When I was growing up, it was assumed that AmericaÂs shared prosperity was the natural endpoint of our economyÂs development, that capitalism had produced the workers paradise to which Communism unsuccessfully aspired. Now, with the perspective of 40 years, itÂs obvious that the nonstop economic expansion that lasted from the end of World War II to the Arab oil embargo of 1973 was a historical fluke, made possible by the fact that the United States was the only country to emerge from that war with its industrial capacity intact. Unfortunately, the middle class  especially the blue-collar middle class  is also starting to look like a fluke, an interlude between Gilded Ages that more closely reflects the way most societies structure themselves economically. For the majority of human history  and in the majority of countries today  there have been only two classes: aristocracy and peasantry. ItÂs an order in which the many toil for subsistence wages to provide luxuries for the few. Twentieth century America temporarily escaped this stratification, but now, as statistics on economic inequality demonstrate, weÂre slipping back in that direction. Between 1970 and today, the share of the nationÂs income that went to the middle class  households earning two-thirds to double the national median  fell from 62 percent to 45 percent. Last year, the wealthiest 1 percent took in 19 percent of AmericaÂs income  their highest share since 1928. ItÂs as though the New Deal and the modern labor movement never happened.http://socialreader.com/me/content/zWlkm
cordially,