Well high wealth inequality doesn’t translate directly to “worse off” but it does indicate that there’s some truth to the social sentiment.
Beyond that, it’d depend on definitions…
- data shows housing, healthcare, college costs outgrowing wages and inflation
- data shows tons of other stuff costing less over time when accounting for inflation.
Basically, data shows that (American) consumers have access to more and more cheap consumable goods, but the 3 things that are the (probably for most people) biggest purchases in life are the most expensive they've ever been.
The data can say whatever you want it to say depending on which data you look at and how you interpret it and what bits you include and leave out.
"Home ownership is higher than ever" is what the data says, and this can "prove" that there is no problem. Of course, you can also point out that the average age where people buy a house is ten years later, and that house prices really have massively gone up, and that especially lower-income people are spending an ever-larger share of their income on housing.
And of course averaging out over any country (especially a huge country like the US, but also smaller ones) is a very incomplete picture in the first place, and there can be huge differences between different groups that averages don't display: if everyone stays put with old low housing costs but entering the market is very expensive then "the data says" that there is no problem.
etc. etc.
Try doing a working-class job and try to find affordable housing for you and your family. This is the data that matters.
> The data can say whatever you want it to say depending on which data you look at and how you interpret it and what bits you include and leave out.
This is what most people don't understand. Like 99% of the population. There is plenty of data that is fake as well when they want to brainwash people and there has never been more brainwashing in the US than there is today.
There are many, but one good leading indicator is freight companies / shipping rates.
Looking at things like housing and cars directly can hide things because of can-kicking shenanigans. Melody Wright has a great substack that goes over what the homebuilders are doing to make it seem like sales are strong [0], going well beyond the "have the construction workers park in the driveway of unsold units" stuff.
And social media amplifying the complaints and rage postings of its younger users and the lower class?
What does the data say?