Hopefully this situation is transitory.
Economically speaking if this is real - it’s obviously a big negative if over half of people are falling behind.
If it is not real and rather just perceived - it can also be an economic problem because with humanity - perception often equals reality.
Maybe these people should read posts from online investment forums that used to celebrate “s&p 500” almost daily, and whose most common solution to people’s woes was to bump the minimum wage. Certainly that will assuage people’s fears about falling behind.