US consumers remain unimpressed with this progress, however, because they remember what they were paying for things pre-pandemic. Used car prices are 34% higher, food prices are 26% higher and rent prices are 22% higher than in January 2020, according to our calculations using PCE data.
While these are some of the more extreme examples of recent price increases, the average basket of goods and services that most Americans buy in any given month is 17% more expensive than four years ago.
No, because we have some of the best economy ever
https://www.bls.gov/charts/usual-weekly-earnings/usual-weekly-earnings-over-time-total-men-women.htm#
We’ve had higher median real incomes than Q4 2019 since Q3 2022
The whole 2020 decade so far has higher incomes than any point in US history
It’s because we’ve let foreign agents control the social media narrative.