Thanks to Economix

Bought gas lately? Not a pleasant experiece for the wallet.

Gas and other energy aren’t as cheap as they used to be.

As power prices go up, our spending power goes down.

Check out the chart above… Motoko Rich of Economix noted that

with real incomes falling and the prices of basic goods rising, this might not bode well for consumer spending and in turn, the fragile recovery.

What’s so bad about people buying less TVs, toys, and food? Well, if nothing else this stuff fuels our economy which is now expected to grow at a slower rate.

To make matters worse wages are hitting record lows, ZERO to be exact.

Katherine Reynolds Lewis notes that working for free, although not ideal, gives the worker valuable experience and a chance to prove themselves. With a hat tip to R.A. at Free Exhange who explains the trend by noting that

If it’s worth taking on someone to do a job, it’s probably worth paying them something. The problem is that there’s a discontinuity in the wage spectrum. Pay above the minimum wage is legal, and no wage at all is (probably) legal, but a positive wage less than the minimum is not. Market clearing job matches at wages between zero and the legal minimum can’t take place.

Unpaid labor is a sad truth for bloggers (hint hint) but would you our readers take a wage-less position over joblessness? Also, even if you are being paid is the price of things pinching your pocket?