i think it just shows that younger cohorts in the us have higher incomes at the same stage in life than did older cohorts, and that gen z does not diverge from that trend. there could be some compositional effects that are distorting the data as presented, but it's not immediately clear to me that there would be.
it's true that the cost of housing has outpaced inflation more generally, but gen z is still spending less on housing than did older cohorts. americans are still getting richer.
https://twitter.com/JeffreyKleintop/status/1780707675850064219
kk, what is your response to this chart?
Well the "adjusted for household size" is doing a lot of work by itself, but saying housing "costs" are not much higher than a generation ago is ignoring the fact that housing is also an asset that is much more valuable than a generation ago.
So again, the chart is just non-responsive to people who make statements like "millenials are not even able to start having families because of the costs of housing, childcare and education which makes it very difficult."
In fact, this chart just uses that fact to point out that millenial income is higher because they don't have any kids and are single or DINKs. That doesn't mean that inflation has not affected their decision to have kids.