Here’s a letter to National Review.
Editor:
Flaws aplenty infect Michael Brendan Dougherty’s criticisms of the many studies that show high and rising living standards for America’s middle class (“How the Upper Middle Class Was Made,” April 10). Distilled to their essence, however, Mr. Dougherty’s criticisms are nothing but revelations of his ignorance of the facts mixed with his distaste for the choices freely made by his fellow Americans.
Although it’s true that, over the past half-century, women’s inflation-adjusted earnings rose faster than those of men – hardly surprising given that women decades ago were generally less skilled than men in the workforce – the fact, as documented by Scott Winship, is that men’s inflation-adjusted earnings have also risen. Contrary to Mr. Dougherty’s presumption, therefore, it’s more affordable today than in the past for a family to have only the male in the workforce. It follows that today’s greater participation of women in the workforce isn’t an economic necessity imposed upon families by the heartless market but, rather, a choice voluntarily made by most families. (See also this important post by Jeremy Horpedahl.)
Mr. Dougherty’s factual errors are too numerous to mention, but two deserve the spotlight. First, it’s untrue, as Marian Tupy points out, that Americans today work more hours than in the past. In the 1950s, each American worker, on average, worked 2,024 hours annually. Since 2000, each American worker, on average, works only 1,808 hours annually – or 11 percent fewer hours than during that alleged golden decade of the 1950s.
Second, manufacturing employment today is more secure than in the past. From 1958 through 1980, the average monthly manufacturing-job layoff rate was 1.6 percent. Today the rate of layoffs and discharges is lower. From December 2000 through February 2026 – years including both the Great Recession and the covid hysteria – that rate is down to 1.1 percent.
No one argues that the economy is perfect, whatever such a standard might mean. But Mr. Dougherty should both better familiarize himself with the facts and quit presuming that his personal preferences are, or ought to be, those of his fellow Americans.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
