Your numbers aren’t right at all. Nominal median income is 7 times what it was in 1971. Inflation-adjusted it’s slightly higher.
http://www.davemanuel.com/median-household-income.php
It dips during recessions, and dipped a lot in the Bush/Obama recession.
Tuition at Harvard is a ridiculous standard to use. How about the cost of a computer? They’re much smaller and cheaper now than they were in 1971. And that affects way more people than Harvard does.
I’m well aware of H1B but this still accounts for a relatively small number of people. Absolutely there are lots of bad government policies hurting our economy and all of us, but it’s not right for people to break it down into a “rich are screwing the middle class” paradigm like OWS does. There’s never been a time in history when people weren’t looking for excuses demonize the rich out of envy.
Not sure what you are trying to argue, you are agreeing with my point. Median income adjusted for inflation is almost exactly what it was in 1971, the difference is in 1971 nearly every household was a single family breadwinner and today the overwhelming majority are 2 income families, that means its taking 2 people to bring home on average what 1 person could do in 1971! That’s a huge huge!
The harvard tuition is used as an example, it was one of the most expensive schools in 1971, and it was about 10% of a median households income, today its nearly 100% of a median households income.
You are very very naive if you don’t see that 2 people required to work to make the same amount of real money as as 1 did 40 years ago is a problem that is not simply “get a better education”
Incorrect: By oversupplying labor, HB-1’s & related Visas drive down wages in big swaths of the economy. For example, take out the top 10 or 20% (earning) engineers, techies (including IT), and so on, and look again at wages for the rest. Add those driven out of their professions, causing a ripple effect in other areas...
Harvard is not a good example? Ok, fine: Who can afford to work their way through college, or (if parents) send their kids to college, even to a lowly 2nd tier State University, without financial aid? Say, Wichita State, just to pull a name out of the air. (Ok, they’re not 2nd tier in basketball anymore - heh-heh.)
Heck, who can sensibly afford an average price new car? (Now over $30k, not including taxes, etc.) Maybe 20% of the population?