re: I'm sick of people saying the middle class is worse off than 4 decades ago.

quote:

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As someone who has been paying taxes and trying to support a family for those 4 decades....You're full of shite.

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Generations of Americans accustomed themselves to doing better than their parents, and bettering their family situations. They grew to expect a bigger slice of pie, as it were.

That is all fine and good as long as the pie keeps growing. With few exceptions, (the 1930's, 1970's, and 2007-present) our national economic pie grew at least as fast as Americans' collective expectation for a bigger piece.

Unfortunately when the pie doesn't grow, as for example in obamanomics, the perception is that my bigger piece means someone else's piece is smaller, and vice versa.

So we can satisfy ourselves with fighting over how big the other guy's piece should be, or we can support every measure possible to grow the pie.

Meanwhile, in terms of the middle class, there is simply no question today's middle class is better off. We've run the comparisons many times here. Groceries cost far less relative to income. Homes are larger and nicer. The ratio of cars per household is higher. Trips abroad were nearly unheard of in yesterday's middle class. Now they are not uncommon.

All those items have become expectations rather than exceptions. So families spend to attain them. Some spend too much. But they do so by choice.