The problem with this theory is that by most metrics the middle class in America is doing very well. Homeownership rates are high (significantly higher than Europe), incomes are higher (again, median income in the US significantly higher than even wealthy European countries like Germany), and consumption of things like cars and other manufactured goods is higher than ever.
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The financialization theory doesn't exclude those outcomes, quite the opposite in fact. The basic concept is that Corporate managers have taken primarily stock based compensation for themselves and gutted large companies in an effort to increase stock value at all costs. They then issue large buybacks (and to a lesser extend dividends), but they leave before the the repercussions hit the company.
Example article: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-how-share-buybacks-g...
From a UK perspective, the problem with this comparison is that a) our businesses are also going through this "financialisation", and b) homeownership is very dependent on how much space and political impetus you have to build new homes.
> Homeownership rates are high (significantly higher than Europe)
What's your data source for that if you recall, just curious?
This dataset suggests that it's around 65.7%, higher than the 62.9% in 1965 but lower than the 2004 peak of 69.2%: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RHORUSQ156N .
Not sure that "consumption of manufactured goods" is a particularly good metric for measuring wellbeing, though.
That covid spike in 2020 is pretty interesting. Probably the percentage of people that rent something close to their workplace and could move home when WFH became a thing.
> The homeownership rate is the proportion of households that is owner-occupied.
I suppose there probably aren't better metrics available, but someone who lives in a rented out penthouse that's being financed by owning 20 rented out apartments wouldn't show up as a homeowner under this which is hilarious.
From what I can find [0] homeownership rates in the EU are typically north of 70%, and up to to 90% in some countries. Germany seems to be a real outlier at only 50%.
[0] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/digpub/housing/bloc-1a.h....
Yes, I'm not surprised that OP's comparison fails to hold up especially against the central/eastern European countries. The website you link is using a slightly different definition of homeownership but at 90% it must carry over to be more than the US. Which I guess just means it's a poor metric for anythig really.