Source: Cato Institute
by Norbert Michel
“Populists from both major U.S. political parties have ditched the founding American principles that are integral to the nation’s economic and social development. … These principles, though imperfectly implemented, have proven invaluable to Americans. Tragically, the populists’ positions have been based on myths and deceit from the beginning. They insist that somewhere around the 1970s, the American middle class was hollowed out. As this story goes, policy makers’ blind adherence to free-market ideology triggered the catastrophe by killing the U.S. manufacturing sector. Those lucky few Americans who could find new jobs took low-paying ones in the service sector, and personal-income growth flatlined for the next five decades. It’s difficult to explain just how much is wrong with this story. For starters, Americans’ income growth over the past five decades has not been stagnant. It’s been great — and not just for the rich.” (10/14/25)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/americas-middle-class-has-not-been-hollowed-out-far-it