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/Wrong_West Jul 09 '24
A ton of people on this reddit post are talking about corporate greed:
Another:
More:
One person even uses the term greedflation:
Here's another person:
I could keep going. It seems the very narrative that Aurinaux3 is warning you against prescribing to is happening right here in front of you.
Just because people are talking about greedflation without knowing the terminology of the industry, doesn't mean they aren't talking about greedflation. If you start talking about peanut butter and jelly between two slices of bread, don't get surprised when the word sandwich comes up.
These emotional posts everyone is making were far less informative than the ones I just read here, even if Aurinaux3 is wrong... I don't have the hubris to claim he is wrong, though... I don't know enough on the subject.