It’s probably important to note here that these numbers are even worse than they look, because most households now have two incomes rather than the one income that predominated in the period that came before. I’m old enough (born in 1962) to remember how things were while seeing how things are.

I like to tell the story of my father buying a little house in the suburbs on his blue-collar steel worker job when I was a little boy. My mother did not work outside the house, but Dad had no trouble supporting us in comfort if not exactly luxury.

He bought that little house for a sum that equaled his annual salary. He owned two cars and could afford to take us on family vacations most summers.

Going to the doctor was not the frightening financial experience it often is today for working-class people. We never went without medication because it was too expensive, like many working-class people do today.

The pot has been boiling, the frogs have been cooking, and too many people have not been noticing.