3 ms·
I'm not saying you're completely wrong...but it is worth noticing that the middle class had growing prosperity until the mid 1970's - and since then has either
by MrTonyD 11y ago
I'm not saying you're completely wrong...but it is worth noticing that the middle class had growing prosperity until the mid 1970's - and since then has either stagnated or slid down. The GDP during that time was rising - but going disproportionately to the wealthy. So it is worth examining other factors in the change - I would argue that "debasing the currency" becomes no more than an occasionally contributing factor.
- _rpd 11y agoI'll suggest the change is the globalization of the US economy. The US effectively added a billion low income workers to its economy, and that group has seen large relative gains in income over the past few decades. Some of those gains were, as predicted, effectively a transfer of wealth from the US middle class. Although newspaper articles about globalization are now relatively rare, it is a day to day reality that I'm sure many HN readers live and breathe. While the massive destruction of poverty in the developing world has been an unqualified good, it was no secret that the trade-off was stagnating wages in the developed world until the developing world 'caught up'. There has been a reduction in income inequality, but it has been at the global scale. The US is not a gated community like Scandinavia. The US is deeply embedded in the global economy. Any attempt to ignore the global economic perspective will be misleading at best and ultimately futile.