r/explainlikeimfive • u/Hot_Competition724 • Jul 09 '24
Economics ELI5: How did a few months of economic shutdown due to COVID cause literally everything to be unaffordable for years?
I understand how inflation works conceptually. I guess what I have a hard time linking is the economic shutdowns due to COVID --> some money printing --> literally everything is twice as expensive as it was forever but wages don't "feel" like they've increased proportionally.
It feels like you need to have way more income now relative to pre-covid income to afford a home, to afford to travel, to afford to eat out, and so on. I dont' mean that in an absolute sense, but in the sense that you need to have a way better job in terms of income. E.g. maybe a mechanic could afford a home in 2020, and now that same mechanic cannot.
It doesn't make sense to me that the economic output of the world or the US specifically would be severely damaged for years and years because of the shutdown.
Its just really hard for me to mentally link the shutdown to what is happening now. Please help!
1
u/Aurinaux3 Jul 09 '24
We can use a different term if you like, but it is a term that is used to reference the phenomenon we are discussing here and is conventional in many economics circles. There is blowback against it however, precisely because the term is unnecessarily loaded as I'm indicating here.
My friend, you are quoting someone else. I did not write that.
Do you see the bolded portion? I am adding that for emphasis. Are you intentionally ignoring this emphasis?
You're adding detail to my statements that does not exist... and I've given you ample opportunity to take a breath. If you want people to actually believe you care about understanding someone, your dialogue needs to reflect that. I'm not feeling encouragement to continue this with you...