With all the ballyhoo going on with the Occupy movement, I honed in on an article in the University of Chicago magazine about the significant improvement in the lifestyle of the middle class and how that trend has been improving since the 1980s and that it continues its upward trajectory. You wouldn’t know it from all the negative press we’ve been reading.
Bruce Meyer, a professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, has proven the naysayers wrong. “The middle class is much better off than they were ten years ago, much better off than they were 30 years ago. That’s a message you don’t always hear.” According to his research, wages and consumption are both up over 50% between 1980 and 2009. That’s pretty impressive.
He adds, “We should be doing less hand wringing about the country falling apart. We should always be worried about our kids, but it doesn’t look like we’re going to leave them declining or worse living standards. We may leave them other problems, but this doesn’t look like it’s one of them.”
That’s something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving given that the price of turkey is up. Gobble, gobble.
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