real wages

Frustrating to Democratic stalwarts is the fact that not all voters have been moved by improving economic indicators, with the buying power of “real wages” growing nationally over the last year.

According to a much-cited academic study by Alan S. Blinder and Mark W. Watson, that’s been true at least since from the Truman administration through Barack Obama’s first term, and is true in every major economic category: GDP growth, job creation, unemployment, growth in real wages and controlling inflation.

As far as I can tell, administration officials, including Biden himself, talk about low unemployment, falling inflation and rising real wages — and do so very carefully, studiously avoiding the bombast and excessive boasting so common in the previous administration.

There's also been no significant growth of real wages in India since 2014, according to numbers computed by noted developmental economist Jean Dreze.

Most people simply have a smaller percentage of their income to devote to anything other than these “fundamental forces,” despite the fact that real wages are at an all-time high.