[nologic01]

There are so many moving parts, indices and measurements in economics, anybody sufficiently familiar with the data landscape can "prove" any (typically political) point they want by selectively focusing on some timeseries or another.

This is not to say there is no objective economic reality, but meaningful comparisons over time and across different economies seem very hard. Thats why "economically you never had it so good" can coexist with outer despair.

And this before we account for the non-accounting of externalities and the variable long term sustainability of different lifestyles (the wealth transfer from future generations).