>austerity for most, government handouts for the wealthy. It hasn't been austerity for most. I thought we just established that there has been a massive increa

>austerity for most, government handouts for the wealthy. It hasn't been austerity for most. I thought we just established that there has been a massive increase in social welfare spending. >So what's your point. My point is that wage growth has tracked productivity growth. Middle class wages have mostly tracked productivity growth. There has been a slowdown in wage growth, and this can be mostly attributed to a decrease in labour productivity growth. Other factors have played a role in the slowdown in middle class wage growth, but they are far outsized by the effect of slowing labour productivity growth. Those 'other factors' relate to government intervention, not to any mythical "neoliberalism" that the socialist consensus always harps on about as it further pushes the US into socialism.