Affordability Angst

The cover story on last week's Economist was "Angst over Affordability", which right off the bat I found slightly annoying because, though the dictionary definition is not clear about this, to me, "angst" implies a degree of not justified / unreasonable / illogical.

I, obviously, have a lot of faith in the use of data / statistics in general and Economist use thereof in particular. But in this case, I really have a hard time accepting their conclusions.

Which, in a nutshell, are as follows:

1. Food prices are up 28%. But wages are up 30%.

2. Electricity prices are up significantly. But gas prices are DOWN even more.

3. Rent is WAY up, but only in specific markets (NY and SF cited, but probably applies to YVR / YYZ).

I can believe points #2 and #3 completely. Squinting a little, I can also believe that food prices are only up 28%. Lots of things seem to have at least doubled, but I grant that those tend to jump out and lots of other things don't seem to be up very much (milk and bread in particular).

But I really, really have a hard time believing that wages are up 30%. (I think this is since 2020). Are yours?

So the tl,dr Economist view is: it IS angst. People are being whiny. They irrationally focus on nominal prices over real (adjusted for wage increases) prices. REALLY HARD TO BELIEVE.

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