At the end of World War II, America stood as the unchallenged hegemon of industrial production, military supremacy, and technological progress, a fact that has only been further cemented by the post-Cold War realization that the competition the United States faced from the Soviet Union was more perceived than real. And while institutional segregation and the neurosis of strict gender roles continued to fester (a fact that should not be understated), it seemed that the United States had been the first nation to truly get it right: full employment, rising wages, accessible education, and property ownership came together in a "perfect storm" that created the world's first middle-class nation. And as saddening as it is to realize that it took humanity over 6,000 years to create an equitable and dynamic society, it is even more saddening to realize how far we have fallen since then.    

According to most economists, the decline began in 1973. The oil shocks, the economic effects of the Vietnam War, and the rising productivity of Japan are all seen as causes, but the effect is singular: stagnant wages. That's right, as startling as it is to believe, real wages for average Americans have not improved in the last 33 years. Until 1973, wages for employees had generally followed productivity increases and corporate profits, a phenomenon reinforced by high rates of unionization, a favorable balance of trade, and an economic dependence on skilled labor. These forces, which had been the basis for post-war upward mobility, began to erode from that point on, particularly during the "trickle-down" madness of the 1980s. And now, most Americans would be hard-pressed to find a single to find a friend or family member belonging to a labor union, and the idea of an American trade surplus has become laughable. Worse still has been the general "de-skilling" of the American workforce, as a career flipping burgers, rather than work on an assembly line, has become the job of last resort for the working class. The political left has been, for the most part, unable to address these problems, drowned out as they are by what George Soros calls the "market fundamentalists" who believe every social need of man can be provided by the free market, despite the fact that much of corporate America was built on government subsidies. Apparently John Keynes and the New Deal never existed.

The results were as wrenching as they were predictable. As male wages stagnated, "the family crisis" emerged, and many of the gains African-American communities had made in the Civil Rights era were wiped out against a backdrop of post-industrial inner-city decay (with the notable and encouraging exception of black women). And now look where we are: with the exception of the idyllic suburbs, America has become a hollowed-out nation of declining wages, chaotic schools, and a burgeoning prison system. And while this Lou Dobbs-esque rant has been light on statistics and heavy on sweeping generalizations, I will leave you with one concrete piece of information. As you may or may not know, the Gini coefficient is an economic measurement of income inequality, and is measure in a value between 0 and 1, with 1 being absolute inequality. In 1970, America's Gini was .394; today, it is .469.

As the sun is setting on the American dream, Gini is rising.

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