Our Dying American Dream
It’s becoming increasingly apparent that the fruits of the economy’s steady expansion are not reaching most Americans.
A growing share of our overall prosperity continues to accrue to the wealthy and to corporate shareholders (as evidenced in part by the extraordinary upward march of stock prices).
On the other end: the young and people who didn’t attend college — including white, working-class men who voted for Mr. Trump in large numbers. For many, the American dream increasingly feels like a mirage.
Children born in 1940 had a 92 percent chance of earning more than their parents did at 30 (after adjusting for inflation). Those hatched in 1980 had just a 50 percent chance.
Wall Street Journal 25 November 2024
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/opinion/donald-trump-economy-millennial-genx-working-class.html
In a post on TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/@keds_economist/video/7434955659483057454
viewed more than 1 million times, Edwards argued that stagnating wages for working-class people have pushed economic security out of reach for many Americans.
The trend has lasted for about 50 years, she said — and helped set the stage for an outpouring of frustration when inflation spiked two years ago.
‘The problem that Trump tapped into, the anger he was able to capitalize on [to be] ushered back into the presidency, is a problem that is so much bigger than inflation for two years.
It is a five-decade stagnation and decline in American living standards. … It is a structural failing of our economy.’
— Kathryn Anne Edwards, labor economist and economic-policy consultant
Hannah Erin Lang MarketWatch 25 November 2024
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