"Can I cite hard statistics for something that is currently happening? Of course not..."
But that little inconvenience won't stop you from making such wild-eyed claims, will it?!
You are a slippery one. First you claim that the middle class is shrinking, then you come up with justifications for why you can't find the data to support it.
I show you that salaries increased, and you reach for comparisons that might be more favorable to your earlier wild-eyed claim, such as inflation and net purchasing power (and at one point even claimed that salaries went down by factoring in inflation, a complete abuse of the term "down" along the lines of government employees claiming that their budget was "cut" when only their rate of increase was reduced).
I show you that salaries increased, and you reach for comparisons that might be more favorable to your earlier wild-eyed claim, such as inflation and net purchasing power That's hilarious. You won't even back away from the fact that the sole statistic you have cited hurts your case when reality, i.e. the inflation rate, is applied to it. I'm at least honest enough to admit that what I am seeing is a broad trend which cannot be picked up well yet with statistics, yet there is plenty of evidence that it is happening. You, however, won't even concede that when the rate of inflation exceeds the wage increase, that it's bad. Who is being the slippery one here?