In terms of income, I'm talking about medians, you're talking about means. If you want a solid indicator of how prices and wages affect people, I would suggest

In terms of income, I'm talking about medians, you're talking about means. If you want a solid indicator of how prices and wages affect people, I would suggest looking at the median values, which are not skewed by wealth disparities. Also, you have to take certain factors in to account, such as the utility of the purchases in determining the effects of food prices eclipsing inflation. DVD players may have gone down in price, but that doesn't help much when you need to eat. Also taking into account stratification in food quality (as mentioned above), availability, etc. is also important.