Quote:
Originally Posted by jtown,man
No.
Aggregates matter. These numbers are taking every wage earner, and we all know the lower wage earners have seen barely a blimp in raises in the last 4 decades.
However, for people in the middle class, we see raises.
My dad has seen consistent raises his whole life, I have, my girlfriend has, her two sisters, everyone I know. None of us are wealthy but our income has consistently been increased throughout the years, more certainly above inflation.
I am sure this is the case for most people in this forum. Just because a McDonalds employee hasn't seen a raise in a decade doesn't mean a hell of a lot of non-min wage job earners haven't.
|
ancedotal evidence is not statistically meaningful. i know this and i dont even have an econn degree. if you fall in the upper-middle band of income earners than you have probably done OK. but the reality is the american middle class is shrinking.
^yes the upper bracket increased but so has the lower
evaluating income in a bubble is also irrelevant, COL is just as big a factor. if you need to be located in a big expensive city in order to have a reasonable chance at good employment (not to mention the cost of education needed in order to position oneself for good employment), than income isnt telling the whole story. youre FAR closer to poverty and falling into the lower income class than moving up into the top 1-2% whether you realize it or not.
aggregates do matter, and income growth among the majority of Americans in no way resembles this line:
or this line:
or this line
point is our parents could get the same sort of lifestyle with just a high school diploma and they worked far less hours as well. the student loan crisis didnt just emerge out of thin air, its creating a significant drag on the potential for wealth building among young people. and the reality is, for anyone who dosent have an in-demand degree, they are falling into the service sector which is precisely the kind of job which has seen barely any movement at all in terms of earnings, and which the majority of new jobs growth over the past 20 years could be categorized as.
basically your argument boils down to "im doing good and people i hang out with are doing good so therefore everything is good!". in other words youre living in the the little blue emerald city and pretending that the exploding sea of red isnt something that actually happened and continues to exacerbate year after year
and thats America in a nutshell.