things right now 034—week of 04.28.25
Worth noting that the TikTok budget thing is completely wrong.
Among other issues:
-conflates means and medians
-uses inconsistent sources across years within categories, making comparisons apples-to-oranges
-uses a completely made-up consumption basket
-draws from industry-funded non-representative surveys
-doesn’t adjust for quality changes in products
-incorrect calculation for taxes and social security contributions
If you fix these issues by looking at the same government survey (BLS CEX) across years, for a married family with kids you get:
1995: $44,987 in expenditures on $49,058 in after-tax income (8% implied savings rate)
2023: $111,112 in expenditures, $135,677 income (18% implied savings rate)
Worth noting that the TikTok budget thing is completely wrong.
Among other issues:
-conflates means and medians
-uses inconsistent sources across years within categories, making comparisons apples-to-oranges
-uses a completely made-up consumption basket
-draws from industry-funded non-representative surveys
-doesn’t adjust for quality changes in products
-incorrect calculation for taxes and social security contributions
If you fix these issues by looking at the same government survey (BLS CEX) across years, for a married family with kids you get:
1995: $44,987 in expenditures on $49,058 in after-tax income (8% implied savings rate)
2023: $111,112 in expenditures, $135,677 income (18% implied savings rate)