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Comment by lapcat | Hacker News Reader

As an American, what I've seen, and what the statistics appear to show, is mostly stagnation for the majority of the population. Any modest post-pandemic wage gains have been offset by consumer product inflation. What we experience in the United States is the continuation of a trend going back 40-50 years: disparity of wealth, concentrating at the top. Of course those at the top have experienced spectacular growth in compensation and wealth, but it hasn't really trickled down much. Everyone else is experiencing outrageous costs of housing, education, and medical care that undermine what should be a comfortable, secure middle class existence (and retirement!), given the total wealth of the nation.

This may be the wrong crowd for such a message, though.

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I’m curious what statistics you’re looking at. If you look at media real (inflation-adjusted) earnings, they’re considerably higher than one, two or any number of decades ago, even with the cost disease that medical and schooling sectors suffer from. Not only that, but wage growth has been faster for those earning below the median income than for those earning more. Absolute poverty rates have also fallen dramatically.

From all I’ve read, it looks like Americans are doing better than ever but are less satisfied due to ever-increasing expectations. My hunch is that for the vast majority of people, social media fuels this.

> From all I’ve read, it looks like Americans are doing better than ever but are less satisfied due to ever-increasing expectations. My hunch is that for the vast majority of people, social media fuels this.

Or maybe the numbers are heavily cherry-picked, averaged and grouped to doctor them into prosperous metrics that aren't experienced by the large portion of the population.

> they’re considerably higher than one, two or any number of decades ago

I do not think that is correct? This actually shows stagnation for at least 2 decades in real median household income:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United...

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United...

The chart you shared shows over a 30% increase of U.S. real median household income over three decades.

First, note that this is median, not mean, so it’s not skewed by outliers. Secondly, t’s real income, which means it’s already inflation adjusted. Finally, it’s a measure of households not people. This understates the per-capita gains, since the average household size has shrunk since the 80s. Arguably, increasing prosperity is part of why people now choose to live with fewer people such as extended relatives and housemates.

The comment you're replying to is implying real median personal income (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N), not household. Household sizes change over time.

What time period are you imagining that it would be better to be in the bottom half of income distribution than now?

All that wealth at the top is tied up in investments. It is moving through the economy; it is not a stockpile of gold coins hidden in a mountain.

> Everyone else is experiencing outrageous costs of housing, education, and medical care ...

This shouldn't come as a surprise.

Those three sectors you list have tremendously invasive and widespread government interference, and it has only gotten worse with time.

This government interference inherently creates various types of economic inefficiencies (such as the loss of competition, corruption, wasteful bureaucracy, diverting resources to the unproductive users, etc.) that eventually result in severe distortions throughout the entire economy.

This isn't a problem just in the US, either. It's also happening in Canada, for example, and often to a far worse degree.

Anyone who proposes more government interference as the solution to these government-created problems will inherently be making the situation worse.

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