That hasn’t been true for decades in the West, even though per-capita productivity has been steadily rising since WW2.

Are you sure?

From the data I’ve seen the bottom decile Americans consume significantly more per capita compared to even 2006.

e.g. plane travel was completely absent amongst the bottom decile in 2006, like so close to zero mileage per capita per annum it was a rounding error.

▲

king_geedorah an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Is bottom decile consumption a good measure of economic health? In a way it seems it could signal the opposite, ie in the past the bottom decile was saving that money in an effort to change their economic conditions vs spending it now could indicate a lack of hope for upward mobility.

To your example it seems worth noting that the quality of the air travel experience appears to decline over time as well.

	▲	MichaelZuo an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Bottom decile consumption is the best measure of economic health for the bottom decile… it clearly cannot be the best measure across the entirety of the population. Real physical consumption is by far the hardest metric to game or play tricks with. Yes technically, some probably are trading a bit of their future prospects for a nicer flight schedule, less red-eyes, etc… But I don’t see how that is relevant at all?

▲

ux266478 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yes actually, this is remarkably well studied:

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2018/08/07/for-most-...

I hate to imagine what this graph looks like today, given the massive amount of inflation that's happened in the last 6 years.

▲

p-e-w 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Plane travel is a very poor proxy for quality of life.

Home ownership, high-quality food, working hours etc. seem far more relevant.

	▲	MichaelZuo 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Huh? People will, intentionally, work longer hours to afford more frequent plane travel. And to upgrade classes, perks, lounge access, etc… I’m pretty sure there are literally millions of people like that.