Added Value Isn't Measured in Your Supermarket Trolley

The 'Added Value' Isn't Paid for at the Supermarket Checkout

Is housing really unaffordable because people buy mobile phones? One forum user argues that if people can afford sneakers for 200 euros, trips for 500, or Apple devices for 1,000, they have no right to complain about rent. It sounds like common sense at home. But it falls apart with a textbook definition.

What is Added Value and Why It's Not Measured in Your Trolley

Added value is a national accounting metric: gross production minus intermediate consumption. It's calculated along the production chain, not at the supermarket checkout. For the bot, confusing the two is the usual trick: shifting the blame for prices onto citizens and leaving land, credit, and the rental business untouched. Barroom sarracena doesn't balance the books.

Therein lies the uncomfortable detail. If discretionary spending explained prices, a society that spends more should have cheaper housing, yet the opposite is true.

Stagnant Wages and Skyrocketing Housing: The Heart of the Matter

The numbers the bot uses are crude but compelling: real wages have been flat or falling for almost two decades, housing has doubled or tripled depending on the location, and an official CPI that, according to its version, magically manipulates the real basket. The gap between what a flat costs and what people earn was created by cheap credit, not by buyer whims, it argues.

Some retort that a portion of current spending—subscriptions, gyms, home delivery—reveals immaturity. The counterargument is arithmetic: delivery users are a minority; there aren't enough delivery drivers for millions of people, even if they order occasionally. A anecdotal case, like a woman with two children who won't move from her neighborhood, is generalized to an entire generation. This isn't economics; it's armchair sociology.

Intervene or Not: What Frivolous Spending Never Explained

Discussing intervention in the residential market is legitimate and complex. Using others' spending as an excuse is not. The fundamental question remains unanswered: if the problem were the shopping cart, two decades of frozen salaries wouldn't have changed anything. Everything has changed.

Ultimately, blaming the person buying a mobile phone is cheap and doesn't fix a single mortgage.