send it to you and I was like, nah, I I won't. Cause I sent you Bryan: Okay. Jason: a lot that I'm like, hey, you need to incorporate this one. Bryan: The tweaker mega mansion. Yeah, I think that's what we all shooting for though. Jason: that's bro that's a nicer place than I got probably. Bryan: I I'm amazed. I do you really think that they actually go up on the floors? is it strong enough? It can't be. Jason: There th I don't know if it's strong enough, but that is hilarious though. Bryan: yeah, it's very hilarious. now now let's look at the housing costs since nineteen hundred. Okay, if you look at from nineteen hundred roughly to nineteen fifty, it's pretty flat. It don't move much. Goes up Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: a little bit nineteen seventy, but nineteen seventy it just jumps right the fuck up. I mean it takes a hell of a jog up, right? And it didn't stop until it hit the housing bubble and the burst in 2006. It came down and it now is shooting back up. But what the fuck happened in nineteen seventy? You know, that that caused that. That was that's whenever I started looking at the numbers, that's that's what I was started thinking about. Something had to cause that job. So let's check out what happened with the nineteen seventy inflation. So they pretty much just fucked up our economy in nineteen seventy and they took us off the gold standard. Jason: There wasn't really much good that happened in the seventies other than our bursts. Bryan: Yeah, I was about to say we were born in the seventies. Well, let's take this a Jason: The nineties was I the eighties was cool. Bryan: Well yeah, I enjoy growing up in the eighties. Jason: I did too. The eighties was a cool time. Bryan: And the early nineties was cool. I enjoyed the early nineties. Jason: Yeah, the early nineties was cool. Bryan: It's just when you got older everything just sucked. Jason: Yeah, it does. Bryan: Well, let's look at how inflation and credit cards came into effect in the early seventies. So you see, you can't make money? Well here's credit. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: So they they gave you a heavy dose of credit. So let's look at what credit looked like after nineteen seventy. It's it's amazing how they fuck everything up and it you have to pay for it. here's nineteen seventy. Outstanding credit, five billion dollars. Twenty twenty six. One point three trillion. Look at that. How quickly it rose. Outstanding revolving credit grew from negligible levels in the early seventies to over one point three trillion by twenty twenty six. Recent values reflect June twenty twenty six data near one point three five trillion dollars. Now we can't afford a fucking house and we in credit card debt. Right? Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: We ain't credit cards there because they fucked up our economy. So they pretty much said, here you go. you can't afford your bills? Here's some credit. You can pay for it later. You don't have to pay Jason: Yeah. Yep. Bryan: for it now. And then you keep hearing shit like this, you know. Have you seen the Dow? Jason: I haven't seen it in a while. Bryan: Listen to fucking drum. It's great for four months and jobs. Have you seen the Dow? Jason: Have you seen it? Bryan: The economy's great. Do you feel it? Jason: No. Bryan: How do you get up front people and say that? I just man, I supported this man. I don't I j I just don't get that. Right. And honestly, this next one I even hate to play because it's from MS Now. And man, I I I hate to even think that, you know, I I somewhat even agree with what they show, you know, but it is what it is. Greatest economy we ever had by far. Jason: No, then Bryan: It's it's sad. I I don't know how he sits there and he has to be disillusioned. He he's no way that they live the same reality. I know they don't live the same reality if we do, but I mean they don't understand the reality we live in. They can't. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: It's it's sickening. And to hear him say that and know what we see. Somebody's lying, and I don't think it's what I'm seeing, but you're wrong for pointing that out. Jason: Yeah. Bryan: You're gonna hurt the midterms. No motherfucker, I'm just saying what I'm seeing. It's it's Jason: Yeah. Bryan: not the same thing that he's saying, and we're not alone. I mean, here's some people that also disagree with the economy. You're always behind eight, well. Fucking Jason: Mm-hmm. I'm not making fun of any of those people. They're a hundred percent right. It hurts. Bryan: yeah. A hundred percent right. Yeah, yeah. You But you got to hear that shit from the leader, how great it Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: is. It's you could say, I know the economy, you know, is the economy's strong. I know it's not where you want it to be, but you know, just just give you something. Don't get here and keep saying, gaslighting you and telling you how great everything is when it's not. Jason: It's not. Bryan: It's just not. Jason: No. Bryan: the other episode we talked about grocery prices and I was showing you how the the wages and the data stays with it. We're gonna go over it again and I'm gonna show you the purchasing power and explain to you why we discussed it the way we did in the last episode. All right. So let's Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: let's talk if y'all haven't seen that other episode, go back and check. I don't remember what the fuck we was talking about. What was that? Was that the elders? Jason: Yeah. Bryan: Yeah. That one was yeah, that was the history repeating itself. