(I think the claim is still wrong, and that all quartiles are doing better in real terms, but that's a tougher thing to measure)
Annual wages are about 15% higher today compared to 1971 in real terms. Real terms is a bit suspect in this case as wage earners are more likely to pay nominal rent then owner equivalent rent. It may well be accurate that the average wage earner is worse off today then they were in 1971.
I'd venture a speculation that this is reflected in media, sitcoms of the 70s rarely had roommates - and the 80s/90s poked fun of those who lived in their parents basements. Roommates are relatively common in shows today.
Since 1971, the cumulative inflation rate was around 700%, with an average annual inflation being well over 3%.
So while wages increased 15%, the price of everything else around us increased over 700%.
The median income earners in Q1 1990 made 408$/week, one inflation source puts that at 951.17$/week in Q1 2023, vs 1095$ which is what the actual dividing line was. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881500Q https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ Numbers also look different depending on what exact dates are chosen.
However, there’s many ways of calculating inflation many show that hypothetical person worse off. And of course individuals aren’t going to stay at exactly the same income band so many many people really are significantly worse off.
"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning." Henry Ford
CPI is thoroughly flawed. It doesn't take into account that consumables are actually falling in value by 5%/year due to ever increasing efficiencies of production, and it only includes a carefully selected basket of goods which notably doesn't include hard assets like real estate. It's algorithm is even changed through years and if we use algorithms from previous decades, they produce much higher figures.
It completely ignores the fact that the fiat currencies are devalued through money supply inflation (the real inflation)
Gasoline was roughly 1/3rd the price, but 4 years of state college was 20k, not 100k.
A house I grew up in, while 30 years newer, cost 80k compared to 300k now, even though it needs a lot more work.
Minimum wage there went from 4.25 an hour 30 years ago to 7.5.
Health care costs have gone up way more than double.
So maybe people make twice as much cash, but their costs for the things they actually need, without bullshit fake adjustments, cost 3 to 4 times more than they used to.
One could argue for better, lik how react is "better" than html forms. But it isn't really worth the cost to me.
Excite was about as good at getting me search results for what I am looking for as google has enshittified itself to now.