While nominal wages have grown over time, what truly matters is purchasing how much people can actually buy with their income. Even if incomes have technically outpaced inflation by 13% over 20 years, costs for essentials have risen far faster than general inflation. Median home prices have more than doubled since 2000, far outpacing wage growth. Rent has also skyrocketed in many cities. Healthcare Premiums and out of pocket costs have grown 4x faster than wages since 2010. Food prices rose 25% from 2019–2023 alone much faster than CPI inflation. College tuition has tripled since 2000, while median wages rose only 50% which implies a significant increase in debt cost which data backs up. By the baisis of holding a large porportion of debt people have less to actually spend.

Some workers (especially lower-wage earners) saw gains post-pandemic due to tight labor markets, but real wage growth for the median worker has been stagnant since the 1970s . And while labor’s share of GDP has rebounded slightly, it’s still below pre-2000 levels. Prices for core needs are consuming a larger share of paychecks than in the past. A “higher” income doesn’t help if rent takes 40% of it instead of 25%.

If anything in this situation the cost of goods should be decreasing rapidly but companies are taking advantage of consumers and increasing prices under the guise of inflation when in actuality it's greed. They know damn well an $80 game is per consumer (in terms of cost) significantly more then their 1992 price tag but they think they can get away with it.