“You have to make twice what you make today in 15 years to stay even” — billionaire explains why Americans are getting poorer
https://investorsobserver.com/news/you-have-to-make-twice-what-you-make-today-in-15-years-to-stay-even-billionaire-explains-real-reason-why-americans-are-getting-poorer/
Posted by SscorpionN08
11 Comments
Correct me if I’m wrong but this actually seems okay to me. Earning twice the amount in 15 years is a pretty low rate of increase. I would have assumed it would be closer to 8 years.
In 15 years, the dividend payments from my stocks have more than quadrupled. Expecting your salary to merely double every 15 years is pretty basic, no?
Looking at the median income from 2010 to 2024 (slightly smaller time frame and coming out of the recession) this tracks. Median household income in 2010 was just under $50,000 while median household income for 2024 was ~$83,000, so just over double in 14 years. If the median household income just increases at 3% per year for the next 15 years it will be over $130,000 and if it actually doubles we are looking at median income being over $160,000. That kind of increase just doesn’t seem sustainable to me.
And the birth rate will continue to fall and politicians will still ask ‘why?’
The rent is too damn high! The beatings will continue until morale improves
This would assume about a 5% annual inflation rate, for each year.
I mean, that’s a hell of an assumption to make, given that we have never seen that long of an inflationary stretch. Maybe he’s thinking about Argentina? Because this is devoid of any reality.
I think this just describes how the current economic system in the US works. Or most post-industrial economies. The goal is to have an inflationary economy that incentivizes investments.
Right now we have inflation exceeding the stated goal of the Federal Reserve. If we brought it down to 2% we would want to double income in 36 years to stay even.
What will worker productivity look like in 15 years
What about the ratios of homes and jobs and adults per metro
What about the portion of income going to social/medical care, daycare, and educators and other things that don’t appear to have an imminent automation miracle
“Companies have to pay twice” etc etc. Our entire labor system is built on companies giving a fuck, which they largely don’t in aggregate. The lectures to the working class need to stop and be redirected.
wages will not be increasing at that rate. Most of us will be outsourced to other countries or replaced with AI.
Quality of life will get far worse.
Sacrifice everything to maximize shareholder value.
Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for the trillionaire oligarchs.
Housing is the biggest expense, followed by transportation and food. Addressing affordable housing would reduce cost of living and help eliminate homelessness, even if wages lag behind inflation.
Yes, this is how inflation works and why is absolutely moronic to build it into the system without legally requiring an inflationary wage increase
Inflation decaying net worth isnt news since the Roman Empire.
Dont need a billionaire to tell me things anyone can learn in Econ 101.
Also I’m wondering where they are getting their numbers from. They arent accurate at all.
The average *[household](https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2025/demo/p60-286.html)* makes around 80k a year, but the article says the average worker make that much in [hourly wages](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/wkyeng.pdf)
These kinds of articles are painful. Someone makes money, got it made, and passes along his “words of wisdom”.
If everyone had the same opportunity to invest and increase their incomes, that would only accelerate inflation.
After all, if we were all billionaires, then money would be worthless in order for the quintillionaires (former billionaires) to be rich. All we are doing is moving decimal points of a number at this point, and not affecting the actual value of an individuals purchasing power in a local economy.