The policies that led to staggering income inequality in America

I've written before about a subject that is fascinating to me -- how the gap between 99-point-something percent of us and the titans of Wall Street and industry grew so wide over the past decades.  Now a new book lays out specific lines of evidence which point to this general conclusion:

"One of the singular victories of the rich has been convincing the rest of us that their disproportionate success has been due to abstract economic forces beyond anyone's control (technology, globalization, etc.), not old-fashioned power politics."

Or deceiving many of us into the myth of "trickle-down", supply-side economics...and keeping us distracted by dog-whistle politics over race and religion in the manner of Frank's "What's the matter with Kansas" lines of argument.

And don't forget that the people in Washington who are supposed to represent "our" interests are still arguing over this bullshit:

The Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 raised the after-tax incomes of most Americans by a bit over 1 percent -- but raised the after-tax incomes of millionaires by 4.4 percent.

And the sad thing is that most Americans realize this is bullshit but don't have the influence -- or presence of mind to vote in such a way as to change influence -- to change anything.