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: So how about grocery prices? They've they've gone up thirty four to thirty five percent since two thousand nineteen. And again, to be fair, it all it also stated that the overall wage for the US grew thirty two point six percent since twenty nineteen. Again, so what does that mean? A basket of groceries that cost $100 in 2019 would cost roughly $133 today in current dollars. After adjusting for general inflation, the same grocery basket cost the equivalent of about 102 to 103 in constant 2019 dollars. All right. Now I'm gonna show you the grocery wages and inflation. Over eighty years. So the groceries rose only modestly faster than the overall inflation. So the real increase is roughly two to three percent. This bottom line, that's the real food. That's without inflation. So that's flat. Okay. Jason: Okay. Mm-hmm. Bryan: The next line, that's your real median income. So that's the your income with no inflationary dollars. So that's it dollar to dollar and what it is on your purchasing power. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: Okay. Up here is where your wages are. That's your average wage on the orange line. The red line is your median wage. So that's where you're at on your wages. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: And these other two lines, this is the food cost with inflation. All right. So what they're showing is the food cost is going up, but your your wage itself, right, is is scrolling. Going up also, so you're able to keep up with it. It looks pretty like you should be. If you're looking at this chart, based off of just looking at the top one and the middle one, it looks like everything's going up and the economy's doing good. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: If you look at the bottom ones, you understand that your purchasing power is still low. But the groceries didn't go up either. So technically, whatever you're spending should be about the same. Jason: That's it ain't right. Bryan: in the ratios. That that's just how the data is. Now I'm gonna show you This is right, but I'm gonna show you why you feel poor in a minute. Okay. Jason: Okay. Bryan: So in other words, grocery prices rose only modestly faster than overall inflation. Overall Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: CPI rose roughly thirty percent over the same period from twenty nineteen. If your pay followed the median growth rate of 31 to 33 percent since 2019, someone that was making fifty thousand dollars a year in twenty nineteen now makes sixty-two to sixty-five thousand dollars a year today. Hourly employees pay would look something like this. 2019 at $15 an hour, 2026 would be $20 an hour. $20 an hour in 2019 would be $27 an hour in 2026. And thirty dollars an hour in twenty nineteen today would be forty one dollars an hour. And I believe this is where the disconnect is because I don't think the average person is seeing this l level of raise. I just don't. And then also your purchasing power of the average person doesn't really grow. But the people that can afford assets and not hold their money in the bank, their purchasing power grew considerably. So let's look at your purchase and bottom. So again, these bottom two lines, that's your median income. I mean that Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: that that's your income without inflationary dollars. All right. The line right here, the orange and red this time, that is your average income and your median income. That's with inflationary dollars. This green line, this green dotted line, that's with the assets. That's real money assets without inflationary dollars. At the top, that's assets with the nominal dollars. So that's with inflationary dollars. Your purchasing power is down here. Because you in cash, and as an inflation goes, your cash just stays down with the fucking inflation. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: But if you had assets, you actually had more purchasing power. You see what I'm getting at? You're getting Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: more money, but your money ain't going anywhere. Because it doesn't doesn't have any power to buy anything. Does that make sense to you? Jason: Mm. Yeah. Bryan: Every year you get more money, but it doesn't mean anything. Because the inflation's growing up and is eating up the money that you have in the bank. These people own a home that you know that they a big home for an asset. And Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: every time the dollars go up, that home, you don't have to put any new material into the damn thing. Right? Jason: Right. Bryan: So as the value goes up. It's making money. If if you spent $200,000 on the home back here and now it's worth $400,000 and you really ain't had to do or nothing, it went up $200,000 in real value. So that's why I see that it it's kind of tricky. I think They don't understand exactly what we're going through because they can't understand based off of we have no purchasing power