Originally Posted by
Bret Lee
Well this is by minority and increase buying power/income in recent years. The way your question is phrased it is difficult. What you are asking is did a given income level have an increase in buying power. I would say yes because of the lack of inflation on imported non perishable goods in the past decade. In other words your socks don't cost more today than they did in 1970 but they used to be made in the USA and today they are not. Domestic things have risen dramatically though. You also are asking about a stagnant income level as in a specific income "class" that did not change (that is how I understand the way you phrased the question, Anyway they all do change even slightly but they change. That goes by the COLA Cost of Living Adjustments) If you consider the CPI or COLA than yes it is more costly to live each year if you have a fixed income.) Anyway while looking for some data I found this.