Similarly, median household income has fallen by nearly 8 percent since 2000, and, according to the US Census Bureau, the middle class is taking home a smaller share of overall income in the US than ever before.
One of the reasons for that is because good jobs and good wages have disappeared.
According to the New America Foundation, back in 1980 less than 30 percent of all jobs in the US were low-income jobs. Today, over 40 percent of all jobs in the US are low-income jobs.
Meanwhile, 60 percent of the jobs lost during the Great Recession were mid-wage jobs, but they've been replaced with low-wage jobs -- 58 percent of the jobs created in the recovery have been these typically service-sector low-wage jobs.
The bottom line here is that we no longer have an economy that can support a middle class. We have an economy that works only for the wealthy elite.
And, despite what you might hear on the news, long lines on Black Friday aren't something we should celebrate or cheer on like a spectator sport. They're a tragedy.
They're ongoing and irrefutable proof that millions and millions of Americans are struggling to survive and provide for their families, while finding the American Dream has become, since Reagan, increasingly harder, if not impossible, to achieve.
Over the past 34 years, our economy has changed from one that works for all to one that only serves the richest few, and that needs to change.
We need to bring back a US economy that works for everyone, and that starts by repealing the Reagan tax cuts, bringing back our unions and getting rid of so-called free trade deals.
Only then will all Americans have an equal shot at success.
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