I went straight to the
Census historical real household income data (caution: it's an excel spreadsheet) and it does appear the bottom 3 quintiles didn't have a lot of gains in HH income the last 45 years or so (as far as that data went back). Each of those quintiles only saw between 12 and 20% gains in real HH income over the last 45 years. Looking at the top 2 quintiles, they both experienced much better real HH income gains (37% and 70% for 4th and 5th quintiles, respectively). I would surmise many on this board fall in the 4th and 5th quintiles and would have seen significant increases in real HH income over the last 45 years (or in households like theirs if their household hasn't existed that long).
For reference, the 4th quintile had a mean HH income of $80,080 in 2011. Around here, a household consisting of a public school teacher and a police officer or firefighter would just about break into the 4th quintile with zero years experience, and it wouldn't take long before they were solidly in the 4th quintile. Just trying to point out the 4th quintile isn't full of Phd's and MDs or those with amazing technical skills, but "average" people (and I don't mean that in a derogatory way).
So for the welfare class, the working poor or unskilled worker, they may not have seen a lot of household income growth over the last few decades. For the upper quintiles, there certainly has been decent real increases in HH income historically.
And we are currently in a slump in real HH income growth, and haven't seen much the last 10 years (in fact all quintiles but the top one saw declines in real HH income the last 10 years, and the top quintile was under 1% total growth). So yes, it isn't pretty lately, but as with many things economic, there are cycles of growth and stagnation or busts.
I hear you on that. It's a shame, as I wish it were an option for me. Probably won't be unless I become a self employed consultant and take the headaches that come with that.