[phillmv]

Okay. What are you arguing here?

Income has remained stagnant for the past 40 years. I don't understand how the massive gains achieved in the 40-60s is relevant.

The whole story behind the 1% thing is that for the past two generations the benefits of the massive productivity gains we've since achieved have gone disproportionately to owners of capital.

When we talk about income, we're really talking about a fraction: nominal dollars over the cost of living. The point isn't that there have been no wage increases, the point is that they've barely kept pace with inflation. Someone born in 1935 living in 1965 had experienced a huge shift in real wealth and had every reason to expect that as society's wealth increased so would his.

This is no longer the case.

[perry5000]

Number of people who own TVs, cars, refrigerators, air conditioning, dishwashers, microwaves, ovens, appliances, entertainment devices, mobile phones, copy machines, personal computers, laundry machines, among the plethora of several other consumable goods have gone up substantially. Try buying a personal computer in 1970, and see how much it'll cost you. Each device I've mentioned have also substantially improved.