America isn't poor!
I’m posting this quickie (sorry for the typos) as the stock market is busy plummeting so optimism may not be appropriate (my 401k is heavily in stocks and I’m hoddoring for dear life!), but that’s the point: We should have been optimistic, there was no need for a massive course shift, because America is in great shape!
The reason Trump gave for this massive economic upheaval (he calls it “Liberation Day”) is that he wants to revitalize America’s industrial base. Trump often waxes nostalgic, and his movement is called “Make America Great AGAIN” because he thinks we aren’t any more. He wants to rebuild the factory-dotted landscape of the 1950s (along with a few white picket fences and dad going off to work with a lunch pail while mom stays home with the 3.5 kids).
Empty, dead sites, factories that are falling down…will be knocked down, and they’re going to have brand new factories built in their place. We’re going to be an entirely different country.
But we are a great country!
Compared to other big, rich countries, America is by far the greatest.
Pro-MAGA accounts claim this growth in wealth has benefited Wall Street and the billionaire class (ironic coming from Trump and Musk), and now it’s time for working-class Americans to get their share, but this view is completely wrong.
The median household income in the United States was $80,610 in 2023, meaning half of American households made more than that! This is far higher than Germany's median of around $60,000 or Japan's of $32,000.
The Fed St Louis shows this rise since 1984.
And if you look at the Census breakdowns, ALL classes of Americans have benefited.
The median household income of Americans—in inflation-adjusted 2023 dollars—has gone from $54,530 in 1967 to $80,610 in 2023, pushing everyone’s income higher.
13% of people made less than $15,000 (2023 dollars) in 1967. In 2023, that number had fallen to 7.4%
Move up a column, and 9.4% made between $15,000 and $24,999 in 1967. By 2023, only 6.7% were that poor.
Now, look at the rich end of the chart. In 1967, only 1.7% made more than $200,000. In 2023, a whopping 14.4% were pulling in the gravy.
So yes, the rich did get rich faster, but everyone had more money because the whole country was prospering. More income meant more consumer goods (dishwashers, air conditioners), including some that had never existed (home computers, cell phones) and others that had vastly improved in quality (cars). And it wasn’t just stuff. We also have longer life expectancy to enjoy all the stuff. The average American lived 71 years in 1967 but 79 years in 2023.
This doesn’t mean America is perfect. Our European allies (ex-allies?) live longer, and people in Japan live longer still (obesity may be part of the problem here). Our health insurance is spotty, and we have too much gun violence. But overall, America is not a poor, struggling country with a downtrodden working class. We are rich and getting richer.
Well, were.
Good quickie. This is a pet peeve of mine. People on both sides have convinced themselves that the US economy is awful, but it has actually been quite good, and we (even the poorer part of "we") are quite rich compared to any other time or place in history. It's not perfect, and there are obviously people living in poverty, but it's not like there's some other model that works better we can point to and say, "Why aren't we doing that?" Any proposed change is a guess at best, and implementing those guesses tends to go horribly wrong (see, e.g., Communism or Brexit).
The US is essentially a poker player about to trade in its full house in hopes it gets back a straight flush. Sure, it could happen, but it's not a great idea.
You can't reason with Trumpists they're halfwits.