[zeroonetwothree]

Rent has risen about the same as wages over the last 40 years. So a bit higher than inflation but not so much that it’s less affordable.

[bandrami]

Health care and education are the two that have really outpaced inflation, the trade-off being that basically all durable and consumable goods have run way below inflation.

[direwolf20]

Inflation is the rate at which prices rise. If things are getting more expensive faster than inflation, you're just undercounting inflation.

[MobiusHorizons]

Inflation is the rate that a whole basket of goods gets more expensive. At least that’s how CPI is calculated and it’s what I meant by it. Since that number is averaged across a bunch of goods and services, there will always be some that increase faster or slower than inflation as a whole.

[danaris]

Are those figures mean wages? Or median wages?

Because the difference between those is a vast gulf.

[bandrami]

Median. BLS barely tracks mean wages at all because it's extremely hard to do.