Those at the low end of the skill and income ladder were falling further behind. Recently, however, very tight labor markets have meant that even unskilled and less educated workers have enjoyed higher real earnings, poverty rates have begun to decline, and even the bottom 20 percent of households have had a significant increase in their standard of living for a change.
The high performance of the economy does not just mean more material possessions for most people, although it certainly does mean that. It also means more enjoyment of and support for the creative side of life–art, music, theatre, dance–and more public resources for improving streets, parks and schools, cleaning up pollution and preserving natural beauty.