Who benefits in America?

(Calamities of Nature)

Click to embiggen.

Isn't it clear that we've been on the wrong path for decades now? This really took off during the Reagan administration.

Well, Ronald Reagan was so popular (inexplicably, as far as I was concerned) that even the Democrats moved to the right. Of course, Reagan was far too moderate for today's Republican Party, but that's the problem. We've continued to move even further down this path, when we needed to change course completely.

A graph like this is necessarily simplistic, but it lets us see some things clearly. In this case, it shows us who in America has benefited in recent decades and who hasn't. And it also shows us that we've recently suffered a "lost decade" in America.

The wealthy are doing a lot better than the rest of us, but even the wealthy can't prosper indefinitely when income and wealth inequality get this bad. The wealthy might have more power in a banana republic economy, but even they do better when everyone does better.