There is something fundamentally unfair about an economy that fails to provide living wages and basic security for people who work hard while simultaneously lavishing dramatic rewards on a privileged few. In a fair economy, a rising tide lifts all boats. Yet in today's economy, only the yachts are rising. An inordinate share of the price of technological change and globalization is being paid by wage-earning Americans, while those in the golden boardroom export jobs and reap handsome rewards for restructuring. There are numerous theories about the cause of growing wage inequality.
Many economists point to technological change and globalization as major contributing factors.
But it is important to realize that these trends are not explanations in and of themselves. Other industrialized countries have faced the same trends while seeing no increase in inequality. Nor is it merely happenstance. The human-made rules governing our economy have been changed in the last several decades largely to the benefit of those who own stock, bonds, commercial real estate and other financial assets. The losers have been workers, people who depend on their labor for the wages which give them their diminishing security.