American workers' wages stagnant, even in a great economy: why?

[Minimalist]

How great the economy is doing depends largely on who you are.  For rich motherfuckers, things are going great.  For the wage slaves, things pretty much suck.

This is a very large part of the answer.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/05/08/...-stagnant/

If the unemployment rate is so low why have wages for most Americans failed to go up very much recently?  The simple answer is for the very same reasons why economic inequality and social mobility in America has largely ground to a halt in the last 40 years–the decline and war on labor unions.

And far too large a percentage of the populace can be bought off by a stupid red hat and a con man with a big fucking mouth.

[downbeatplumb]

I'm all for taxing the 1% in order to reduce the deficit, but really, the people in the 1% tend to be the innovators who produce wealth.

Overwhelmingly they are rich because their family is rich.
When you have enough money, money makes lots of money by interest alone.
And if you have say a person in charge who is also rich who can sway the economy in your direction.....

[The Grand Nudger]

We do love the horatio alger myth here in the states.  A significant amount of people imagine that the rich are former street urchins who boostrapped themself up and out the ghetto through pluck and daring raining money and jobs down on all the little people they left behind.

In reality, they're trust fund babies in a network of people who look out for each others financial interests even as those little people around them are completely ruined.

[Javaman]

Overwhelmingly they are rich because their family is rich.
When you have enough money, money makes lots of money by interest alone.
And if you have say a person in charge who is also rich who can sway the economy in your direction.....

That reminds of something was once said by a Canadian 1%-er. I'm paraphrasing, but he said something along the lines of:

Turning $100 into $110 is a lot of hard work. Turning $100,000,000 into $110,000,000 is inevitable.

Ironically (or maybe not) the one place in the developed world a talented, hardworkng individual is least likely to realize the American Dream is in the USA. At least, that's what the stats show.

[Pat Mustard]

I think the metrics are misleading.

Wages stagnant, but more people working, then business IS spending more on wages. Workers, en mass, do have more money.

And not considering the 'bump' in pay from welfare/unemployment insurance to actual minimum wage (at least) is disingenuous.

You can alway look at average wage instead of quibbling about this and that effect with no consideration for the magnitude of their impact on the whole.

And when looking at average wages look at the median (50% and below) rather than mean (sum all wages/no employees). Wage distribution is most definitely not standard.