Why has median household income just endured its worst 12-year stretch since the Great Depression?

A closer look at big issues facing the country in the 2012 Election.

The immediate answer to that question is that economic growth has slowed and inequality has risen. The pie isn’t growing very quickly, and the few new slices are going to a disproportionately small portion of the population.

But that answer is really just an accounting answer. The more important questions are why economic growth has slowed and why inequality has risen – not just over the last 12 years but, less severely, since the early 1970s as well.

With help from economists and from Times readers who commented on our first post in the Agenda series, I compiled a list of 14 potential major causes for the income slowdown. In coming days, I’ll be writing posts about what economists see as the major causes.

For now, we invite you to weigh in: for each of the 14 causes, listed alphabetically below, let us know if you think it’s very important, modestly important, or only marginally or not important. If you want to skip some potential causes because you’re not sure, you can do that too. We also invite you to use Twitter to send your answers to #TheAgenda.