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The claim is correct for relative income and incorrect for absolute income. In absolute terms, wages have been stagnating for a long time and combined with tech
by HSO 16y ago
The claim is correct for relative income and incorrect for absolute income. In absolute terms, wages have been stagnating for a long time and combined with technological progress, yes, absolute real wealth may have advanced for almost everybody. The problem is, people define their incomes in relative terms, and with the total excess at the top management levels since the Soviet downfall combined with mass media, most Americans have been suckered into debt. So I would venture Americans' net-worth has indeed declined long-term, even absolutely.
- yummyfajitas 16y agoReal wages purport to measure the amount of stuff one can buy, not the income as a fraction of some richer person's income. The claim I'm disputing was made about real income.
- HSO 16y agoLet me rephrase: The claim is correct for real income in relative terms and incorrect for real income in absolute terms. The claim you're disputing was made about real income in absolute terms. So I agree with you. But I have added some idle speculation about average net-worth position for the lower 4 quintiles and a hypothesis about why this may have happened.