On the recordFebruary 6, 2020
Americans continue to enjoy substantial economic mobility, despite Democrat claims that the decline in union membership has led to a permanent upper class. Millions of poor Americans continue to move into the middle class and millions in the middle class are moving into the ranks of the wealthy, a group heavily criticized by the Democrats' class-warfare politics. In inflation-adjusted 2018 dollars, from 1967 to 2018, the portion of U.S. households earning less than $35,000 a year fell by 25 percent. The portion earning between $35,000 and $100,000, the middle class, fell by 22 percent, from 53.8 percent to 41 percent of the country. But it did not fall because the middle class is worse off. The ranks of the poor and middle class are shrinking as the ranks of the wealthy and upper middle class are growing. From 1967 to 2018, the portion of U.S. households making more than $100,000 rose from 9 percent to more than 30 percent of the country. In 1967, nearly 25 percent of workers belonged to a union. In 2018, that number was just 10.5 percent. That means that while the union membership rate fell by more than half, the share of American households earning six-figure incomes--that is more than 100,000--more than tripled. And, yes, contrary to another popular Democrat claim, throughout most of the country, these wage gains are outpacing the cost of living.…
