Rather than rely on one of our commenter’s recitation of the arguments of his overseers, let’s take a look at *real data* that shows how squeezed Middle Class Americans are:
That is more than 30 years of wage data and it is adjusted for inflation. Look at how flat the wages are for the middle 60% and the bottom 20%. These are not wages that have kept up with the vastly increased costs over the past 30 years, while the upper 1% have done just fine, thank you very much.
Next up, a look at how all of the vaunted productivity gains of the American worker have not shown up in American worker’s wages:
And a comparison of income growth during the period of the great building of the American Middle Class (1947-1973) with the last 30 years:
A look at the actual median growth in middle class wages vs. what that growth would have looked like if inequality did not escalate over the last 30 years:
The last three figures come from a fantastic report called the State of Working America by EPI. It is worth going over there and seeing what the assault on middle class workers looks like when you pull together the data. It isn’t pretty. And most folks know it. Workers are being asked to do way more with way less, pay more for their health care, pay for other work-related items, pay for their retirement — all of which represent pay *cuts* to workers who are at best getting COL increases to their paychecks. Interestingly, they’ve been bullied into looking at this state of affairs not with resentment and anger, but with fear — at least *they* have a job. But in the meantime, owners get paid handsomely on these workers work. Or if you are a taxpayer paying for the services you so badly want, you are getting more value at someone else’s expense. And saving your politicians from ever dealing with you honestly about what those services you want actually cost.
There is one more figure I want to post that shows the average growth in wages vs. the growth in consumer credit. Over the past 30 years, the American middle class got more in consumer credit that it did in income growth. I can’t find that at the moment, but there is plenty here to show that the middle class isn’t getting such a great deal. And that the effort to make sure that the middle class doesn’t get any help is being done by middle class (barely, most likely) wingnuts with more aspirations than an ability to look out for their own interests.