First of all, that graph you showed is not average persons income like you claim. Your graph is average household income, and the average number of persons working per household is increasing, and the average number of jobs per person is increasing. So yes, where a household might have had one income previously, it may now have two income earners working two jobs each. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but four jobs bringing in more income than one job is not a flex.

Second, inflation is a poor metric, because necessities like rent far outpace inflation.

What is my line of reasoning? Wealth inequality is straight up increasing. The rich are getting richer. The poor are getting poorer. Do you think it’s the rich who have engineered this, or the poor? I’ll let you decide.