I got into an argument today that went something like this: Me: As a general trend real wages have fallen while the cost of living has gone up. Other people: stop complaining about how much things cost, cut back just like the rest of us! You are an idiot if you can't stop purchasing luxury goods!

Generally I respect the people who were involved in that discussion, but I DO need to set the record straight as to WHAT I was talking about. I study Macro economics. I am not referring to things I purchase within a year. I am not referring to things you or anyone else as an individual decide to purchase within a year. I am talking about an average of the prices of all consumer goods. As a number, that HAS gone up. As a number real wages HAVE gone down. Specifically my complaint is not "waaaah I can't afford blahblah" just that this gap exists. It is my belief that real wages should reflect cost of living. Yes there should naturally be some variance in wages, I am not claiming I support equal distribution of wages. Just that as cost of living indexes go up (not counting recent deflation) wages should go up with them. They generally do not however.

I am no longer attempting to debate policy, or anything else here, just to set the record strait as to what I was actually talking about.