Hot take: inflation doesn't really mean anything.

50 years ago, if you wanted the following:

-1 flight Los Angelus to New York

-1 basic television

-100 large pizzas

-100 litres of coke

You'd have had to work twice as many hours as today. That's certainly not inflation in terms of hours worked. But you could easily make a list of things for which you'd have worked far fewer hours for 50 years ago.

It depends what you value. If you just want to live in a van, watch TV, eat pizza drink coke and fly around the country then you haven't been affected by inflation at all, quite the opposite. But if you want a house in a trendy part of the city then you have been affected a lot.

Inflation only means something in context of hours worked and personal priorities.