WHY WE’VE NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD ( ACCORDING TO THE AUTHORS ):
CONSIDER:
* American born today can expect to live approximately 79 years—a full five years longer than in 1980 and more than a decade longer than in 1950.
* Americans are also much better able to enjoy their longer lives. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, spending by households on many of modern life’s “basics”—food at home, automobiles, clothing and footwear, household furnishings and equipment, and housing and utilities—fell from 53% of disposable income in 1950 to 44% in 1970 to 32% today.
* While income inequality might be rising when measured in dollars, it is falling when reckoned in what’s most important—our ability to consume. Before airlines were deregulated, for example, commercial jet travel was a luxury that ordinary Americans seldom enjoyed. Today, air travel for many Americans is as routine as bus travel was during the disco era, thanks to a 50% decline in the real price of airfares since 1980.
* What’s true for long-distance travel is also true for food, cars, entertainment, electronics, communications and many other aspects of “consumability.” Today, the quantities and qualities of what ordinary Americans consume are closer to that of rich Americans than they were in decades past.
Stand up Bob,Oh.......!
The middle class isn’t stagnant - it is showing plenty of movement.
It is sliding into the lower income class - that’s movement.
The authors mentioned women and immigrants moving into the workforce dragging down the average, but it should also be mentioned that the population of Blacks and Hispanics is larger than thirty years ago as well. Those two ethnic groups tend to have more low-paying jobs than other ethnic groups even ignoring the illegal population.
There’s not much concern about middle class salaries decreasing. The real concern is with the middle class being tossed in the ditch, hundreds of thousands per month, again. I doubt that many readers will be distracted from that.