Most goods have gotten cheaper and homes have gotten bigger, but social media makes people feel poorer than they are — bad for anyone judging their finances by what they see online.

• Outside of housing, most things cost less than they used to, and the average new home is twice the size of a generation ago.
• People no longer measure themselves against their neighbors — they measure themselves against billionaires.
• There are only about 3,200 billionaires among 8.5 billion people, so that comparison is rigged from the start.
• Much of what looks like wealth online is staged, leaving people feeling inferior and angry over a fake benchmark.

Outlook: As long as the comparison group stays the richest people on earth, dissatisfaction will keep rising even if living standards do too.