I haven’t really written on it, but, perhaps predictably, I think a lot of it comes down to what “richer” means as economists measure it (dollars spent deflated by some inflation series) and how a skewed income distribution distorts that. 1/

“We” spend more on the goods of the affluent while our capacity to produce what used to be ordinary withers because the nonaffluent have seen their wealth grow more slowly than costs grow due both to Baumol’s disease and producer market power. /fin