Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
Inflation has seriously messed with Canadians’ heads. Especially those who have no adult experience of anything but the ultra-low inflation rates of the last 20 years.
...
That doesn’t account for housing. But the fury over the cost of living and our recent bout of inflation seems excessive. Our parents and grandparents endured much worse for much longer.
|
But inflation only matters in relative terms to wage growth. If inflation is 10% a year but wage growth is 15%, who cares? It's not ideal economically, but it's not negatively impacting quality of life.
And that's effectively what happened in the '70s. Real wage growth (i.e. inflation adjusted) was actually quite high then, increasing by over 30% in a decade which is massive growth. That's not the case now, where real wage growth has been more like 5-8% over the last decade.