As John F. Kennedy said in 1963 (when the relative wage was at a peak), a rising tide lifts all boats. But in the past forty years, relative wages have been declining. The yachts of the top earners have been soaring, while the boats of everybody else have been sinking, with those of the lowest ten-percent plunging into an abyss. Relative wages have not declined in such a sustained manner since the three decades between 1830 and 1860.
