is the average wage going down

[bighooter]

I was chattin to a bloke in work and he said in the 1970's he was getting paid £1000 a week doing Plastering.

Hes now earning less than a £1000 a week in the year 2009.

He also said that house prices in the 1970s were under £10,000 which is unbelievable! considering how expensive house prices are now.

Isit me or am I the only one who thinks we are all getting 'fcuked over' by the goverment,. rich get richer, poor get poorer

get taxed so much its not even worth working for minimum wage when you think of the amount of mental stress it creates considering after all the tax you are only left with about £120 which is only 3x better off than being on the dole.

I just think considering house prices are like £150,000+ average then we should be getting at least £100,000 a year.

 

[Vader]

How are falling wages an example of getting fucked over by the government? Unless you work for the public sector of course. The government does not control the economy. If you don't think you are being paid a fair price for your services, find someone who is willing to pay that price. If no-one is, then your services aren't worth that much. I can't see there'd be much profit building houses if everyone who worked on them was getting £100,000.

 

[Max Power]

The average wage itself is not going down. In fact, it's going up, albeit at a very very slow rate.

Now, inflation and the cost of living, those two things are skyrocketing.

In other words, a dollar doesn't buy as much as it used to back in the day.

 

[RedLeader]

^ This.

And it's really hard to say, as there are so many factors that actually go into determining such statistics. Just using the housing example, perhaps the quality of the neighborhood in relation to its (lol) neighbors has improved, causing the prices to seem "even more expensive" now?

In terms of "rich get richer, poor get poorer," well it's sure, some national economies have stratified more than others over past generations. But again, there are so many internal factors to consider that it becomes much, much easier to say such a thing as a result of a few pints than as a result of actually giving the topic a fair go, with respect to researching statistics.

This is kind of an aside, but I have always found The Big Mac Index to be a fun statistic. It is essentially aimed at purchasing power between nations, and one could look over this across time to gain a sense of how much the marginal citizen is really "getting fucked over."