US Authoritarianism

The national average is dragged upwards by cities like NYC, and San Francisco. You can live for much less money in thousands of places across the USA. That said, the cost of living has skyrocketed over the last 4 years by an insane amount. Our inflation index is being manipulated and doesn't accurately reflect how much real prices have increased. We've all seen dozens of products that are more than double the price from a few years ago. But if you point this out, the data heads will call it vibeflation and claim it's not real.