{"id":46571,"date":"2022-01-16T19:07:41","date_gmt":"2022-01-17T03:07:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=46571"},"modified":"2022-01-16T19:07:41","modified_gmt":"2022-01-17T03:07:41","slug":"everyday-erinyes-301","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2022\/01\/16\/everyday-erinyes-301\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyday Erinyes #301"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto<\/span><\/strong>, Megaera<\/strong><\/span>, and Tisiphone<\/span><\/strong>. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”<\/p>\n

When you live with unfettered capitalism, pretty much anything that happens which involves money will also make inequality worse. And inflation is no exception.Without further ado, here are the facts and figures.
\n================================================================<\/p>\n

Inflation inequality: Poorest Americans are hit hardest by soaring prices on\u00a0necessities<\/h1>\n
Not all baskets are created equally.
\nGina Ferazzi\/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jacob Orchard<\/a>, University of California San Diego<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The fastest rate of inflation in 40 years<\/a> is hurting families across the U.S. who are seeing ever-higher prices for everything from meat and potatoes<\/a> to housing<\/a> and gasoline<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But behind the headline number<\/a> that\u2019s been widely reported is something that often gets overlooked: Inflation affects different households in different ways \u2013 and sometimes hurts those with the least, the most.<\/p>\n

Inflation, as calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>, is designed to track the price increases in a typical U.S. household\u2019s basket of goods. The problem is spending bundles differ across households. For example, a family in the lowest 20% of income typically spends around 15% of their budget on groceries \u2013 this is nearly 60% more than households in the top 20% of the income distribution<\/a>, according to my calculations.<\/p>\n

The widening inflation gap<\/h2>\n

On Jan. 12, 2022, the BLS released figures showing that inflation jumped by 7%<\/a> in December from a year earlier \u2013 the fastest pace since 1982. To see how this varied across households, I used the bureau\u2019s own price data and factored in the typical spending habits of different income groups.<\/p>\n

I calculate that inflation is running at 7.2% for the lowest income households \u2013 higher than for any other group. For the highest income families, the rate of change was 6.6%.<\/p>\n

The difference between the two income groups steadily increased throughout 2021, starting the year at just 0.16 percentage point but ending at 0.6 percentage point \u2013 near the highest it has been since 2010.<\/p>\n