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Tell me more about that expensive bike you need...

kazlx

Patches O'Houlihan
Aug 7, 2006
6,985
1,957
Tustin, CA
Actually it was another part of the Daniel Tosh standup, where the words in the picture were nabbed off of.

 

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
Dang, that's a lot for a kids toy.
Walton Family wasn't in a position to rob our economy back then.

A Dream Deferred: The Minimum Wage Was Higher in 1963 Than It Is Today

1963: The Shirelles and Jan and Dean were topping the charts. The Fugitive was a hit TV show. John Kennedy was in the White House. Jackie Kennedy's pillbox hats were the height of fashion.

And the minimum wage, when adjusted for inflation, was $8.37, a dollar and 12 cents higher than today's rate of $7.25.

Sylvia A. Allegretto and Steven C. Pitts lay out the math in a paper for the Economic Policy Institute. At its highest point (in inflation-adjusted dollars) the minimum wage was $9.44 in 1968. It's 23 percent lower now. And despite those who claim that a higher minimum wage leads to greater unemployment, the official unemployment figure in August of that year was 3.5 percent, less than half the current rate of 7.4 percent.

Productivity has risen - but working people have seen none of the resulting wealth. As Lawrence Mishel and Heidi Shierholz, also of the Economic Policy Institute, note: "During the Great Recession and its aftermath (i.e., between 2007 and 2012), wages fell for the entire bottom 70 percent of the wage distribution, despite productivity growth of 7.7 percent."

In fact, as Dean Baker and Will Kimball point out, "If the minimum wage had kept pace with productivity growth it would be $16.54 in 2012 dollars" - and that's using a conservative estimate of that growth.
 
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Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,029
7,549
I'd wager productivity growth has been concentrated in the top 10% of skilled jobs, not distributed evenly.
 

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
I'd wager productivity growth has been concentrated in the top 10% of skilled jobs, not distributed evenly.
Still not a good reason for favoring growing inequality or significantly lower effective tax rates on the top compared to then in the early 60s. Trickle down (and more recently in the EU, Austerity) policies are proven as a detrimental fallacy, wagering no longer required.
 
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H8R

Cranky Pants
Nov 10, 2004
13,959
35
I ride an SE 29er I got on clearance from Jenson. Cheap bikes are fun.

You know what else you can have a sh1t-ton of fun with? A really expensive bike.

Or a reasonably priced one.


Whatever. Fun is fun.
 

bogusbill

Chimp
Oct 16, 2009
52
0
Thanks for posting this awesome vid. Brought back a lot of good memories. I always feel like a kid when I ride, just not so much when I have to peel myself off the ground anymore.
 

pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
I just want a bike that doesn't break when I ride it.

Those schwinns broke. I know, I had one.
 

Cliff Racer

Chimp
Sep 21, 2012
12
2
I'd wager productivity growth has been concentrated in the top 10% of skilled jobs, not distributed evenly.
Wage growth hasn't even kept pace with inflation. Fifty years of progress has resulted in most Americans being poorer, even the middle class, not just those on minimum wage.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-28/minimum-wage-in-u-s-fails-to-beat-inflation-chart-of-the-day.html

http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2012/02/28/the-death-of-the-great-american-middle-class/
 

Jim Mac

MAKE ENDURO GREAT AGAIN
May 21, 2004
6,352
282
the middle east of NY
Fun memories - good times on a vamped up stingray that eventually broke in 2, yours truly:



Full Sus & dh bikes brought me more joy as I aged and rode harder trails than the Stingray times.

Now that I'm back on a cheap BMX bike, I appreciate the fun factor of its simplicity but also appreciate the suspension on non-groomed tracks & trails. Fun is fun.
 
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