I find it interesting that people worry much more about how much things cost than how much money they make. I would think these two numbers would be much closer together.

The cost of living has significantly outpaced salary growth. And given how quick companies are to do layoffs, even when things are going well; makes people a little less confident in a job switch. And that doesn't even account for the current state of the market which is brutal. I saw a thing the other day that said people can't even really budget for groceries because the costs are changing drastically week to week. You arent going to get a new job and feel the effects of (hopefully) the larger paycheck as quick as prices can and will change currently.

You directly control what you buy, not how much money you make.

It’s a lot harder to earn more.

Baumols cost disease... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol_effect

Median wages are nearly stagnant for decades and the jobs market growth is shrinking

I suspect this is a consequence of conditioning done to convert Americans’ (and anyone consuming American media’s) identities from “workers” to “consumers.”