Destroying Liberal Lies: Wages Are Stagnate

Sure, the left lies. You know it. I know it. They know it. That doesn’t change the fact that their talent for deceit is unparalleled. They can often convince even the stoutest Republicans of mistruths in order to push their agenda.

Many of these lies are subtle and hard to catch, but it’s important to debunk them to take power away from the dishonesty of the left.

Today, we’re going to address one of their oldest and most powerful lies: wages are stagnant. You’ve heard it plenty, and you might even be inclined to believe it. Let’s blow this lie completely apart.

You will hear liberals say that wages are stagnant and have grown at or below inflation since 2000. The careful commentators might only say that wages have been stagnant since the Great Recession. Both of these claims are dubious at best, but they’re the least deceitful thing you’ll hear about wages from the left right now.

The more disconcerting deception is that they will say that real wages only increased by 0.1 percent in 2017, but inflation increased by 2.1 percent. To the ignorant, this sounds like inflation is running away from wage growth. It’s a simple deception, but it tricks too many Americans.

The definition of real wages is what people earn compared to inflation. In other words, a 0.1-percent real growth is 0.1 percent ahead of inflation. Using the numbers you’ve seen so far, it would mean wages grew at 2.2 percent in 2017 while inflation grew at 2.1.

Those numbers are just to make a point that even the data liberals choose to try and deceive people shows that wages are beating inflation. When you look at more reasonable analysis, their claims crumble to dust.

Problems with Real Wage Calculations

It’s important to compare wage growth to inflation, but there are plenty of ways to distort the comparison. As you might suspect, commentators on the left are cherry picking data as carefully as they can to make Trump’s economy look weak. Even their best efforts still show a better economy today than at any point under Obama. Still, let’s debunk some of their tactics.

The first thing to note is that inflation is being overestimated. There are several ways of calculating it, and liberals are obviously using the largest number they can find. This is based on the Consumer Pricing Index which looks at how prices of nominal items go up. The problem is that this index doesn’t account for when increased value accompanies that price.

Here’s an example. Smartphones today are, on average, more expensive than two years ago. They also have a ton more power, capacity and bells and whistles. The CPI would say that the price of phones has inflated. Conversely, the cost compared to ability has actually gone down. You’re getting more for your money today than you did only two years ago.

When you take value into account, inflation drops by about 0.5 percent.

Another problem with the current real wage calculation is that it completely ignores benefits. This means that raw income has been growing ahead of inflation. That has been matched by a consistent growth in benefits. Companies are giving more paid time off than ever before, healthcare packages to more employees (although that’s a mixed bag) and a slew of other benefits.

Finally, real wage doesn’t account for a changing labor force. Baby boomers are still retiring faster than they are being replaced by the next generation. That means that the most experienced and highest paid workers are in decline. Despite that, real wages are climbing. That’s a great sign for the next generation.

When you put it all together, you find that real wages actually grew by about 1 percent last year. That’s 10 times better than what you were told.

A Rich History

The major point of this string of lies is for the left to be able to complain that things were better in the 60s or 70s than they are today. So, obviously, we should have gone the communist route.

Here’s the thing. If we go back to using liberal numbers, we find that real wages today are higher than they were at any point during those decades. In fact, that was true even during the peak of the recession. If you go off of their analysis, wages today, adjusted for inflation, are $4,160 higher (per year) than they were at the peak of the 60s or 70s.

Even without disputing the numbers, you know that everyone today has way more than anyone during the 60s and 70s. Houses are bigger and have far more accommodations. Everyone has multiple electronics. Cars last longer. In every conceivable way, Americans have mountains more today than when compared to their counterparts from decades past. It’s painfully obvious.

A Bright Future

Here’s the final nail in the coffin. Once again using the pessimistic and ridiculous numbers touted by the left, wages are accelerating faster than inflation right now. In 2016, wages grew by about 2.3 percent. So far this year, they have grown at about 2.7 percent. August put us on track for 2.9 percent. During all of that, inflation has been fairly immobile. Real wage growth is accelerating even when you stack the numbers against it.

Does that seem compelling? Everything you just read is ignoring the tax cuts. If you include them, we are on track for 1.4-percent real growth this year. That’s miles ahead of what anyone on the left will ever admit.

It’s also why this next election matters so much. The left wants you to believe that capitalism is dead. They’ve made their move and finally openly embraced socialism. Now, they need to convince you to vote for them. In reality, capitalism is doing better than ever, and voting for a socialist at this point is an abandonment of rational thinking and a vote for certain death.


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These content links are provided by Content.ad. Both Content.ad and the web site upon which the links are displayed may receive compensation when readers click on these links. Some of the content you are redirected to may be sponsored content. View our privacy policy here.

To learn how you can use Content.ad to drive visitors to your content or add this service to your site, please contact us at [email protected].

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Website owners select the type of content that appears in our units. However, if you would like to ensure that Content.ad always displays family-friendly content on this device, regardless of what site you are on, check the option below. Learn More