Income Decoded

Less hype. More clarity. Income, decoded.

At 5% annual inflation, cash with no interest loses about 39% of its buying power in 10 years. Pure arithmetic, not a forecast. My take: a stable account balance is a terrible definition of financial safety.

Belgium's 2024 tax wedge was 52.6% for a single average earner, no kids (OECD; includes employer contributions). More than half the labour cost. Calling workers unmotivated while ignoring that bill is a convenient dodge.

EU house prices rose 53% from 2010 to 2024 (Eurostat). Owners call that wealth creation. First-time buyers call it a higher entry fee. Same chart. Opposite interests. Housing policy should stop pretending otherwise.

Private credit in 2024: 196% of GDP in the US, 60% in Italy (World Bank). Apparently debt is a moral failure until it powers your favourite economy. Then we call it financial depth.

China's share of world GDP: 1.6% in 1990, 16.8% in 2024, in current dollars (World Bank). Calling it a passing threat looks less like analysis and more like nostalgia with a flag attached.

The debt panic has a selective memory. US federal debt was 58% of GDP in 2000 versus about 123% in early 2026 (FRED). My take: demanding fiscal discipline only when the other party spends isn't economics. It's team sports.

Only 40.8% of Italian women aged 15+ are in the labor force. In the US: 56.3%. In the UK: 57.3%. (ILO estimates via World Bank, 2025)

$1,000 in payment stocks in January 2016, dividends reinvested 💳 ⬛ Block (Square): $8,576 🔴 Mastercard: $7,312 🔵 American Express: $6,908 Source: Yahoo Finance adjusted close (total return), Jan 2016 to Oct 28, 2026. Past performance is not a guide to the future.

100 kept in cash in Italy since 1990 (lira, then euro) now buys about 41 (IMF inflation data). In Japan the same 100 still buys about 80.

1997: Deep Blue beats Kasparov. Headlines say chess is finished. Today more people play chess online than ever before. Not every "AI beats humans" story ends the human version. Which job do you think survives the same way?

100 in cash kept since 1990: what it buys in 2025 💶 🇯🇵 Japan 79.8 🇨🇭 Switzerland 71.6 🇫🇷 France 52.6 🇩🇪 Germany 47.7 🇨🇦 Canada 47.7 🇸🇪 Sweden 46.8 🇳🇱 Netherlands 44.8 🇮🇹 Italy 41.5 🇺🇸 United States 40.6 🇬🇧 United Kingdom 40.3 🇦🇺 Australia 40.2 🇪🇸 Spain 38.0 🇵🇹 Portugal 37.2

75% of India's workers are self-employed. In the US: 6%. (ILO estimates via World Bank, 2025)

21% of Italian workers are self-employed. In the US: 6.1%. (ILO estimates via World Bank, 2025)

Countries with the most workers: total labor force, 2025 👷 🇨🇳 China 768M 🇮🇳 India 618M 🇺🇸 United States 175M 🇮🇩 Indonesia 147M 🇳🇬 Nigeria 117M 🇧🇷 Brazil 108M 🇵🇰 Pakistan 85M 🇧🇩 Bangladesh 75M Source: World Bank WDI, SL.TLF.TOTL.IN (ILO modeled estimates). Educational content.

$100 a month into the S&P 500 since January 2000. It went through the dot-com crash, 2008 and 2020. Put in: $32,200. Worth now: about $198,000 (Yahoo Finance, dividends reinvested).

Tulip mania, 1637: a single rare bulb was said to cost as much as a house on an Amsterdam canal. Historians now think the crash was smaller than the legend. Every bubble gets exaggerated twice. Once on the way up, once in the retelling.

$100 a month into the S&P 500 (SPY), every month since January 2000 📈 Through the dot-com crash, 2008 and 2020. Total put in: $32,200 Source: Yahoo Finance adjusted close (total return), Jan 2000 to Oct 28, 2026. Past performance is not a guide to the future.

Average bank lending rate in 2025, per the World Bank: Brazil 45.3% Argentina 46.0% Switzerland 2.8% Same loan, very different life.

Share of government revenue spent on interest in 2024, per the World Bank: USA 20.3% Italy 9.4% UK 8.3% Germany 2.5%