Here's a Fed Economist on the Middle Class

Great article by The Minneapolis Federal Reserve here on why to view common media claims of a middle class falling behind with skepticism. Fed Economist Terry J. Fitzgerald writes:

Americans have experienced steady, gradual improvement in their standard of living since nearly the founding of the country...Gross domestic product per person, one of the mostly widely cited proxies for standard of living, has nearly doubled since 1975. Other measures of national economic performance, such as personal income, compensation of employees and the amount of goods and services consumed, have also risen substantially.