Why do so many Americans feel dissatisfied about the economic state of their nation? One simple chart offers a lot of insight. Economists measure standards of living in many ways. Among the most common is to look at the change in the value of goods and services produced by a country, adjusted for inflation and for population growth. This measure, known as per capita real gross domestic product, essentially shows how much income the average person is generating. The chart below shows the cumulative growth in per capita real GDP in the U.S. over the preceding ten years, for each year from 1957 to 2015. It does a great job of depicting the country’s post-World War II macroeconomic experience. I
Source: Why Americans Feel Poor, in One Chart