This, and off-shoring of manufacturing jobs, is at the heart of the shrinking middle class. I grew up in a decidedly middle class home with one wage earner. In 1964 my parents bought a nice house (with a pool!) in Pasadena CA for $45,000. Accounting for inflation, that translates to $432,000 today. Yet, the house is now valued at more than $2 million. In 1966 they bought a nice, new Chevy Impala for $2,000, which in today’s dollars is a bit north of $18,000. Try buying a new, full size car for less than $35,000 today. More people today have stuff (like cell phones), but cannot afford to own a home or buy a decent car. Shelter and transportation are main drivers of feeling prosperous, or not, and more people are being left behind than ever before in my lifetime. These are fundamental structural shifts, and simply raising taxes on the top 1-5% will not solve the problem. It will just allow us to borrow less for existing programs.

BTW, if affordability of a car is a benchmark for prosperity, the new UAW deal with automakers will only temporarily improve the prosperity of these workers. Eventually, it will probably make matters worse. Concessions to unions was what ultimately drove manufacturing oversees to utilize much cheaper labor. Either that, or get smoked by foreign companies. I’m not judging any of it as good or bad, just saying this is what happened.