Last year closed out with an annual 7% inflation rate, the Bureau of Labor Statistics finally announced Wednesday. That price increase, further fueled by a 0.5% increase in December alone, constitutes the highest inflation rate since 1982 when Paul Volcker had to engage in a recession-inducing interest-rate-hike campaign just to crack down on the catastrophic stagflation of the 70s.

To put this into more practical terms, the average U.S. worker earns 26 paychecks a year on a biweekly pay schedule. Inflation in 2021 effectively wiped out nearly two of those 26 paychecks. Suffice it to say, the devastation of inflation is not evenly distributed, and as usual, the data demonstrate the damage is regressive.