Young, Unemployed and Living on the Street

Re:Young, Unemployed and Living on the Street by yummyfajitas on Tuesday December 18, 2012 @10:46PM (#4941029)

Some more graphs to look at:

Total compensation (including non-wage benefits): http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/RCPHBS

Cost index (attempts to control for composition changes): http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/ECICOM

Employers have shifted compensation from wages to benefits.

In answer to your question of what to do about it, very simple - eliminate the tax advantages of assorted non-wage benefits (e.g., treat employer-provided health insurance, 401k matchin, etc as income).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Young, Unemployed and Living on the Street by crasshopper on Wednesday December 19, 2012 @12:31AM (#4941303)

very simple - eliminate the tax advantages of assorted non-wage benefits

yummyfajitas, that may shift compensation more towards wage/salary rather than benefits. What is it going to do about the unemployed youth?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Young, Unemployed and Living on the Street by twoodfin on Wednesday December 19, 2012 @07:12AM (#4942232)

You're losing the thread. There was a claim that capitalism was failing as a desirable economic system because median real wage growth slowed or stopped. I've always found this presentation of 1975 America as the height of the golden age before the fall to be transparently silly. Who'd rather be the median worker in 1975, and miss out on three+ decades of very nice quality of life improvements, even if their wages in real terms were the same?

But yummyfajitas helpfully pointed out that the median worker continues to see compensation gains, just tilted toward ones that take a tax-advantaged form.

[ Parent | on HN ]