is invert the implied causality. They effectively say: there was low growth, thus people are getting poorer. Low growth appears to be endogenous - or caused by things like high taxes and regulation.

We need to say louder: low growth is caused by empoverished middle classes. It's the lack of wage increases that leads to low growth, not the other way round.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes