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Adjusted for inflation, do you make significantly less than your father did at the same age? If so, that would explain your experience. But it is very much not the typical US experience. Real wages have risen consistently, and this is true across all income deciles.
Of course, there is a distribution of outcomes, and some people will inevitably see their incomes decrease even as most incomes increase. You may be one of those people, for whatever reason. This is not a new phenomenon, and it doesn't warrant new policies to address it. It's just a fact of statistics that some people will (based on genetics, luck, whatever) diverge from the typical outcome and end up making less than their parents did, even while most people are making more.
If that's not the case, then it means you are choosing to allocate your resources differently than your father did. You are choosing to live in a high cost of living area (the fact that it's the same zip code is irrelevant; the relative desirability of zip codes shifts over time). You are choosing to spend more on other things besides housing square footage.
How did you take that away from what I said? I said you were choosing to spend your money differently. That's not accusing you of being wasteful (although if you are being wasteful, that would certainly be a relevant fact). I'm saying you are prioritizing other goods more highly than you prioritize housing square footage. That may be a perfectly legitimate thing to do.
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