Free Trade

Americans Are Wealthier Than 30 Years Ago. Here's the Data To Prove It.

Americans with upper, middle, and lower incomes are all better off today than in the 1970s or 1990s, new CBO data shows.

Eric Boehm | 9.30.2026 3:00 PM

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(Illustration: Mikael Damkier/Dreamstime/Midjourney Photo: William Morgan/Dreamstime)

The economic populism that has consumed the Republican Party in recent years rests largely upon the claim that America is in decline—and that we are falling behind because other countries (or immigrants from those countries) are "ripping us off," as President Donald Trump likes to put it.

You'll often hear a similar story of economic decline from figures on the political left too, although they are more likely to blame capitalism. "The most important political division in our times is not between Democrats and Republicans, or socialists and capitalists," wrote Tim Wu, a Democratic strategist and veteran of the Biden administration, in a recent New York Times essay, "it's between those who think today's economic system is fair and working well for most people, and those who do not."

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