I was at a seminar the other week on inequality in US household income, and I asked the speaker about something that’s puzzled me for a while. I didn’t really get an answer, so rather than do a lot of work myself, I thought I’d try this crowdsourcing all the cool kids are talking about. Here’s the puzzle.
Over the past 40 years or so, real median US household income has risen by about 30 per cent.
US Household income 1965-2005
but real US GDP per person has more than doubled. How can this be ?