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Does anyone think that the current massively inflated prices will ever fall? I'm still so pissed off about it, a year later. Due to the fact that much of my income is based on the company's stock, which massively fell the same time inflation went nuts, I make less money now than I did a few years ago, despite having been promoted and working harder than ever. Couple that with inflation making my money worth less, and it's a wonder I can afford any non-essential spending at all. Every single good that I buy has increased in price by very noticable amounts. Generally, many people may not have the same problem as me, where their income is based on stock, but still, most people's cost of living has greatly increased and their income has stayed the same. Prices have been so out of control lately.
Is it just the Russia-Ukraine war that's keeping prices so high, or is it more than that, like aftershock from the pandemic, lockdowns, and COVID relief spending upending the economy? What's the best to hope for? If the war ends, is all we have to look forward to a reduction in inflation, meaning that prices will stop going up? Or is deflation a possibility, to bring prices back down to previous levels? I know close to nothing about econ, but I always hear deflation talked about as if it's this terrible thing. I don't really know why, I guess just because it destabilizes the market, and makes outstanding debts larger. To me right now, my dollar being worth more sounds great. Is deflation immediately following inflation a bad thing if it just brings prices back to previous levels?
The day I learned how the economy worked is the day I stopped improving my productivity by my own accord. The economic system is thoroughly rigged. With luck and grit you can escape but if you are unlucky none of your hard work will matter. I just stopped playing the game and do as I'm told instead.
Please elaborate on why you've stopped improving your productivity?
I've decided long ago that I don't really have the temperament for entrepreneurship, so my only hope is constantly improving myself and chasing these promotions/job switches.
I'll undelete my comment and I was in a slightly bad mood as I wrote it. But the wording is important, by my own accord. i.e. my productivity is improving for work and so on I just don't use my free time to make myself more produtive(I have hobbies that doesn't involve work, like sitting here and commenting occasionally). Well the reason is because of the concept the market for lemons. There is a simple description of it but the most succint way of explaining it is that information asymmetry leads that things priced lower in the market because the buyer can't valuate it properly. There is also a nasty effect that information assymetry is used to suppress your wage and turning a blind eye to information that would give a reason to price it accurately. It is the direct and local effect why my choice of trying to have a life outside of work like most people. I just discovered that I was priced the same as the guy that produced fast and sloppy work and was considered "more productive" even though the error accumulation made our productivity equal. This was almost two decades ago I came to the conclusion. An ambitious former colleague of mine came with a story last month: a performance review of "exceed expectation" didn't lead to a wage increase because there wasn't "development potential". This is constant and reinforcing my belief that I made the right choice 20 years ago.
And even looking at the macro economic perspective. No one is getting their fair share of productivity increases since the 1970:s ... the numbers are clear regular wage workers has hade a smaller real wage growth compared to the increase of productivity.. And that gap has been compensated with easy cheap credit deregulated to the point of threatening a systemic collapse 2008 - 2009. And as soon as people caught on to this the protests were derailed by a culture war.
Edit: lets add another source that is not clearly left-leaning : https://www.oecd.org/economy/decoupling-of-wages-from-productivity/
On the first few reads I'm inclined to agree with your assessment. I will delve deeper later. This however is not good, speaking as someone who is about to join the corporate world.
What would you say about the strategy of simply trying to be lucky for the rest of your life? And why have you (seemingly) given up on getting lucky?
I'm fortunate and I'm lucky to have job that I consider "fulfilling". I just stopped chasing productivity to make myself a better worker, not that I don't want to become better to feel good about what I do. The thing here is that what I've given up on is very specific, I've stopped chasing productivity for my employers and starting to do stuff that I find interesting and where I can feel that I have mastery. Everything I do it is for me. I made move in my career to have a more general so I can be hired by a broader set of companies than doing hyperspecialized stuff that is only applicable for my employer and their competitors. Because of you becoming a better worker is benefitting your employer more than it benefits you. You'll just get more work.
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