ABSTRACT
Executive Summary This chapter examines a number of recent trends in the U.S. economy and society, and projects the implications of their continuation over the next two decades. Most importantly, this chapter notes that the past two decades have been marked by a sharp growth in wage inequality. This has meant that the bulk of the population, which gets most of its income from working, has received little benefit from the economy’s growth over the past quartercentury. This is a sharp contrast with the thirty years following the end of World War II, when most of the country shared in the gains from economic growth.
