In this morning's release on Personal Income for December, the BEA noted that while nominal incomes rose, in real terms, they fell:

Real DPI decreased 0.2 percent in December and Real PCE decreased 1.0 percent; goods decreased 3.1 percent and services increased 0.1 percent (tables 5 and 7). The PCE price index increased 0.4 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.5 percent (table 9).

Inflation hurts both people and economies by forcing people to pay more for less. And the data proves it.