Bloomberg Laments 'Spending Faster Than Income' – Ignores Wage Stagnation & Corporate Profiteering
📰 THE STORY: Bloomberg reports that Americans are spending faster than their incomes are rising, expressing concern over the sustainability of robust consumption and hinting at potential economic instability. 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU: Historical Context: Since the 1970s, real wages for most American workers have largely stagnated, despite significant increases in productivity.
Specifically, between 1979 and 2020, productivity rose by 61.8% while hourly compensation for the vast majority of workers increased by only 17.5%. The average wage growth has not kept pace with rising costs of living, especially housing, healthcare, and education. This isn't newfound consumer profligacy; it's a structural imbalance decades in the making, exacerbated by policies like the 2017
Trump tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefited corporations and the wealthy, not the average American. Double Standard: While Bloomberg and similar outlets often spotlight individual consumer choices or government spending on social programs as drains on the economy, they rarely apply the same scrutiny to corporate stock buybacks, executive salaries, or the astronomical defense budgets that divert
trillions from public services. For instance, the US military budget for 2024 is projected to be over $886 billion, dwarfing investments in infrastructure or education, yet rarely framed as 'unsustainable spending' in the same breath. Follow the Money: The financial institutions and corporations that benefit from this debt-driven consumption model are rarely scrutinized. Banks profit from rising