Getting better?

The U.S. economy picked up speed at the end of 2011, as consumers increased their spending.
Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's economic health, grew at a 2.8% annual rate in the last three months of the year, the Commerce Department said Friday. That's up from a 1.8% growth rate in the prior quarter and the strongest reading since the second quarter of 2010.
Still, economists had expected higher growth in the fourth quarter.
Growth of at least 3% is considered enough to prompt hiring by employers. During the quarter, the unemployment rate fell to 8.5% in December from 9% in September.

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Yes, these numbers look good. I'm sure they are good for someone. However, most people I know have not had a raise in a couple years. This means they have lost money based on inflation. This is why I left my last job. I sat down and figured out that I was getting screwed and found out that people who left and came back got more money. This just made me want to leave.

The calculation of inflation does not include food and energy. The idea being that these numbers come out in the wash of everything else. The trouble is, the cost of everything is going up. The price of things seem to be beating inflation. This doesn't make sense because inflation is supposed to calculate how much the cost of things is going up. There are issues with the calculation.

Wages are stagnant, or behind based on inflation. Remember those flawed numbers? Wages are behind even that number.

The cost of everything is going up. Wages are not. Where does that leave us? In a hole. What is the first thing to do when one finds one's self in a hole? ... Stop digging.