“There is a reason many commentators on the left are allergic to evidence that economic well-being has improved up and down the income ladder: Americans are largely indifferent to the relative size of their income as long as it gets bigger absolutely. Absolute gains, from bottom to top, really take the wind out of populist sails, even if there are significant inequalities in the size of those gains. As long as the rising tide does lift all boats, the call for plundering the yachts will likely go unheeded”. — The Economist Magazine blog, after showing that the middle class and lower class have experienced large gains in earnings over the years (contra Krugman, and other lefties)