Perhaps you ought to take note of consumer debt, cost of education relative to income, cost of housing relative to income, cost of child care, cost of healthcare?

Yea, the country can chug along while population gets ever impoverished and averages can continue looking just peachy as the income gap grows.

I'll just throw in an anecdotal email from the local school district about how they will no longer permit elementary students to purchase lunch if their lunchroom balance is negative. Think about that next time you strut out the "exceptional country" argument.