I think how the ‘middle class’ (a relative measure) of the USA is doing is fairly uninteresting overall. I think most meaningful progress at the grand scale (decades to centuries) is how fast is the bottom getting pulled up and how high can the very top end (bleeding edge researchers) go. Shuffling in the middle results in much wailing and gnashing of teeth but doesn’t move the needle much. Their main impact is just voting for dumb stuff that harms the top and bottom.
I think how the ‘middle class’ (a relative measure) of the USA is doing is fairly uninteresting overall. I think most meaningful progress at the grand scale (decades to centuries) is how fast is the bottom getting pulled up and how high can the very top end (bleeding edge researchers) go. Shuffling in the middle results in much wailing and gnashing of teeth but doesn’t move the needle much. Their main impact is just voting for dumb stuff that harms the top and bottom.
Great point.
I like the Russ Roberts videos as demonstrations of how complicated macro is / how malleable macroeconomic data is.