Member-only story
A concrete proposal to heal a divided nation
America is no longer a joint enterprise
There was a time we were one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Perhaps one time that was the case was the 1950s. While it is true that we had a lot of problems, with unaddressed sexism and racism rampant, it was a period of relative peace and prosperity, a period of growing security for most Americans, and a period of relative income equality. Union strength was high, and economic growth was broadly shared.
Consider the chart above. From the end of World War II until the mid-1970s, our nation’s economic growth was widely shared. Indeed, you can see that through the late 1960s, incomes for the bottom 20th percentile of families increased faster than for the rest of the workforce. That all changed starting in 1973.
As the chart illustrates, the 95th percentile and above now earn almost 180% of the income they earned in 1973, while families at the median earn 120% of the 1973 level, and families in the bottom fifth earn just over what they earned in 1973.
