Between 1997 and 2001, the top 10 per cent of US earners received 49 per cent of the growth in aggregate real wages and salaries, while the top 1 per cent received an astonishing 24 per cent. Meanwhile, the bottom 50 per cent received less than 13 per cent. Why is this happening? And should non-egalitarians care?

The data I have cited come from a remarkable paper from two economists at Northwestern University.* The authors ask a simple, but telling, question: if the US economy is becoming more productive, why have most of its citizens not become better off?