I don’t agree with everything in this Joint Economic Committee report on wages, but if you can get past a little bit of partisan rhetoric and a few tendentious assertions, it is interesting reading, both for political and economic reasons.

But I wonder if it really is making the Republican case rather than the other one: It argues that the wage picture looks a lot better when you have accounted for transfers, taxes, and employer benefits — which is to say, when accounting for a host of government income-redistribution schemes and non-wage compensation that is partly the result of federal and state mandates. A progressive looking at that analysis might say, “Right, exactly, and what we want is some more of that.” That is a discussion worth having, inasmuch as nobody with any real power in Washington is really against income redistribution per se, whatever they may claim. Better, I think, to be honest about what we’re up to and to make those income transfers as simple, transparent, and effective as possible.

Also, an open question: Much is made in the report of the purported inaccuracy of CPI. If any specialist out there has some insight to share on that, I am curious.