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Comment by gjsman-1000 | Hacker News Reader

To be fair, when the Switch launched in 2017, games cost $78 after inflation.

That's true. Unfortunately, the purchasing power hasn't kept up with inflation.

Purchasing Power is a function of inflation and income - so it always "keeps up" with inflation. You might've been trying to say that income hasn't kept up with inflation, but that's not supported by any data. Real wages have remained roughly flat since 2021. https://www.statista.com/chart/32428/inflation-and-wage-grow...

The link says income (in terms of “real” wages) has not kept up with inflation.

It further says “In times of high inflation…real wages go down, meaning that workers see (and feel) the purchasing power of their income decline.”

Sounds like parent poster and your link are in agreement.

Is this an AI response? No, if you just look at the chart it has only gone down by about 1%, so roughly flat as I said. The link of course describes what happens during inflation, but since wages also increase in the real world, they offset inflation so real wages remained roughly flat.

purchasing power takes into account expenses as well. Even if "income has kept up with inflation", it means little if your rent and groceries skyrocted and you had little/no raises in the meantime.

Who are you arguing against? The link I posted literally compares wages with the Consumer Price Index which INCLUDES rent and groceries, and finds that they have been increasing in tandem and the difference is mostly flat. I have no idea what you're trying to say.

The charts point of reference is saying "it got better since the pandemic". Neat, I guess?

Im arguing about your dismissal of "purchasing power". But you seem to not realize that and rely on charts and not the world aroind you.

Given recent news, it's not like data from November matters anyway.

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