Rents are high, wages are low.
Can't do much about wages because they are subject to global pressure, but we sure could make housing cheaper.
Can't do much about wages because they are subject to global pressure, but we sure could make housing cheaper.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_...
and
https://www.deptofnumbers.com/rent/us/
Is it that the median figures hide a lot of people earning less and paying more rent? That is, inequality is the problem rather than the averages.
> Can't do much about wages because they are subject to global pressure,
Surely a lot of the low paid workers are in service industries; how are they subject to global pressure? It's not as if a restaurant can employ cheap Vietnamese labour.
>>It's not as if a restaurant can employ cheap Vietnamese labour.
You'd be surprised, teachers are being imported from the Philippines, lots of migrant labor, service workers are often undocumented, so this depresses wages, of course there's also H1Bs and who knows how many other types of work visas.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/05/arizona-teac...
Health care insurance for example can eat a good chunk of that 3.6kUSD: the average cost of individual health insurance premiums is $440 for an individual and &1,168 for a family, in 2018 according to eHealth [1]
1: https://www.ehealthinsurance.com/resources/individual-and-fa...
Ouch!
That makes health insurance behave like a very regressive tax.
In contrast in Germany where they have compulsory insurance it is only 7.6% to 15% of your salary, so something between USD 273 and USD 540 for a family. See https://www.sympat.me/germany-healthcare-insurance/.