NO ONE HAS IT HARDER THAN THEIR FATHER DID:

A week ago, the Fed and Treasury released its 2022 data from the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), which is a big survey they do every three years in which they ask households about their finances. Household surveys are important because they allow us to calculate things like medians -- if you want to know how a household in the middle of the national income or wealth distribution is doing, you need to talk to a ton of households to find out what that distribution looks like. A downside of household surveys is that they take a long time to do (which is why the SCF only comes out every three years), so they don't give you up-to-the-minute information. Another downside is that you have to be very careful about which households you survey, in order to get a representative sample. But even with those limitations, survey data is hugely informative.

Basically, the 2022 numbers -- which you can see summarized in the Fed's report -- tell a really encouraging story. In a nutshell:

Americans' wealth is way up since before the pandemic.

The increase is very even across the board, with people at the bottom of the distribution gaining proportionally more than people at the top.

Inequality is down, including racial inequality, educational inequality, urban-rural inequality, overall wealth inequality.

Debt is much less of a problem.

There's even some surprising good news about income as well as wealth.

In other words, a rising tide is lifting all boats.

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