Quotation of the Day…

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… is from page 48 of GMU Econ alums Scott Burns’s and Caleb Fuller’s forthcoming (in February 2027) book, Trade Wars: Why Freedom Trumps Tariffs [footnotes deleted; link added]:

What about the “disappearing” middle class? It is true that the American middle class is shrinking. But people in the middle class are moving up, not down. Economist Mark Perry points out that in 1967, a mere 9 percent of Americans were in the upper class, and 54 percent were in the middle class. By 2018, the upper class had grown to more than 30 percent of the population. Trade is a major reason America’s middle class enjoys the highest living standards in the world. One piece of evidence for that claim is the dwindling number of hours the average American must work to afford a host of common consumer goods. Indeed, if we look at real (inflation-adjusted) consumption, Americans are richer now than at any time before.