Middle Class Decline?

Many people are talking about a decline in the middle class. I think they are wrong. I think that the middle class is as solid as it has ever been. Median real wages have continued to rise, though slower than in 1950-1975, as have wages at the 20 percentile.

But what I agree has happened is NIMBY has driven up housing costs in the highest wage cities to an absurd degree, allowing owners of existing housing to capture most the rise in income in those cities.

Also at it's 1970's peak about 18% of USA workers worked in manufacturing and a little more than half of them were highly paid. Those jobs are almost all gone. But though highly paid, those where not great jobs, it was boring, hard work. So as sad as it is that they are gone the lower paying jobs that replaced them at least are not as hard. When I worked in restaurants we joked that the one good thing about a low wage job is you did not care so much if you lost the job but the environment was good.

If you took all the income gains to the top 20% above the gains of the rest and spread it over the rest of workers you would raise the bottom 20% by about 25%.  That would be great but not life changing.

My son took a job as an assistant plumber right out of high school within a few years he was doing great pay wise, so the skilled trades still doing quite well. He bought a very nice 2 bedroom condominium here for $44k. He lived with us 2 years and saved his money and added some college money that he got from my father and paid cash for the condo. Why is so cheap here in Gainesville FL to buy a nice condo, because they let people build sufficient housing unites here in Gainesville FL. See here. 

We could all live much better than folks in the 1970's and before if we lived more like they did. Here is a story about the poorest county in the USA the folks there live middle class similar how people used to live.