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Comment by AlchemistCamp | Hacker News Reader

I’m curious what statistics you’re looking at. If you look at media real (inflation-adjusted) earnings, they’re considerably higher than one, two or any number of decades ago, even with the cost disease that medical and schooling sectors suffer from. Not only that, but wage growth has been faster for those earning below the median income than for those earning more. Absolute poverty rates have also fallen dramatically.

From all I’ve read, it looks like Americans are doing better than ever but are less satisfied due to ever-increasing expectations. My hunch is that for the vast majority of people, social media fuels this.

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> they’re considerably higher than one, two or any number of decades ago

I do not think that is correct? This actually shows stagnation for at least 2 decades in real median household income:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United...

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United...

The chart you shared shows over a 30% increase of U.S. real median household income over three decades.

First, note that this is median, not mean, so it’s not skewed by outliers. Secondly, t’s real income, which means it’s already inflation adjusted. Finally, it’s a measure of households not people. This understates the per-capita gains, since the average household size has shrunk since the 80s. Arguably, increasing prosperity is part of why people now choose to live with fewer people such as extended relatives and housemates.

The comment you're replying to is implying real median personal income (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N), not household. Household sizes change over time.

> From all I’ve read, it looks like Americans are doing better than ever but are less satisfied due to ever-increasing expectations. My hunch is that for the vast majority of people, social media fuels this.

Or maybe the numbers are heavily cherry-picked, averaged and grouped to doctor them into prosperous metrics that aren't experienced by the large portion of the population.

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