The panel argues that social media has fundamentally changed the people we compare ourselves with. Instead of seeing only friends, coworkers and neighbors, users can constantly encounter billionaires, celebrities and highly curated versions of ordinary people's lives. Forbes counted a record 3,428 billionaires worldwide on its 2026 list. That's an extraordinarily small group relative to the global population, making billionaire lifestyles a poor benchmark for evaluating an ordinary person's financial progress or standard of living. Research supports the broader concern about online comparison. A 2026 meta-analysis of 54 independent samples found upward social comparison online was associated with lower well-being and self-esteem and higher anxiety, depression and negative social-evaluative emotions. The housing comparison needs correction. Census data show the median newly completed single-family home increased from 1,545 square feet in 1973 to 2,142 in 2025, roughly 39% larger rather than twice the size. Those numbers also measure new construction, not every household.