Whether or not the graph has been manipulated is not that relevant. The fact remains that the purchasing power of young people has not improved compared to 30 years ago (it has even slightly decreased). The notion of "development" that we are being spoon-fed kind of implies that things are supposed to be getting better.
I recently watched a documentary about how today's politicians lack vision and optimism compared to before (unfortunately not available in English). Instead they are fearmongering about things like terrorism and demographics in order to push through their agendas. Fearmongering always existed in politics but now it's completely taken over - there are no more grandiose projects like going to the moon or solving the energy/environment crisis. Most if not all politicians don't run for office in order to improve the world - they do it for their career, status, money and to end up in the history books.
The documentary also showed how people in the 80's fully expected there to be a 20-hour work week by the year 2000. That was pretty much taken for granted thanks to coming advancements in computers/machines which would increase productivity. And yet here we are 14 years beyond that point and people are still slugging away at 40 hours+ a week. Not to mention most jobs (if you even have a job, that is) are largely redundant (most doctors don't cure patients, most journalists don't inform the public, our school systems don't teach kids anything of value, most lawyers help ensure the implementation of laws that shouldn't even be there in the first place etc).
So 30 years of 40 hours work weeks has resulted in less purchasing power for young people lol.
By reading this forum I've learned that the people who benefit from inflation are the wealthy and the people who own stuff - if you own a peanut factory and peanut prices go up you make more money (credit: WestCoast, I think).
I recently watched a documentary about how today's politicians lack vision and optimism compared to before (unfortunately not available in English). Instead they are fearmongering about things like terrorism and demographics in order to push through their agendas. Fearmongering always existed in politics but now it's completely taken over - there are no more grandiose projects like going to the moon or solving the energy/environment crisis. Most if not all politicians don't run for office in order to improve the world - they do it for their career, status, money and to end up in the history books.
The documentary also showed how people in the 80's fully expected there to be a 20-hour work week by the year 2000. That was pretty much taken for granted thanks to coming advancements in computers/machines which would increase productivity. And yet here we are 14 years beyond that point and people are still slugging away at 40 hours+ a week. Not to mention most jobs (if you even have a job, that is) are largely redundant (most doctors don't cure patients, most journalists don't inform the public, our school systems don't teach kids anything of value, most lawyers help ensure the implementation of laws that shouldn't even be there in the first place etc).
So 30 years of 40 hours work weeks has resulted in less purchasing power for young people lol.
By reading this forum I've learned that the people who benefit from inflation are the wealthy and the people who own stuff - if you own a peanut factory and peanut prices go up you make more money (credit: WestCoast, I think).