Meanwhile McCain can only talk about permanent tax cuts for the wealthy (who have already prospered enormously under Bush) and read Greenspan’s book. Sheesh. The GOP simply can’t see what everyone so easily sees. The economic boom only applied to the thin layer at the top while everyone else struggles. If that’s what McCain wants to promote on the campaign trail, good luck in November.

Except for the late 1990s, pay has been stagnant for more than a generation, barely keeping pace with inflation. In 1973, the median male worker earned $16.88 an hour, adjusted for inflation. In 2007, he earned $16.85.

For many families, the stagnation has been moderated by the addition of a second paycheck as more women went to work, and their pay rose over the same period.

But the largest gains went to workers at the top of the pay scale. Now, economic worries are rising fastest in households with smaller paychecks, and that chasm is widening.

“Over the past decades, whether inflation was much higher or lower, or incomes grew faster or more slowly, there has never been such a wide divergence in the experiences” separating richer households from poorer ones, Richard Curtin, the director of the University of Michigan’s consumer survey said in summing up the most recent figures.