Even Inflation Is Worse If You’re Poor
A new analysis indicates that rising prices have been quietly taxing low-income families more heavily than rich ones.
by Annie Lowrey
Nov 05, 2019
3 minutes
In an era of wild inequality, sputtering wages, and rising rents and health-care costs, the American working class has had one consistent financial respite: “stuff,” broadly defined, is cheap. Sure, workers might not be able to afford a decent apartment, a college education, or sufficient elder care for an infirm relative, or to ever, ever get sick. But burgers, leggings, yard tools, bicycles, dishes, smartphones, soda—these items have become less expensive, thanks to big-box stores and internet retailers and imports from abroad.
Or perhaps not. A from a prominent group of
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