With the massive increases in inflation and housing costs, the middle class and below can't really keep up. A 5% increase in earning power for them is like a few thousand dollars a year (that they have to immediately spend on housing and services), vs millions or billions for capitalists that can then reinvest in growth sectors (AI and whatnot).
Data from 2020, but it's probably not changed much: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/trends-...
2023 graph: https://www.gspublishing.com/content/research/en/reports/202... (from https://www.gspublishing.com/content/research/en/reports/202...)
With the massive increases in inflation and housing costs, the middle class and below can't really keep up. A 5% increase in earning power for them is like a few thousand dollars a year (that they have to immediately spend on housing and services), vs millions or billions for capitalists that can then reinvest in growth sectors (AI and whatnot).