Don't forget wage stagnation over the last 40 years and the increased cost in college education (funded, yet again, by cheap credit backed by the federal government).
This. There's been a massive shift of wealth away from the middle classes.
And college loans are just taxation by the back door - with the difference that instead of a graduate tax paid to the government, you pay a loan "tax" to the shareholders of the loan fund.
In fact, taxation is increasingly privatised. Instead of paying taxes to government you pay a profit-surcharge on almost everything. This goes to corporate shareholders but provides little or no returned value.
The result is that trillions of dollars are rotting uselessly in offshore tax havens, when they could have been invested in future economic development. And spending power has been suppressed, when it could have been driving the economy from the other end.
What would you define as non-monetary compensation besides health care benefits (which increase so quickly you could consider those benefits to stagnate as well).
> If you look at median income levels, they have grown substantially over the last 30 years.
You have mean and median reversed. Mean inflation adjusted income has increased substantially, median inflation-adjusted income has declined. That's because the distribution of income has become more concentrated.
Stock options are not part of the median income. Tuition reimbursement is far less than govt subsidized education and even regular private education cost in the past. Higher benefitd mean nothing if they are directly routed to massively inflated prices that offset the benefits for the same value delivered.
And college loans are just taxation by the back door - with the difference that instead of a graduate tax paid to the government, you pay a loan "tax" to the shareholders of the loan fund.
In fact, taxation is increasingly privatised. Instead of paying taxes to government you pay a profit-surcharge on almost everything. This goes to corporate shareholders but provides little or no returned value.
The result is that trillions of dollars are rotting uselessly in offshore tax havens, when they could have been invested in future economic development. And spending power has been suppressed, when it could have been driving the economy from the other end.