In reality, the distribution of employment income has shifted from cash wages to expanded benefits. There has been substantial growth in two-earner households which indeed puts downward pressure on individual wages but increases household income and wealth. Productivity gains have resulted in much cheaper goods in a variety of sectors, leading to a couple of decades of historically low inflation. We've also had big demographic shifts in immigration and aging over 40 years that make point-to-point comparisons potentially misleading.
Actually you are the first one I see to dispute this. Do you base these smell tests/beliefs in any public data? I would like to see the source to have something to dispute this frequently stated claim.
Think about how much someone would have to pay you to live a 1973 lifestyle, and it should be obvious why claiming there have been 40 years of “stagnation” is nonsense.
Quality of life != wages
And FYI many people view U.S.quality of life as garbage, so maybe there really is not much growth to brag about.
> Real wages in the United States, have stagnated since the mid-1970s contrary to expectations that real wages should raise in line with increases in productivity. Between 1973 and 2013 productivity in the United States grew by 74% whilst compensation for workers grew by 9% in the same period. The stagnation of real hourly wages has resulted in a Middle-class squeeze as increases in inflation and the cost of living exceeds the growth of real wages for members of the middle and lower classes.