> Should middle class wages keep increasing relative to everyone else forever?
Yes if you want to keep a middle class.
In a consumer economy that requires growth, demand has to be there for investment. One way to achieve demand is people have more money to buy things in a consumer economy and their earning outstepping household inflation which is higher than macro inflation. Ultimately the middle class has been on a downward trend if flat due to higher household inflation.
Inflation is a macro level number. Household/family inflation is more than the macro inflation number on the whole economy i.e. housing/rent, food, gas, tuition/education, healthcare, etc are all higher inflationary items than other indicators which pull it down across the economy but not for many groups [1], especially middle class that gets the weight on their backs on healthcare, tuition and more due to no subsidies or higher pricing because they make more.
Just because inflation on the macro economy didn't go up too much, doesn't mean family/household/individual inflation isn't higher and too much at the same time of wage stagnation [2][3]. Flat since 2000...
Middle class is shrinking because wages are not outstepping inflation relative to their needs. That isn't relative to everyone but an overall downward trend for middle class. While lower and upper classes are up they will also stagnate if that trend continues.
Middle class wages and breaks need more help than ever right now due to inequality and very little policy or the market helping middle class handle the weight that the lower and upper class put on their backs. Middle class consumers support local economies and return most of their money back to the market/economy, wealth does not. Middle class is also mostly the longs of the public stock markets in terms of investments and retirement accounts. The trend of a middle class disappearing cannot continue or the system breaks and the public markets will also probably break, that affects everyone including the wealthy.
More people can buy your product and invest in your company if they have cash money to do so.
Yes if you want to keep a middle class.
In a consumer economy that requires growth, demand has to be there for investment. One way to achieve demand is people have more money to buy things in a consumer economy and their earning outstepping household inflation which is higher than macro inflation. Ultimately the middle class has been on a downward trend if flat due to higher household inflation.
Inflation is a macro level number. Household/family inflation is more than the macro inflation number on the whole economy i.e. housing/rent, food, gas, tuition/education, healthcare, etc are all higher inflationary items than other indicators which pull it down across the economy but not for many groups [1], especially middle class that gets the weight on their backs on healthcare, tuition and more due to no subsidies or higher pricing because they make more.
Just because inflation on the macro economy didn't go up too much, doesn't mean family/household/individual inflation isn't higher and too much at the same time of wage stagnation [2][3]. Flat since 2000...
Middle class is shrinking because wages are not outstepping inflation relative to their needs. That isn't relative to everyone but an overall downward trend for middle class. While lower and upper classes are up they will also stagnate if that trend continues.
Middle class wages and breaks need more help than ever right now due to inequality and very little policy or the market helping middle class handle the weight that the lower and upper class put on their backs. Middle class consumers support local economies and return most of their money back to the market/economy, wealth does not. Middle class is also mostly the longs of the public stock markets in terms of investments and retirement accounts. The trend of a middle class disappearing cannot continue or the system breaks and the public markets will also probably break, that affects everyone including the wealthy.
More people can buy your product and invest in your company if they have cash money to do so.
[1] https://ritholtz.com/2016/08/inflation-look-right-places/
[2] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?graph_id=195323#
[3] https://seekingalpha.com/article/4111556-august-2017-median-...