The American middle class is in trouble

From the Washington Post online:

Make no mistake: The American middle class is in trouble.

That trouble started decades ago, well before the 2008 financial crisis, and it is rooted in shifts far more complicated than the simple tax-and-spend debates that dominate economic policy making in Washington.

It used to be that when the U.S. economy grew, workers up and down the economic ladder saw their incomes increase, too.

But over the past 25 years, the economy has grown 83 percent, after adjusting for inflation — and the typical family’s income hasn’t budged.

In that time, corporate profits doubled as a share of the economy.

Workers today produce nearly twice as many goods and services per hour on the job as they did in 1989, but as a group, they get less of the nation’s economic pie.

In 81 percent of America’s counties, the median income is lower today than it was 15 years ago.

In this new reality, a smaller share of Americans enjoy the fruits of an expanding economy.

This isn’t a fluke of the past few years — it’s woven into the very structure of the economy.

And even though Republicans and Democrats keep promising to help the middle class reclaim the prosperity it grew accustomed to after World War II, their prescriptions aren’t working...
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Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2014/12/12/why-americas-middle-class-is-lost/