It is a conflatist argument.
I take a $20 gold coin from your pocket and replace it with two pennies. You claim I cheated you out of your wealth; I claim that you now have more change in your pocket than before I made the transaction.
Who is accurate?
Answer: we are both accurate, but one of us is conflating a numeric increase with an increase in personal wealth.
Look carefully at statistics and look carefully at how statistics are interpreted. You will find conflatists, if you choose to look.
An increase in jobs is not necessarily an increase in wealth or quality of life. Those who unilaterally claim otherwise-- I would not recommend buying used cars from any of them.
I'd be willing to say that someone with two $20 gold coins is wealthier than someone with one (everything else being equal). I can show you how what Americans own today can be exchanged for more gold than what they had twenty years ago. What I can't do is make you accept gold coins, land, inflation adjusted dollars, or whatever as a definition of wealth.
Anyone can always say that we're worse off because he doesn't like whatever he doesn't like. My only objection is that it's an idiotic way to do business and I usually end up having to support those clowns with my taxes.