Reply to Turns Out Americans Actually Do Want to Tax the Rich

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

The middle class have been hit extremely hard with exorbitant increases in childcare, higher ed and healthcare costs.

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Meanwhile, wages have been mostly stagnant -- particularly when compared against increases in productivity. The top 1% -- and particularly the top 0.01% have hoovered up most of the profits. The last forty years have not been good for the middle class. [/quote]

Wages have been stagnant due to a greatly expanding employee base. Even though the labor participation rate has shrunk in the past decade or so, it is still significantly higher than it was in the 50s and 60s. With women entering the workforce plus a constant stream of immigrants, the number of people working in the US has out-paced organic population growth. Average individual labor rate is simply the result of GDP divided by number of employed. As the number of employed has kept pace with GPD growth, the average individual labor rate has been stagnant as a result. Labor rate will only rise when there is a shortage to push up wages - this occurs during periods of low unemployment, like now. I will also point out that the upper middle class has greatly expanded because not just the top 1% has benefited from the economic prosperity of the US. People with jobs in the upper middle class are in shorter supply as they are not as easily replaceable by *new* immigrant labor.

All of this is to say, there is no nefarious cause for the stagnant wages. It's simply a matter of supply outpacing demand. If you want wages to rise, limit the number of immigrants coming in to the country to compete for those jobs, and don't make it stigmatizing for women to choose to be a home maker. [/quote]
Actually, women entering the labor market also accounted for the rapid rise in house prices. When it was common for a household to have one breadwinner, housing was priced accordingly. As women begin bringing in money, housing went up, and now two parents HAVE to work in order to afford a SFH . It's a cycle.

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Agree, but to be clear - women were IN the labor market, their income was just counted in bank mortgage calculations.  [/quote]

^^^^ their income was not counted in bank mortgage calculations until later[/quote]

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