The ultra-rich say the reason American wages aren't rising is average Americans have priced themselves out of the global labor market and must either content themselves with lower wages or fewer jobs. This view ignores the fact that the U.S. economy is more than twice the size it was thirty years ago, while the median wage is about the same as it was then, adjusted for inflation. All the gains have gone to people like Jeff Greene. The middle classes of other advanced nations, such as Germany, have done far better, while their richest 1 percent rake in a much smaller share of their total economy.
Rather than average Americans living beyond their means, the truth is average Americans are living well below the means the U.S. economy could otherwise provide, if the wealthy didn’t take such a large portion of the gains and have such a strangle hold on the levers of political power.
