The great economist Robert Higgs has recently pointed out the importance of “real disposable income per capita” as a measure for economic health.
Arguably the best single, currently available measure of the entire public’s payoff from economic activity is real disposable income per capita. This is the average amount per annum that Americans receive in exchange for the use of their labor and other input services, after taxes, corrected for changes in the purchasing power of the dollar. …this measure of economic well-being has scarcely increased at all since 2007.
Higgs’ research is complimented by a recent essay by the economist Daniel Mitchell of Cato Institute.
