For most people, the economy is not growing

Source: Pew Research Center

Median real household income is lower for all four groups since 2000. Asians are doing relatively better economically, not because they get preferences, but because their culture leads them to high levels of education and they work hard.

Note that blacks have less than half the median income of Asians.

I suspect that there is something important that does not come out of median income. Inflation is measured on the basis of a market basket of goods purchased by consumers. It is a general estimate, but in fact the way more affluent people spend their money is different than the way poor people do. Medical costs have been increasing faster than most goods and service costs. Thus people spending more of their income on health services may be seeing their buying power go down faster than average.