Installation Piece Statement:

This soda can installation visualizes the stark realities of economic inflation over the past decade. This installation encourages interaction with its viewers to physical touch and read all of the information gathered. This piece underscores the financial pressures faced by many and the daily challenges of maintaining financial stability in today’s economy.

The Information that’s listed on the cans are below

  1. Inflation has increased 27.4 percent in the last 10 years
  2. Average hourly wage has increased 45.22 percent in the last 10 years
  3. U.S Home Price Index has increased 95.7 percent in the last 10 years
  4. U.S National Debt today is $34,786,265,000,000
  5. The average federal student loan debt has more than doubled since 2007, from $18,233 in 2007 to $37,850 in 2024.
  6. The most recent data from the US Census Bureau shows that the national poverty rate is 11.5%. To put that into perspective, that’s 37.9 million people living in poverty in America.
  7. The cost of food rose 2.2 percent in the last year
  8. $10,000 in January 2023 is equivalent to $10,486 in April 2024
  9. Average Gas Price by year
  10. Chart of Nominal wage growth vs Inflation

Links to the information found

#1 https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/

#2 https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/wages#:~:text=Wages%20in%20the%20United%20States%20averaged%2012.49%20USD%2FHour%20from,Hour%20in%20February%20of%201964.

#3 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CSUSHPINSA

#4 https://www.usdebtclock.org/

#5 https://www.bestcolleges.com/research/average-student-loan-debt/#:~:text=Average%20Student%20Loan%20Debt%20Statistics&text=The%20average%20student%20loan%20debt%20borrowed%20for%20a%20four%2Dyear,for%20Education%20Statistics%20(NCES).&text=The%20average%20federal%20student%20loan%20debt%20has%20more%20than%20doubled,2007%20to%20%2437%2C850%20in%202024.

#6 https://brightlanelearning.org/2024/01/poverty-in-america/

#7 https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm

#8 https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

#9 https://www.creditdonkey.com/gas-price-history.html

#10 https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2023/feb/nominal-wage-growth-individual-level-2022