If expenses fell at roughly the rate of wages things would be roughly-ok. But the costs of housing, healthcare, and higher education keep going up. Globalizatio

If expenses fell at roughly the rate of wages things would be roughly-ok. But the costs of housing, healthcare, and higher education keep going up. Globalization has pushed down the cost of many manufactured goods for Americans but it's not an even trade if nice TVs go from $3000 to $800 while a year of college goes from $8000 to $16000. The cheap-ish stuff getting a lot cheaper can't quantitatively offset big middle class expenses getting even modestly bigger. To be clear, I'm not saying that globalization is the cause of big-ticket items like healthcare getting more expensive. I am saying that globalization has not depressed big-ticket expenses along with the prices of manufactured goods and middle-class American wages. Many middle-class Americans are experiencing a real decline in material standard of living concomitant with globalization. If equilibration toward a happy new equilibrium takes decades, I don't think that political realities will permit the equilibration to take its own sweet time. Something will rupture first. Maybe it already has ruptured with the election of Trump.