MB Civic

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/opinion/15krugman.html?pagewanted=print

Krugman posits that the question “Is the typical American family better off than it was a generation ago?” is the wrong question because “It’s a subjective judgment whether the good outweighs the bad. And…that ambiguity is actually the real message.”

He posits that much of the confusion lies in how we view technological advancements. “Yet in spite of…technological progress, which has allowed the average American worker to produce much more, we’re not sure whether there was any rise in the typical worker’s pay. Only those at the upper end of the income distribution saw clear gains…That’s why the debate over whether the middle class is a bit better off or a bit worse off now than a generation ago misses the point. What we should be debating is why technological and economic progress has done so little for most Americans…”