If you live under a rock you don't know that most people got a 20% pay cut in the last 3 years by not getting a raise that was 20%.<p>Because people were not given raises, they are taking new jobs. The incumbents at those companies are not getting raises but the new hires effectively are (by joining at the wage they want). So now you just have a lot of pissed off people working.<p>At the grocery store, prices for most items that you want are more than 20% inflated. So instead of buying Philly cream cheese at 150% (nearly 2.5x) markup from 2019, you're buying the store brand at 80% markup. (which may or may not be Philly - but probably not) And gas is definitely way higher than 20% at least 80% of the year - at least in CA. So in the end your expenditures are much higher than the CPI's 20% or you're eating shitty expired food from Bargain Market and walking/biking a lot more.<p>Homeless rates are not slowing because housing costs (rent and buy) waaaaay exceed 20%.<p>The culture war is raging - the left is the far left and the right is the far right. And no one wants to be in the middle any more. Families are breaking up over this - another thing probably exacerbating homelessness. Most of this fueled by the internet where the 5%'ers are taking 90% of the discussion time. This was different in the era of CNN and Fox owning the news - most of the squabbling back then was over how things are handled. Now the "sides" are more or less calling the other a Nazi and coming up with a billion reasons to back up their shit.<p>Well that's why I'm in a rotten mood.