The top graph is taken from "Left Business Observer" . Real income is adjusted for inflation. So, the working class, or 95% of the population, the part who actually produce the wealth of the USA have had their wages/income flattened since 1967 whereas the top 5%, the bourgeoisie or capitalist class have seen their real incomes increase quite a bit.
The second graph shows the real productivity increases of the working class over the years since the 1940s. Note how productive of wealth you and your fellow workers are and how you're becoming ever more productive as a class.
Aside from our rulers' increasing income, a lot of the wealth we produce goes into expenditures for capital equipment and a major chunk is devoted to military killing efficiency too. ;p Atom bombs and funny little armoured vehicles which get blown up by roadside bombs, night vision goggles and so on.....
As a friend of mine quipped, "With the rising ratio of constant capital [machines, supplies] over variable capital [wages], expressed as 'C/V,' more wealth must be transformed into constant capital to keep up with competition (i.e. make workers more productive of wealth in less socially necessary labour time thus, cheapening the commodities representing that wealth on the market. Less labour time=cheaper prices when price equals value MB). This tendency would also show up as a drive to reduce the wage part of the ratio by sending jobs over seas and/or forcing down real wages in the Fatherland. More productve capital means less labour needed per unit output."
Year Weekly Earnings (1982-84 dollars) for U.S. workers selling their labour power to the employing class.
1972 $341.83 (peak)
1975 $314.75
1980 $290.86
1985 $285.34
1990 $271.12
1992 $266.46 (lowest point; 22% below peak)
1995 $267.07
2000 $284.79
2005 $284.99
2010 $297.67
2011 $294.78 (still 14% below peak)
via "Middle Class Political Economist"
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