"SMTP has outlived its usefulness" (was: Forwarding services)

Posted Jan 18, 2026 22:07 UTC (Sun) by pizza (subscriber, #46)
In reply to: "SMTP has outlived its usefulness" (was: Forwarding services) by malmedal
Parent article: A note for MXroute users

> It's a 24% increase. Salaries grown faster than inflation so people's buying power has increased.

Inflation over the past five years is officially 24%. However median wages have only gone up by 21% during that same period. Meanwhile, housing costs have gone up by nearly 50%, and other essentials (eg food, medical, energy) have also gone up faster than the official inflation rate.

Essential costs going up faster than wages yields a *decrease* in buying power.

More tangibly, I spend more today to feed just two people than I did to feed four in 2020 -- and I have the receipts to prove it.

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"SMTP has outlived its usefulness" (was: Forwarding services)

Posted Jan 18, 2026 23:59 UTC (Sun) by malmedal (subscriber, #56172) [Link] (7 responses)

I expect we will get yelled again for being off-topic, so to keep it short. This is the graph of median wages adjusted for inflation:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q

The big spike in 2020 is an artifact of the lowest paid workers being fired during the pandemic while the highest paid where kept on the payroll.

Cherry-pickers who want to mislead are having a field day with exploiting this. But in reality the median US worker is better off now than ever before.

"SMTP has outlived its usefulness" (was: Forwarding services)

Posted Jan 19, 2026 9:33 UTC (Mon) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link] (6 responses)

Just to point out you've failed to address pizza's point.

Absolute wages is irrelevant if you fail to address essential costs. What's happened to *disposable* income after food, housing etc? I'm lucky - I haven't really felt this, but many UK homes are now in "negative budget", as pay rises and inflation are roughly equal, but rent and food costs have been rising at double that. Pizza's figures say the US is in the same mess as the UK.

Cheers,
Wol

"SMTP has outlived its usefulness" (was: Forwarding services)

Posted Jan 19, 2026 11:29 UTC (Mon) by malmedal (subscriber, #56172) [Link] (5 responses)

> Just to point out you've failed to address pizza's point.

No, his point is fully addressed. The graph is adjusted for inflation and represents real buying power.
> Pizza's figures say the US is in the same mess as the UK.

It's not. It's likely that the last US election was even stupider than brexit, but the effects haven't really shown up yet except for some communities that e.g. depended on trade with Canada.

In fact we haven't really seen the effects of brexit itself yet.

"SMTP has outlived its usefulness" (was: Forwarding services)

Posted Jan 19, 2026 12:42 UTC (Mon) by pizza (subscriber, #46) [Link] (4 responses)

> No, his point is fully addressed. The graph is adjusted for inflation and represents real buying power.

The reason "grocery prices" haven't gone up in those official stats is that the yardsticks have changed -- You can't just compare prices, oyu have to compare what you *get* for those prices. A salient (and widely reported) example is how the ingredients to prepare a Thanksgiving meal (from walmart) was trumpeted as being "25% cheaper" this year than the last, and could supposedly even feed 10 instead of 8. Except this year's selection included considerably less (in both variety *and* quantity) than last year's, with a higher portion of lower-quality store brands than before. I can provide numerous examples in my pantry right now where the packaging has shrunk while being sold for the "same" price. (Directly in front of me is a juice container that has shrunk from 64oz pre-COVID to 59oz...to now 57. And the "price" has _still_ gone up after adjusted for the official inflation rate. And that's for something produced a few hours' drive from here)

So who do I believe, you or my own lying eyes (and actual receiepts)?

"SMTP has outlived its usefulness" (was: Forwarding services)

Posted Jan 19, 2026 13:10 UTC (Mon) by malmedal (subscriber, #56172) [Link] (3 responses)

> The reason "grocery prices" haven't gone up in those official stats is that the yardsticks have change

The official stats are designed to adjust for those effects. The whole point of producing them is to give an objective measure.

> So who do I believe, you or my own lying eyes

You seem a bit confused.

1) I'm not the person producing these stats.
2) You are conflating your own experience with the US as a whole. Even in the best of economies it's normal to have a number of people or whole communities that are struggling.

"SMTP has outlived its usefulness" (was: Forwarding services)

Posted Jan 19, 2026 13:45 UTC (Mon) by pizza (subscriber, #46) [Link] (2 responses)

> The official stats are designed to adjust for those effects. The whole point of producing them is to give an objective measure.

I agree, they are "supposed to"

But in practice, it's not so perfect. And that's before the current administration fired the head of the bureau of labor statistics for not producing "good" numbers.

> You are conflating your own experience with the US as a whole. Even in the best of economies it's normal to have a number of people or whole communities that are struggling.

I understand all about statistics and [non-uniform] sample distribution. But when I'm in the top 5 percentile for income, living in one of the lower-cost areas of the country, and spending more to feed fewer people (after official inflation rates are factored in) it's hard to see how everyone to the left of my spot on the curve (ie lower income and/or higher relative expenses, ie "worse off") is instead somehow doing better than I am.

(This reminds me of the "sure, we're losing money on every item we sell, but we'll make up for it in volume!" quip)

This thread has outlived its usefulness

Posted Jan 19, 2026 13:47 UTC (Mon) by jzb (editor, #7867) [Link]

Let's, everybody, please wind this up here and any other threads discussing the economy, etc. Thank you.

"SMTP has outlived its usefulness" (was: Forwarding services)

Posted Jan 19, 2026 14:09 UTC (Mon) by malmedal (subscriber, #56172) [Link]

Lots of people insist that there's something wrong with official statistics and produce their own, including billionaires who spend plenty of money. Yet all of these have so far been obviously wrong if you poke at it a little. They make the rounds on Twitter a while and are them forgotten.