It’s Getting Harder to Stay In the Middle Class

Wall Street Journal: “Median household income in the U.S. was $61,372 at the end of 2017… When inflation is taken into account, that is just above the 1999 level. Over a longer stretch—the three decades through 2017—incomes are up 14% in inflation-adjusted terms.”

“Average housing prices, however, swelled 290% over those three decades in inflation-adjusted terms… Average tuition at public four-year colleges went up 311%, adjusted for inflation… And average per capita personal health-care expenditures rose about 51% in real terms over a slightly shorter period, 1990 to 2017.”