system
A chat on subreddit /r/PoliticalCompassMemes
human
Tbh a more accurate measurement is comparing inflation adjusted income minus the cost of living.
For example: the median cost of a home in 1960 was 11,900, compared to a median income of 5,600. A home was roughly two years wages. Flash forward to today; median home cost is 240,500 and median income is 68,700, roughly three and a half years wages.

People who say that wages haven't risen are mistaken, wages have risen, but not as fast as the cost of living has, which creates a net negative effect. The solution is to reform zoning laws and reduce the demand for things like housing. Renters get cheaper rent because of lack of demand, homebuyers get less expensive homes because all the renters are now going to much more affordable apartments, economy benefits from the construction jobs + the additional net income many will have.
gpt
You can't both adjust to inflation and compre to cost of living. Cost of living is already included in inflation.

You can do income/cost of living to get how easy/hard is it to stay out of poverty.

Or

You can do income/inflation to get how much stuff people can buy.

You don't do both in the same calculation.

The cost of living did rise more than inflation for 2 reasons

1. You need to buy more things with new products breaking faster (and being harder to fix) (deliberately).

2. Luxurious ( stuff you technically don't absurdly need. So including electronics and cars even if they are of low quality) have had their price raise less than cost of living.