Here's a follow-up to an earlier brief on the centralization of economic decision making in the hands of a relatively small global financial network (see: "America's Economy and Open Decision Making"). In that brief, I point out how the median incomes -- arguably the only real indicator of economic progress -- of American workers haven't improved since 1974 (a process likely repeated in all developed countries). The Economist (in addition to providing the graphic) explains:
In 2007, according to the Census Bureau, the median income of American male workers was $45,113, less than the $45,879 (in 2007 money) that they earned back in 1978 (see chart 4). At no point over that 29-year period did median incomes pass the $46,000 mark. Families made ends meet because more women worked (and their real incomes did rise) and because they were able to borrow money to maintain their spending.
Essentially, it shows how the post-WW2 social contract that linked productivity improvements to median income gains was shattered in 1974. Since then, the value created by a doubling of productivity went to global capital markets instead of doubling incomes for employees. Nominally, this decision was made under the assumption that this money would be more efficiently allocated by the global financial network than individuals. In reality, it was likely parasitic predation by a relatively small network that found out how to co-opt the economic system's core functions, in a process that is identical to how cancer co-opts the host's systems of cellular metabolism to grow rapidly (for more on how this works, read my earlier brief on "Bow-Tie Control Systems").
Of course, this money wasn't invested wisely. It was gambled away and spent on excess by the members of this network. So, two generations of American economic wealth was squandered and the American middle class went deeply in debt keeping up appearances of progress. Worse, it can be argued that the host is dying, and its spending its dwindling metabolic resources providing life support for this parasitic and cancerous network.
NOTE: Here's an interesting aside, new data indicates that the Arctic's ice is melting faster than expected. It might be ice free by 2015. It's yet another example of how the current economic system (in technical terms, the substrate) is devolving into turbulence. Of course, if this true, it result will either be radical simplification (collapse/road warrior) or a new much more efficient substrate (resilient communities).