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On America’s Middle Class

In two of his Forbes columns, NYU's Thomas Cooley challenges – with data – the widespread misunderstanding that America's middle-class is disappearing.  Here, and then here.

(HT Greg Mankiw)  The Terry Fitzgerald work that Cooley mentions was mentioned here at the Cafe a while back.

I raise, though, one objection to Cooley's otherwise excellent columns.  In the first one linked to above, he credits technological change for the explosive economic growth of the 1980s and 1990s.  I don't accept technology as an explanation.  A rush of technology has causes; it must be explained.  Technology is not a variable exogenous to economic growth.

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