It all began in the 1970s, that’s when everything started going down the plughole. Once wages detached from productivity, the rich progressively got richer. They used their wealth to reduce taxes on capital, role back critical regulations, break up the unions, install their own lapdog politicians, push through trade agreements that pitted US workers against low-paid labor in the developing world, and induce their shady Central Bank buddies to keep interest rates locked below the rate of inflation so they could cream hefty profits off gigantic asset bubbles. I think this attack on US workers began at this time because our masters in the One Percent felt sufficiently secure after they got away with the murders of John Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, etc. They also likely sought revenge on a generation of young people who so effectively opposed their war in Southeast Asia.