The barrage of mistaken claims about long-term economic trends affecting ordinary Americans is unremitting. So too, therefore, must corrections of these claims be unremitting. One especially vivid correction is Art Carden’s recent reflection on Elvis Presley’s Graceland mansion. As Art argues, comparing Elvis Presley’s mid-1970s lifestyle to that of middle- class Americans today provides powerful evidence against conventional wisdom which holds that economic growth has for the past half-century benefited only the superrich.
Extensive empirical support for Art’s argument appears throughout Phil Gramm, Robert Ekelund, and John Early’s (GEE’s) excellent 2022 book, The Myth of American Inequality. In my previous column I highlighted some of GEE’s findings. Here are some other notable ones.