Like this trend?

Income inequality chart from Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

See the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report for details.

Don't be fooled by John McCain's shell game. It's not plumbers that he and the Republicans are concerned about. All the railing against "spreading the wealth around" is focused on keeping the trend going just the way it's been headed.

The GOP always uses small business as a dodge to persuade ordinary folks they should favor policies benefiting the base that Republicans listen to when it's not election season -- big companies and the very rich. George Bush was fond of traveling to little machine shops or other blue-collar settings to talk about business taxes. Nice trick.

The heartland buys it, too, and that worries me a little. We're still living in the Cold War era in so many ways. The Red Scare still works.

Fact is a lot of economists, including Alan Greenspan, think the growing disparity in income in the U.S. is dangerous for the economy. The gulf hasn't been this wide (.pdf file) since that other depression.