A recently released AEI study from Scott Winship about rising prosperity is being downplayed by various naysayers, but Charlie Cooke, on today’s edition of The Editors, says that while “there are losers in any economy” and that “gas prices are currently high and interest rates are high relative to the last 20 years . . . and so forth,” these numbers don’t lie.

“People are so resistant to this sort of news,” Charlie says. “We have a human tendency to believe that the past must have in every particular . . . been better. . . . People believe obvious lies about the average middle-class family in the 1950s or the 1970s, or how rich you could get working in a fast-food restaurant as a teenager in 1976.”

While Charlie agrees that “there are cultural issues” and “social issues,” “things are just astonishingly wonderful relative to not only all of human history, but 20 years ago, 40 years ago.”

“The quality of life and the wealth that is generated by the United States and its economy is a miracle,” says Charlie. “The middle class is indeed shrinking because more people are moving out of it — upwards. We simply have not seen a collapse in the American dream.”

“I’m glad that Scott Winship did this work, and I feel sorry for him because I think that no one is going to believe him. . . . But the good news is it doesn’t actually matter if you believe him or not because the numbers speak for themselves.”

The Editors podcast is recorded on Tuesdays and Fridays every week and is available wherever you listen to podcasts.

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