The perceived-income-stagnation data predates the 2008 financial crisis.

Evidence

We note that this does not include data from 2010 after the financial crisis when one could expect that household income would have dropped even further. — Neil Fligstein & Adam Goldstein, The Emergence of a Finance Culture in…, 86

Categorization

• SEED: This author’s hedging is a model for an essay opening: how households were already feeling squeezed before the crisis that would supposedly cause the squeeze.