Again, the "system" I'm advocating was tried in the US between WWII and the mid 1980's.  It did work.  It's interesting you refuse to argue that point, and instead erect one straw man argument after another.

The middle class is dwindling because wealth and incomes are being captured by the rich and super-rich at rates we haven't seen in the US for a century.  Your Wizard of Oz explanation that "someone adjusted the definitions and accounting methods" strikes me as bizarre.  The former middle class in the Rust Belt that helped elect Trump aren't really hurting?  They're just fine, only the definition and accounting methods have changed?  Problem solved!