If your wages track inflation, then you were previously underpaid for your skill set.
In reality, higher costs may eventually be followed by compensating higher pay, but in the interim everyone just works the same for the same (devalued) pay with a steep drop in discretionary spending because the step function to 'unemployed' is so painful that everyone would rather handle the price feedback through attrition. And in the meantime we get the shittification of all service that wasn't previously operating at high margins, because everyone is making do with understaffing.
And, of course, tomatoes are ridiculous equivalency to attempt. Transportation, energy, and agriculture all lie directly downstream of oil/methane costs, to name a few obvious examples.
In reality, higher costs may eventually be followed by compensating higher pay, but in the interim everyone just works the same for the same (devalued) pay with a steep drop in discretionary spending because the step function to 'unemployed' is so painful that everyone would rather handle the price feedback through attrition. And in the meantime we get the shittification of all service that wasn't previously operating at high margins, because everyone is making do with understaffing.
And, of course, tomatoes are ridiculous equivalency to attempt. Transportation, energy, and agriculture all lie directly downstream of oil/methane costs, to name a few obvious examples.