RE: No, America Was Winning—Mr. President: A Misguided (or self-interested?) War on Trade
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I wouldn't look at per capita income. This can be skewed by high revenue corporations and high income individuals that don't necessarily translate to higher wages for everyone else.
If you look beyond the glitz, the US labor market (actual labor, not services) has been slowly gutted.
We also have to consider the effects of inflation and geographic arbitrage. Like Europe, we have an aging population, although less severe. And, outsourcing production to other nations reduces or altogether kills domestic production.
Not all the gap in wage growth is the result of outsourcing. Some of it is an overemphasized importance of college education, which doesn't always result in good jobs and most certainly burdens with large student loans. Many trades people I meet are making a good living without college education. They are able to translate skills into paychecks, whether self-employed or earning wages. But these jobs are considered beneath most graduates, who mostly lack the practical skills required.
The manufacturing jobs that there are do not pay much as they are competing with cheaper foreign production. I recently worked at an electric motor factory paying $11/hr. I can easily earn more than a week of wages, including overtime pay, by driving Uber part-time.
John Deere, a major farm equipment manufacturer, recently opened a plant in Mexico originally intending to move manufacturing there until Trump told them they would pay 200% tariffs on imports back into the USA. They are trying to figure out how to keep domestic production going.
I don't think tariffs will solve everything. Eventually, there will be smaller tariffs. They are a good bargaining chip for renegotiating. If Trump had asked nicely, he'd have been told to go smurf himself. By scaring the hell out of everyone, they know he's serious, making them more open to make a deal. We just have to wait and see. Don't forget Trump has only been in office a bit over 100 days. Things haven't played out yet. We have only seen opening moves.
Here's another chart for comparison. I couldn't find Median Personal Income in the UK to add.
This shows how GDP per capita may be high, but median personal income isn't keeping up. On a per capita basis, however, personal income is making a killing.
Here's a better illustration.
Possibly that skew in income is part of the problem? High earners are maybe less likely to keep their money in the country? Instead it just sits around as Vested capital not necessarily doing anyone any good!