Prices go up every year, it's by how much matters. For example, rent has been going up slower than inflation for a year now. For every person whose rent went up, there must be a lot of people who don't go online to verify their rent did not go up

Gas is actually the one thing I've noticed that has been a lot better lately. But everything else is still expensive from the crazy greedflation every company was trying to pull when we were tolerating post-pandemic cost rises.

Health care is actually hugely underestimated, here. Health costs have been going up decade over decade and people's health problems have been stacking up. While in the '70s and '80s people could get treatment, someone born in those years started out with the ability to get medical care but has increasingly lost access as they've gone through their lives.

Those people are getting older, now, and it's getting to the point where they can't just ignore the stuff they can't afford. Conditions that would have been easy to treat (but often rare/expensive) are becoming chronic, fatal, or debilitating.

Life expectancy is starting to drop and while that drop is largely due to COVID (which, by itself, is an insane thing) it's also a warning sign about what's to come.

Yeah every time I get a raise I think "finally I'll be able to buy a house soon" then I look at the prices and see I'm still losing ground.

Wrong

Revealing article. When food prices jump 25% and rent 30%, then wages need to jump similarly to make up the difference or else people can't afford to eat or live. But wage growth still hasn't outpaced inflation and won't until the end of next year. (I don't know about anyone here but my salary certainly hasn't caught up to inflation yet. Not even close.)

It is no wonder regular people are going hungry and think the economy is failing them. Because it has. Until more people can afford the absolute basics their perception isn't going to change.

They are not the median, then, but maybe in the lower half of the income which is not doing as well