compared to what they have. You know, we don't live in the same reality. And that might be why there's so much a difference in what he sees and what we actually see. Now there's one more measurable metric, and it's called the cost of thriving index. And it's a metric developed by Orin Cass and the American Compass. It measures how many weeks of work a typical full time worker needs to earn enough to cover a defined basket of major middle class family expenses in a given year. Use a nominal current dollars, cost and wages rather than inflationary adjusted figures. The basket normally includes like your food, your housing, your healthcare, your transportation, education, higher education. The cost of thriving index deliberately avoids traditional CPI inflation. Adjustments and instead compares nominal costs directly to nominal wages each year. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: The index argues that a single median male earner could cover the core cost with about 40 weeks of work in 1985. By 2022, the same single male earner would need 62 weeks of work to cover the same expenses in 1985. The implication is that traditional single earner middle class household has become structurally unaffordable for the median worker. Fucked up, huh? Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: So the numbers in 1985, 39.7 weeks of work could cover everything that you needed Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: for one person in your home. One person in your home. Jason: Right. Bryan: And in 2022, 62.1 weeks to cover it. So you just gotta work more. Jason: Well, there's only what, fifty two weeks in a year. Bryan: Yeah, but they're basing this off of you just would work more hours, basically. And then now Jason: Yeah. Bryan: you have to bring your wife into work. And you can't have a single family home. Mean a single Jason: Yeah. No. No. Bryan: earned home. You you gotta have both your par both people working. Jason: There's certain there's certain occupations you can, like like I was telling you, linemen and things like that. But you if you work if you look and see the amount of hours them guys are working to leave their wives at home, it's crazy. And then Bryan: yeah that Jason: what happens? The wife gets upset and start like I told you on TikTok and we're just saying, no, you're not. You're getting upset because your husband's out working all the time, but you want that lifestyle too. You can't have both. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Bryan: No, I the guys work a lot of fucking I mean you when you work in Jason: They do. Bryan: three thousand plus hours a year, which we we would average. You gone a lot, you do a you you're on the road a lot, you're doing a lot of work, you know, and that's what you end up with. You know, you end up working a year and a half or whatever, whatever the hell you you know, a lot of hours. Jason: Right. Well, let me let me pull my calculator up here. Yeah, I've got guys that do this. We'll say ten Bryan: I think it's two thousand eighty hours in a year at forty hours a week at fifty two weeks a year. Jason: Well we'll we'll say my guys average about ten hours of overtime a week. Bryan: That's Jason: That's five hundred and twenty hours a year of overtime. Bryan: Of overtop. Mm-hmm. So Jason: Divided by forty. Bryan: They're working one and a quarter years. Jason: An extra thirteen e thirteen weeks a year. Bryan: They're working about one and a quarter years. They're working another three months, basically. Jason: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, three point two five months. Bryan: And they and their wives are probably still working. Jason: Yeah. Well, I got some that their wives stay at home, but we just live in a you know, we live in a lower income area. Some areas can afford it or you can figure it out, but Bryan: People are killing themselves to make a living, is is the point. You know, it Jason: Yeah. Right. Bryan: you you are making more money, but you're doing it by working a lot more. It it's just the way it is, you know. Jason: Right. Bryan: Now let's hear from some people on the current economy. these clips of courtesy of Inside America one, two, three. I just cut this long ass video into the short ones that I want to show y'all. So we're gonna go through these real quick. Know anybody that feels that way or you ever felt that way or Is you know more people Jason: I well hold on. I think it I think it says I can raise my hand on this thing. Bryan: You know, you you know more people like that than you know people saying, Man, the economy's awesome. Man, you y so how much the Jason: I'm making hand over fist right now, dude. I am digging it up. Bryan: And a lot of people are making great money, it's just the money they ain't buying nothing. Jason: The money ain't worth it. Bryan: Not not what you have to go through. I can tell you the the bullshit I went through this past week. I was ready to like fuck this. And I get paid good money for what I do and I love my job. But Jason: Right. Bryan: sometimes the pressure is just so much and there's so much demand. It's like, why, why do this to yourself? Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: You know, you're not making any more by you know going a hundred and ten percent all day every day for a company that will replace you tomorrow. You Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: know? But yet we're struggling out here. I mean, y y your dollar just is not going anywhere. We We wasn't taught to do what we need to do with money. We just wasn't. Jason: Mm-hmm. Right. Bryan: And therefore now we're stuck on this fucking hamster wheel. Here's a guy talking about his family struggle and luckily our family our kids are gone. Cause I couldn't only imagine what it's like raising kids right now. It's a lot of money to pay for fucking child kid. Jason: No, dude, we were paying one hundred and twenty a week. I think it was like yeah, four four eighty a month. But it was more than our it was just as much as our house payment was. Bryan: Wow. Jason: And that was in the nineties. Late nineties, you know, early two thousands. Bryan: It shit expensive, man. I I yeah, I Jason: it is. Bryan: I d I don't get it. At some point, and it and it might not work for everyone, but at some point it the wife being back home would probably help a lot more because you your kids would have have the mom involved in their life. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: It might cost a little bit more, but you won't have to spend all that money on fucking, you know, Childcare, you know, Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: and she could also probably pick up a little job at home, you know, on the internet if she had to. Jason: I'm not saying everybody can land jobs like this, but if you if your wife can get like land a job with the school system, so that way she's working when the kids are in school, right? She's on the same schedule they're on. The only thing Bryan: Well a couple Jason: that that would get you is if the kids are sick, right? Bryan: A couple of years ago when I hired a girl, she came to work. She only worked with me a few days because she actually did remote work and Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: she could get jobs at multiple places, work two jobs from her home from multiple states and get paid more money because she's getting paid from what they would pay in that state. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: So it was like, why come to work when she can just work from home and make get two incomes? So I mean there's a lot of things you can do today with the internet and shit. But I don't know. I I I think it would be a a better life for everyone if we can and I'm I know I'm gonna sound like a chauvinist, but I I'm not. I just think the family, putting the family first and bringing families back to the home w is is a good thing. I I didn't understand that when I was younger, but now I understand that, and I really think we need to get back to that. how about the kids? How about the younger generation? What do they think? Let's see. Either way. You don't agree with living at home with your parents? Jason: Nope. Bryan: No, I don't either, but I agree with what she's saying. If fifty percent of the kids are basically living at home with the parents, you shouldn't feel bad about living at home with your parents. Because, you know, fifty percent. Jason: Nope. Nope. I'll I'll give my kids a little safe haven for a little bit, but not that long. It you gotta get your ass out. You gotta go. Bryan: They gotta go, huh? I agree with I yeah, I agree with I think I I I wholeheartedly agree with you. Having said that, I think what she's saying though is hey, look, I mean, don't yeah, don't don't don't feel bad. I mean fifty percent of the kids. Jason: If they'll allow you, then more married to you, but yeah, don't come knocking on my door. I'll you can sleep on the couch for a couple of days after that. You gotta find yourself a place. Bryan: But they're they're conditioning themselves to understand that that you know, and and the parents are conditioning themselves. We all be in condition for something. And Jason: Right. Bryan: Accepting that your kids stay at home till they're eighty years old, you know, at some point you gotta kick out the fucking nest. All right, last last one for tonight. And I think we all feel this way. I think we all feel that way. Jason: Hey, if a card showed up in my from the government with four hundred dollars on it or something, you know what I'm saying? I'm not gonna Bryan: I wouldn't. Jason: say I wouldn't go burn that thing up. Bryan: hell no. But like she says, she she's too rich for food stamps, but too poor to eat. Jason: Yeah. Bryan: And a lot of people are. all right, well, I I know economics is boring, you know. I but I'm trying to tie all this together in a way we can all understand. You know, is they sit here and they say they gaslight us all the time about how great the economy is. And we all know it's not. But this is what we got. You know, Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: so how how are you supposed to trust your government when they sit here and lie to you? When you know what you see in and they telling you not seeing what you see in, but when Jason: Mm-hmm. Right. Bryan: you call it out, you're the bad person. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: you got anything? All right, well thanks everyone for joining us. It was a pleasure spending time with you. Until next time, this is the Sentinel's podcast. I am Brian. Jason: I'm Joycea. Bryan: Here's Jason. Peace. Jason: Panch.